Down here at the pawn shop

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

And I know we're not supposed to use the word "retarded", but I'm on the fence here because these people are just amazingly fucking retarded. I'm not sure how they get through their day.

I think it is clear to fluent, native English speakers within the span of several generations that we can broadly define as our cultural peer group, that the word "retarded" is, at this point in time, 1) NEVER used to mean a person who is developmentally delayed due to some genetic or physiological condition, and 2) ALWAYS used to mean someone who made a bone-headed decision, or even has semi-permanently stunted their own cognitive capacity via some poor lifestyle choice such as heavy drinking or religion.