What exactly is the "R" word?(RANT)

So Tropic Thunder comes out today and people are protesting. Why are they protesting you ask? Well it seems that Ben Stiller portrays a mentally RETARDED person unfavorably.

Okay, lets get down to the nitty gritty on this. Have any of these people seen the film? No, because they were boycotting it this morning when the theatre's opened. So then what are they protesting exactly? The bits and pieces they saw of the film in the previews. Did these people take a second to actually look and see what the film is about? It doesn't seem so as they seem to think that Mr. Stiller is making fun of RETARDED people.

The question is, Is old Ben making fun of the mentally handicapped? I have yet to see the film, but from what I have gathered the answer would obviously be no. He is satirizing Hollywood. Many actors today try to portray RETARDED people in films, and many of them do it because these kinds of performances generally grant the actor with a list of awards and nominations. Just look at the track record of Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman and Sean Penn. This isn't to say those actors did it for the wrong reasons, but you never really know. What Stiller is doing here seems wonderfully genius to me. He is playing an actor who acts in a film called "Simple Jack" about a RETARDED boy. Why does he do so? Because he has always been an unrespected action star and he thought this would give him the awards he has always wanted as an actor. Simple as that, no wait, simple as Jack.

I am not being hard hearted, or empty headed here. I have two younger sisters with learning disabilities and have a few RETARDED family members. One, that I don't know all that well, who is wheel chair bound and has trouble speaking coherently. I understand that these people care about their children, or loved ones, but what they don't understand is that they are fighting a pointless war.

I was listening to the news on the radio about some people in my neighborhood protesting and they had a woman on talking about why they were protesting. She said something to the effect of "I thought we were past this point. People on TV, the radio and in print never use the "R" word, so why does Hollywood think they can make fun of people for something they can't even help. They just seem to be trying to set us back another twenty years."

Hello lady! They are setting us back? No ma'am you are the one who is setting us back by focusing so much on the issue that you keep it in the forefront of everyone's minds. Nobody makes fun of RETARDED people for being the way they are. Everyone today knows that that is something that is just unethical and immoral to do. But you and your PC police try to force your agenda on everyone and make us think that a medical term (RETARDED) is a bad word. I'm sorry lady, but you're just as bad as the people who think African-American is less offensive than saying black. Most black-americans feel that adding African to their name makes them less American. Just like changing the word RETARDED to special and making the word RETARDED a bad word only robs your child of know who they really are. Yes, It's going to be hard for them and kids will make fun of them and people will stare, but if the kid knows who they are and knows that being RETARDED does not make them stupid and they can still do anything they put their minds to, that to me seems to be all that really matters. But to you your kid cannot do whatever they want and you have to hold them back and not let them know what they are. Let's sugarcoat everything so that they don't have to deal with being RETARDED. Guess what? Making the word RETARDED a "bad" word and calling your kid special will hurt them because one day they will find out from some dickweed classmate that they are in fact RETARDED and will think they are lesser because you don't like the word RETARDED, you hate that medical term so much you won't even utter it!

And back to the controversy surrounding this comedy that is actually doing better for the minds of the mentally RETARDED people around the world than these sheltercrazed-PC-hidingmykidsfromtheworld moms. I commend Stiller and crew for sticking with their guts about this issue and the issue with Mr. Downey Jr and black face. If the people fighting this would just sit back and watch the movie and think for a second that "hey, maybe these people are on my side." Than we can actually accomplish something.

Review of the RETARD loving Tropic Thunder in the coming days.