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This is the argument I see to defend use of the word and I’ve never understood it. Where I am (west coast-ish of the US), the word is used very specifically to mean autistic. If you ask someone not to say retard, they say autistic instead. If you ask them not to say autistic, they say special education. If not that, slow. If not that, someone who takes the short bus. Unambiguously the people here use the r slur as a slur against autistic people. They use it as an insult towards allistic people to degrade them as lesser. Same as calling a straight person the f slur. Maybe it’s different in other parts of the country, but the r slur is absolutely used as a slur against autistic people where I am.
That’s the point though. They’ve done other protest work “the proper way” and nobody knows about it because it doesn’t get reported on. They want the message “just stop oil” to be in the news, so they do what gets them in the news.
If they go for the “right” attention, they’re barely reported on by two local outlets. If they go for public outcry, they’re global news in hours. Their goal isn’t to get you to support their organization. It’s to keep you talking about and thinking about and caring about climate change.