It's a lazy Sunday afternoon, I'm far too unmotivated to do any homework and it's snowing outside, so what's a bored college kid to do? Sounds like it's time to turn on good ol' Fox News for some shits and grins. Watching the O'Reilly Factor is always a trip. Who's on the show today but Sarah Palin!
I didn't catch the entire discussion, but what I gathered from what I did see is that Seth MacFarlane, via Family Guy, made a joke about the disabled community on the show. This is nothing we (fans of the show) haven't seen before. It's like reading The Onion. That's the point. It's meant to be offensive, but you're only going to be offended if you can't take a joke. And of course, we all know that most conservatives can't take a joke, so it's always struck me as ironic that Family Guy airs on Fox. Go figure. So anyway, here comes good ol' Moral Sarah Palin to the rescue to bitch him out. She's going on about how inappropriate the joke was, and how we need to draw a line about how much people can say (censorship? aren't the republicans against that?), and blah blah blah, and they went on to talk about Rahm Emanuel, who recently apparently used the phrase "fucking retard" (don't quote my source, I'm quoting Mr. O'Reilly) and how inappropriate that was. THEN, they brought up Rush Limbaugh, who apparently used the phrase "retards" to refer to a group of people listening to his show. Sarah Palin, O Alaskan Genius, defended his use of the word. Defended it. This is the woman who has a son with Down's Syndrome, defending Rush Limbaugh for his use of the word "retards" when mere seconds before she had lambasted Seth MacFarlane and Rahm Emanuel for it. Buhhhwhat? Her excuse was that "Limbaugh was using the word in satire to make a point."
Earth to Sarah Palin: You can't have it both ways. And no, he wasn't using it in satire. He was using it because he's a bigot and an asshole. Furthermore: if Keith Olbermann had said the same kind of thing, using the same exact words, Sarah Palin and Bill O'Reilly would have had a field day about how hateful his language was. The hypocrisy is mind-numbing. And it only seems to work for the Right.
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Hey, Steph, it's Alexis.
ReplyDeleteYeah, what I found really funny is that Family Guy is a satire of sorts..they used it satiraclly, Rush Limbaugh did not. As for Rahm Emanuel, his use was a bit tactless as a government official. He was talking about some fellow democrats and said they were "fucking retards" which as a political figure head(particularly in an office that has already been in trouble for such things) was a bit "retarded" of him.
As for the word itself, I frankly try not to use it because I'd be a hypocrite to get offended at the word "gay" but not "retarded" when used in the same context. The original definition of retard is "to delay, to make slow," but that's not how the word is understood so I try not to say it. However, I usually just ignore the usage unless someone is particularly referring to someone who is mentally handicap. All of the above people(with the exception of Family Guy, but hey, that's family guy) were not. So people just need to relax.
Not to mention, I seem to recall an interview with Sarah Palin in which she said, "my son is retarded." WTF? You're son is not retarded, he has down syndrome! To me, her use is the most offensive of all
Oh, certainly. By no means is the word proper language in today's PC vernacular. So it's not fair that some are allowed to use it and some are not--so I agree with you, whatever Emanuel's context was, it was a stupid word to use. I also think it was stupid for Obama to make a comment about the Special Olympics a couple of months ago on Jay Leno. I just think it's ridiculous that the Right seems to find ways to defend their own people when they get in trouble with it but have no problem with screwing the members of the Left who use it.
ReplyDeleteActually, one interesting thing is that Rahm Emanuel didn't call anyone retards, he called a group of Democrats' plan for something or other retarded. I know that may not seem like a big difference, but as Alexis stated above, the "proper" definition of the word retarded is something that is not up to speed or not up to snuff. Also, Mr. Emanuel was not on the record when he made the comment, and it was nasty journalism that landed that quote. Another fun fact, this time about the Family Guy episode: the woman who played the girl on the episode with Down Syndrome, who actually has Down Syndrome, told reporters she doesn't think Sarah Palin has a sense of humor. This entire Sarah Palin thing and her reprisal of certain uses of the word retards or retarded is getting to be ridiculous. And just for the record, in my opinion, Sarah Palin is not really "up to speed" on much of anything.
ReplyDeleteMatt Parmenter
You're 100% right Matt...and I hadn't actually heard the comment that Rahm Emanuel made, I had only heard it 3rd hand from Palin and O'Reilly, who are of course not very good sources. It just goes to show that if you're offended by things like Family Guy, you deserve to be, because that's the point. Sarah Palin not only has no sense of humor, but I'm beginning to believe she has no brain, either.
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