Rep. Eli Crane used the derogatory phrase in describing his proposed amendment to a military bill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked that his words be stricken from the record.
Rep. Eli Crane used the derogatory phrase in describing his proposed amendment to a military bill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked that his words be stricken from the record.
The English language does not exist in a vacuum.
There’s a difference between “I helped my uncle, Jack, off his horse” and “I helped my uncle jack off his horse”. Retard used to just be a synonym for slow, but you won’t be bleeped if you call someone slow on national television. Things like context, usage, and history matter.
I think a better example is “I’m beat” vs “beats me”. Both actually mean something (“I’m tired/exhausted” vs “I don’t know”) and both mean completely different things, despite using the exact same words in a different configuration. And they mean different things because they’re used in different ways. Just because they use the same words that doesn’t mean they’re automatically the same. And even if they referred to roughly the same thing, again, how they’re used and in what context makes a big difference. One is historically used almost exclusively by racists in a derogatory manner, the other is the one the people being referred to have said they prefer between the two.