I think so, though I confess I still use it carelessly from time to time. Sadly there seems to be a strong tendency to use the plight of disabled/handicapped people as a playground insult - the playground often expressing what adults also think but are too hypocritical to say outright. Attempts at neutral diagnosis (themselves not always free of prejudice) become the new slur, leading to ever more elaborate and official-sounding terms. It's even been named:
'Frequently, over time, euphemisms themselves become taboo words, through the linguistic process of semantic change known as pejoration, which University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor dubbed the "euphemism cycle" in 1974,[25] also frequently referred to as the "euphemism treadmill". For instance, the place of human defecation is a needy candidate for a euphemism in all eras. Toilet is an 18th-century euphemism, replacing the older euphemism house-of-office, which in turn replaced the even older euphemisms privy-house and bog-house.[26] In the 20th century, where the old euphemisms lavatory (a place where one washes) and toilet (a place where one dresses[27]) had grown from widespread usage (e.g., in the United States) to being synonymous with the crude act they sought to deflect, they were sometimes replaced with bathroom (a place where one bathes), washroom (a place where one washes), or restroom (a place where one rests) or even by the extreme form powder room (a place where one applies facial cosmetics).[citation needed] The form water closet, often shortened to W.C., is a less deflective form.[citation needed] The word shit appears to have originally been a euphemism for defecation in Pre-Germanic, as the Proto-Indo-European root *sḱeyd-, from which it was derived, meant 'to cut off'.[28]
Another example in American English is the replacement of "colored people" with "Negro" (euphemism by foreign language), which itself came to be replaced by either "African American" or "Black".[29] Also in the United States the term "ethnic minorities" in the 2010s has been replaced by "people of color".[29]
Venereal disease, which associated shameful bacterial infection with a seemingly worthy ailment emanating from Venus, the goddess of love, soon lost its deflective force in the post-classical education era, as "VD", which was replaced by the three-letter initialism "STD" (sexually transmitted disease); later, "STD" was replaced by "STI" (sexually transmitted infection).[30]
Intellectually-disabled people were originally defined with words such as "morons" or "imbeciles", which then became commonly used insults. The medical diagnosis was changed to "mentally retarded", which morphed into a pejorative against those with intellectual disabilities. To avoid the negative connotations of their diagnoses, students who need accommodations because of such conditions are often labeled as "special needs" instead, although the words "special" or "sped" (short for "special education") have long been schoolyard insults.[31][better source needed] As of August 2013, the Social Security Administration replaced the term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability".[32] Since 2012, that change in terminology has been adopted by the National Institutes of Health and the medical industry at large.[33] There are numerous disability-related euphemisms that have negative connotations.' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Lifespan
There's a collection of the various terms here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disability-related_terms_with_negative_connotations
'Cretin' might originally have had more positive social connotations, reminding the one using the word of their common humanity & religion with those afflicted by the disease:
'The etymology of cretin is uncertain. Several hypotheses exist. The most common derivation provided in English dictionaries is from the Alpine French dialect pronunciation of the word Chrétien ("(a) Christian"), which was a greeting there. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the translation of the French term into "human creature" implies that the label "Christian" is a reminder of the humanity of the affected, in contrast to brute beasts.[25] Other sources suggest that Christian describes the person's "Christ-like" inability to sin, stemming, in such cases, from an incapacity to distinguish right from wrong.[26][27] ' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_iodine_deficiency_syndrome#Terminology
...though 'angelising' them in this way is probably just as dysfunctional in the end as demonising them would be. There needs to be a re-appraisal of social attitudes towards strength and weakness IMO - just because you may not be physically or mentally able enough to withstand the insatiable demands of extreme market fundamentalism, doesn't mean you have nothing of value to offer or aren't a worthy human being in your own right. Conversely it's not really a 'strength' to be able to force yourself to submit to capitalism and just-about survive - and then turn around and say to everybody else: "See? It's not that hard, anybody can do it if you just work hard and put your mind to it". Bad enough to be born crippled without then collaborating with the system that is trying to cripple you and everybody else on purpose.
The thoughts of a (mostly) able-bodied person fwiw...
cheers,
I
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