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Comment by _xhok | Hacker News Reader

Something I keep noticing in all these stories is how the FBI seems to act during these "interrogations." They're like the big bully who runs into the room, barely stops to think, makes a few empty, irrational threats, then leaves the room feeling stupid but refusing to admit it.

It's nothing logical, but it's pretty frustrating that you can't just let them how dumb they are, simply because they have the bigger bureaucratic dicks in the room.

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FWIW, I suspect very few of them are "dumb", and that their behaviour is almost certainly explained as them "doing what they've repeatedly proven works well". They (probably) aren't making "irrational threats", and they've almost certainly not got anything to "feel stupid about" or "refuse to admit" (and, I'll bet they care _very_ little about whether you think they're smart or not).

Their motivations have nothing to do with "appearing smart or logical (to suspects)" or even (with my cynical-hat on) finding out "the truth" or "enabling justice". They're employees using the most effective/efficient techniques they know to achieve their workplace performance indicators – either just enough to keep their managers off their backs, or trying to aggressively exceed those performance indicators for career-climbing purposes. Either way – every single thing they're attempting to achieve is likely to be something you'll end up unhappy about if they successfully achieve it. How much career boost do you suppose their report of "Investigated complaint, discovered misunderstanding. No action taken, apology delivered on behalf of the Bureau" gives them, compared to "During a voluntary interview suspect confessed to three unrelated misdemeanors, two crimes, and one probable felony. Referred crimes to local police, who arrested and charged suspect. No copyright infringement found, case now out of our jurisdiction. Local police will advise outcome of criminal charges through usual channels."

Good point. I guess all one can do is realize what you just wrote and go along with them...

Or if enough people knew and invoked their rights appropriately, they would have to resort to a different tactic than smooth-talking confessions out of people and this would stop.

Hey, slurs like "retarded" are offensive and you should reconsider your use of them.

edit: Thank you for editing your comment.

Sorry, wasn't thinking. I changed it.

Out of interest, could you enlighten me as to why the word "retard" is a slur but "dumb" isn't?

Putting colloquial use aside, both are valid words that describe conditions, so if one is a slur, isn't the other? Where is the line?

In the US, "intellectual disabilities" used to be more commonly called "mentally retarded" and referring to someone as "retarded" or "a retard" became (or was always) offensive.

Dumb isn't used to denote what its original meaning is (a person unable to speak - we would use the word "mute" today). Dumb just means stupid, as if one is culpable for their own stupidity.

Retard in its noun form literally means a mentally handicapped person. So by using it to offend a non-mentally handicapped person (albeit, a stupid one), you are concurrently levelling an offence against the mentally handicapped in general and since the mentally handicapped are not deemed culpable for their situation, this is deemed socially unacceptable.

It literally means delayed in time, we use it in physics a lot, in the context of people and development it applies to those whose education (or cognitive ability) is delayed in time.

This is the way I use the word too.

I think the word is typically pronounced slightly differently (more correctly?) when used that way. This clip from The Hangover uses the slight differences in pronounciation for comedic effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoendYt_ZJ0 (skip to 0:45, video contains mildly offensive humor).

Obviously the obsolete medical usage, now offensive usage, is just the regular word meaning delayed, but I think that somehow that specialized usage strayed from the generic usage over time.

Nope, never pronounced it different but clearly context is important :)

Well, no, a mentally "retarded" person is not expected to develop further. They're behind, but nobody thinks they'll catch up. "Stunted" would be a more accurate term than "retarded"; the latter is just a euphemism.

Which is why my comments said "Retard in its noun form" obviously retard has a verb form that means to slow. I used it in engineering a lot.

"Retard" means somebody with a significant mental handicap, while "dumb" is a more usual sort of stupidity.

It's extremely strange. It is socially acceptable to criticize and make fun of the intelligence of someone with an IQ of 71, but not an IQ of 69. I can't explain it. But that's how it is.

My own suspicion is that it's a matter of fashion. More specifically, there are lots of problems in the world, and someone is always going to be insulted when one of them is referenced lightly. Right now it's fashionable to treat the word "retard" as a politically incorrect slur, so those particular people have social permission to complain about it.

What I can't make up my mind about is whether or to what extent we should approve or disapprove of the use of these words.

I disagree. I don't think "retarded" was used with the connotation that you thought it was used in.

Hey, I find people being offended by the use of certain words offensive in and of itself. You should reconsider your reaction, so as to prevent me from being offended.

I'd appreciate it if you'd edit your comment to reflect this.

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