Joe Rogan is catching some flak (what else is new?) after claiming in a recent podcast episode that the resurrection of of the word “r*tard” is “one of the greatest cultural victories” of our times.
After using the word to describe political commentators, Rogan said:
“We were just talking about that. The word ‘r––ded’ is back, and it’s one of the great culture victories that I think is spurred on, probably, by podcasts.”
Naturally a load of people on the internet are extremely upset about this, but does Joe Rogan have a point? It does seem that certain aspects of ‘wokeism’ have died down in the months since Donald Trump because US President again, particularly when it comes to pronouns, identity politics and mean words. In the last decade or so, the R-word had fallen out of fashion for being deemed politically incorrect, but apparently kids (and adults) are now calling each other r-tards again?
Trump reportedly considered calling Joe Biden “R-tarded Joe” during the 2024 campaign before his team persuaded him to use “Sleepy Joe” instead. At a campaign fundraiser in September, Trump reportedly used the word to describe Kamala Harris.
We all know Elon Musk is a big fan of the word too, having used it repeatedly on X since buying the platform.
Now obviously it’s not a word anyone should be saying to an actual disabled person, or about them, but it did feel like the word was already hugely desensitized before the world decided it was offensive again around 10 – 15 years ago. The R-word was being used in songs by Green Day and the Black Eyed Peas in the 2000s and no one ever blinked an eye! No mass outrage, and certainly no cancellations.
Really strange in hindsight that it flipped to being irredeemably offensive, but it sounds like it’s back in the popular lexicon for now. Cheers Joe and co?
Speaking of which, meet the young lady who’s thinking of buying a new XL Bully even after her old one was shot by police for nearly mauling her to death.
