Some, maybe all, of those words used to be diagnoses of intellectual disabilities. I don't think laymen distinguish them much at all; I was never taught to do so. If the goal is to deter everyone from showing contempt for lack of intelligence (though I don't think that's going to happen) I don't see another word with the same connotation as progress. Am I overlooking something?
The goal is not to deter people from showing contempt for lack of intelligent action. (Unless that contempt is for someone who lacks intelligence because of a disability). When someone does something stupid it is fine to call them stupid.
The goal is to ask people to consider using words that are not recently (even currently) used for learning disabilities. Retard has strong links with learning disabilities. Enough time has passed that words like 'moron' has little connection to its original meaning.
In time retard will have enough distance from its current use to be less hurtful.
>I don't see another word with the same connotation as progress.
The only reason words like "moron" are no longer deemed grossly offensive is precisely because people started using those words to describe things other than their literal meanings and over time their impact as slurs and insults has been reduced, and this is exactly what has happened with the word retarded. For probably the majority of the English speaking world the word has already reached this watered down status. Languages evolve, meanings change, sometimes rapidly, any attempt to regulate it will fail.
A learning disability tends to be defined by IQ (IQ less than 75 or so), rather than anything else.
Thus, someone with a chromosomal disorder, or someone who was deprived of oxygen during birth, or someone who is just stupid because of genetics all have learning disabilities. They just have different forms of learning disability.
