Tim Walz “retarded.” “Yeah, I think there’s something wrong with him.” We’re hearing more of that word lately. So Elon Musk has used “retarded,” and you see an awful lot of it on X these days. And it’s one of the great culture victories.” During my adulthood, and I don’t think I’m alone, the word has been considered taboo. And we had to gently teach her that that word is no longer used. And so, to understand why it became so loaded, we have to understand that it was part of a process.

Source: New York Times January 23, 2026 16:30 UTC