Joe Rogan slammed for saying return of slur is one of the great culture victories

Controversial and influential podcaster Joe Rogan is being slammed for claiming it is a “victory” that the slur “r—ded” is making a comeback.Rogan used the word in a recent episode of his successful podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, and then paused to celebrate its return to people’s vocabularies.“The word… is back and it is one of the great culture victories,” he said.The podcast host said he thinks the resurgence has been “spurred” by podcasts and appeared genuinely thrilled, even though the R-word has become an insult.Although the word was originally a medical term for people with intellectual disabilities, it became a slur and insult.In 2013, even the medical field changed it from “mental retardation” to “intellectual disability”.A snippet of Rogan rejoicing in the slur’s return is going viral on X, to the point that actor Maureen McCormick, who famously played Marcia Brady on The Brady Bunch slammed the podcast host.“Your statement that ‘the ‘R’ word is back and it’s one of the great culture victories,’ ignores the terrible hurt it causes to the millions of people with intellectual disabilities,” she wrote.Rogan’s celebration of the return of the slur divided online, with many people claiming he was being insensitive.“How exactly is this victory?” One asked.Someone else pointed out that “reclaiming controversial terms” can seem “dismissive” of the harm slurs cause against the minorities they’re often aimed at.Another argued that it was fine because people are “never talking about the disabled” when they use that word, but someone else replied and argued, “They are, though that is the entire comparison.”“So you think it is okay to use this word as an insult?” another asked.Someone else said that their son and all his friends are now saying the word and claimed it was a “cultural and generational” victory.Another claimed the return of the slur was glorious, but someone else begged, “...