You Are Retarded
Thursday, August 14, 2008
You Are Retarded
I was making my rounds around the sites of various news networks when I came across this little report on the "R-Word Campaign". It began when the viewers of the new film Tropic Thunder thought it to be inappropriate for the actors to use the word "retard" with such liberty. So this is what they did: they brought a bunch of posters and banners to the premier of the film, and along with them they also brought a whole bunch of "intellectually disabled" people just to gain sympathy votes. I haven't got anything against these "intellectually disabled" people though, I think the genetics really screwed them up big time before they were born. I mean, you don't even have to do anything in order to be mentally challenged before you are born. There aren't any rules for one to follow when it comes to not being mentally challenged at birth, nobody is truly save from that I suppose. To be born that way is just sad, and that I recognize. But aren't we a little over-sensitive about a single word like "retarded"?
It is a legitimate word after all, you can find it in every major dictionaries around the world. On the dictionary in my iMac, the word "retard" is defined as "delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment". It doesn't sound so bad now does it, because it really isn't that embarrassing or degrading a word to begin with. It is a legitimate word, a real word that people used to use before politically correct terms like "mentally challenged" or "mentally disabled", or "intellectually disabled" were even used. George Carlin would have flipped after watching this little report, seeing how all these euphemisms have been used to exploit these very natural conditions of unfortunate people around the world. It almost seems as if these people are genuinely afraid of their conditions, as if by calling it by it's real name, it becomes real.
Imagine a person, let's call him Carl, standing outside the ICU and waiting for the doctor to come out with his dying father's diagnosis. Carl knew that it was probably cancer because of the family history and all the possible symptoms, but he doesn't say the word "cancer" because it would make his father's condition turn into something real. The doctor has the final say, and before the official announcement comes along, nobody is supposed to say words like "cancer" or "death", because these are just the magic words to trigger the virus, to make it all come true. But does that make his father a healthy person if nobody says the word? Not really, he's still as sick as ever, and whether or not you say the word "cancer" is not going to change anything for him - if only you could. It's the same thing, really, not saying the word "retarded" does not make a person less retarded. In fact, by using other more politically correct terms to describe these people seem a lot more offensive to me than the actual word itself. It's condescending, it's like telling someone that she is big-boned when she really is forty kilograms overweight. Making ourselves happy with politically correct terms does not make the condition go away, they are still there! It doesn't change anything for anybody, so why be ashamed about it.
The person in the video mentioned something about how the movie mentioned the word "retard" seventeen times, and the "N-word" once - so what? There is a reason for films to have ratings, and this film has been rated as R for good reasons. By the way, the "R" in the MPAA ratings stands for "Restricted", not "Retarded". Anyway, there is a good reason for films to have ratings, it is just so that it filters out the younger viewers, the ones who cannot tell the right from the wrong. Besides, it really is just an action comedy, we really shouldn't take it all so seriously, right? The intentions of the film was certainly not to offend anybody, at least I don't see how Robert Downey Jr.'s speech might have been that way in nature. Everybody started making a hoo-hah about his words "Never be a full retard". Well, it's true! Who wants to be a full retard? Would you want to be a full retard? If I am born with some disabilities in my head, I would like myself to have other talents here and there to make up for it. Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man managed to count the number of spilled matches within seconds - seconds! Now, that's a talent not seen even in the greatest geniuses, and it'd be a nice little ability to have amidst my disability. Who would want to be a complete retard? No one, really. He merely spoke the truth.
I hope that they explained fully the reason for their protesting outside the theater, because I am not sure if the "mentally disabled" people in the crowd knew what they were protesting for. It is kind of like bringing a bunch of children to a protest against the government, when it really doesn't have anything to do with those innocent children. People like to use children to do a lot of things, they are useful accessories to get you anywhere. If you have children, you get the priority seats in public transports, you get to board the planes first, you get to be excused for a whole bunch of things just by having some of your offsprings at hand. How smart were those people when they brought children to a protest, that should work, right? If it affects the children, then it must be pretty serious right? Oh, not to mention that it must be a good cause if it involves the children. The children are our future after all! But of course, you see those children yelling and screaming on the camera, not because they know what they are doing but because their parents asked them to do it. It's the same with these unfortunate people, did they really know what they were protesting about in the first place?
At the end of the day, it really is just a movie with good clean fun. Even without this movie in the theaters, people are still going to be made fun of in schools and at the workplace, it's not going to change. People just have to realize that in most cases, gathering together and then protesting for a cause against the power at be is simply not going to work. If somebody were to run a statistics in regards to the success rate of mass protesting against an authority, you are going to find the result to be pretty disappointing. But people still do it anyway, because it is their "right" to do so. Well, isn't that the prettiest illusion the government has created for us. Create the illusion of freedom, and then pretend that you are listening to them when you are really not. It's like having a feedback box and then not reading the feedbacks, it's the very same thing. Similar to how these protesting aren't going to change anything, the movie is certainly not going to change anything either. People are still going to make fun of retarded people, and retarded people are still going to be made fun of. That's human nature, no matter how much you want to deny that. Yeah, we are in fact that ugly, we are that repulsive as a species.
So what can we do about it, make up politically correct terms just so that we feel better about ourselves? Being mentally disabled doesn't change the fact that you are retarded, it just makes you more condescending than ever. It all depends on the context of its usage and how you use the word. If you are going to call a retarded person a retard in a jesting tone, then such an act should be discouraged, agreed. But if we are simply stating facts, why should that word be such a rub so many people the wrong way? It started as "stupid", then it became "retarded", then people can't even say words like "slow" to describe these people any longer. I am sorry if these people were born that way, I really am. But how about those physically abled people who are just downright pretentious to begin with. Come on, be realistic. That is the way things work in our disappointing world.
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on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 12:00 AM.
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9:54 PM
Did you even see the movie? From the sound of your blog I just don't think so.
So let me get this straight, you say "people are always going to make fun of retarded people?" And that makes it right? You say it's ugly but it's part of life. And this is exactly what Ben Stiller says he isn't doing, but he was wrong based on your comment. You don't have to accept the ugliness, you can work to make it easier for other people to be kind and respectful of other people's differences.
I don't think parents brought their special needs kids to protest to get your sympathy. None of these parents want your sympathy. Imagine this, maybe they just want your respect. My daughter looks like what you would call normal. She doesn't look like she has special needs, but she does. She totally gets what the word retard and retarded mean when it is used as slang, and she's only eleven. She has learned to ignore the creeps in life but it doesn't mean she doesn't get what you and others are saying.
I'm guessing that you don't have kids. What will you do when your child is born with special needs? You'll be out there protesting with the rest, to make sure that your child gets the dignity they deserve.
No one is trying to take away your right to use the word retard anytime you want. But let's face some facts here. You're not allowed to scream fire in a crowded theater. The potential for damage is great. You are allowed to scream "retard" at a teenager with Down Syndrome sitting waiting for a bus. I personally don't see any difference. Either way someone gets hurt. It just depends if you care or not.
Thanks for listening.