It's also a verb which means to slow down.
For example, it is necessary to retard the ignition timing of a gasoline engine, and more so at higher RPM, to prevent detonation.
I don't think anyone's out there trying to ban the word "retard" for its non-derogatory usages. Seems like a weird straw-man to worry about.
This is not like a completely separate context like "fag" (cigarette) versus "fag" (homosexual).
The long form "mentally retarded" isn't offensive, yet "mental retard" is so offensive that it violates terms of service and gets you a shutdown threat?
Absurd.
> there's no indication that this was some sort of automated email that was sent purely because a use of the word was detected.
I would find the action less distasteful if it was such a bot. That would still leave open the possibility that the bot isn't expressing its author's intent.
I beg to differ. There's a reason the medical community doesn't use that term anymore.
> any more
I.e. they did! Lay people still do.
Anyway, what matters here is not the standard used by the medical community. I suspect that if a github project had some code that "assists the mentally retarded", it would not bring on the TOS violation police.
>I.e. they did! Lay people still do.
As do rude people.
Here's what you can do: invent a time machine and go back to a time when the term wasn't offensive. Then your statement that the term isn't offensive will be true. Right now, it isn't.
>Anyway, what matters here is not the standard used by the medical community
If you notice, what I said was "there is a reason [...]." My point, then, was about the reason, not the medical community. It doesn't matter what the medical standards are. What matters is that the term is offensive, a fact which prompted the medical community to stop using it.
http://www.wowktv.com/story/29652314/missing-mentally-retard...
The URL has "retarded" in it! And Google's index still has the original article text, which uses the term in the body. They changed it to "challenged".
"Officers are looking for a mentally retarded man they say walked away from a supervised group home where he was ordered to stay."
"Mentally retarded" isn't so offensive that a TV station in America wouldn't initially use the term in July 2015, only to be corrected by some PC people into changing it.
It's just kind of a very direct term for something that is delicate. There is (or should be) some range of separation between "insensitive" and "offensive".