Light (@WaveAndParticle)

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-journalistic-tattletale-and-censorship FTA: " It is virtually impossible to discuss the ethos of that subculture without using that term. This was one of their most popular battlecries: " “We can stay retarded longer than you can stay solvent.” " And later: " The same stunted mentality just resulted in the destruction of the career and reputation of Lorenz’s far more accomplished colleague, science reporter Donald McNeil. " I find this humorous because the word "stunted" here is the functional equivalent of "retarded". I am old enough to remember when the term "retarded" was introduced as a polite term - a euphemism - to describe stupid people - specifically people who were slow in their mental development. If I understand correctly, before that terms such as moron and idiot were coined as euphemisms (with specific nuanced meanings) for a simpleton or fool, and from the sound of it I presume simpleton was originally a euphemism too. So I will dispense with centuries of euphemisms and say that the reporters that Greenwald is describing are fools. Not merely retarded (that is, stunted or slow in their mental development) but fools who are actively participating in their own stupidity.