Don't Be Retarded - Vote for Ron Paul

[nullvalu]

Ok, so this is my first ever YouTube contribution.

Try not to laugh too hard... :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO2g4FZaHMs

[Sir VotesALot]

brilliant!

[shrugged0106]

Ok, so this is my first ever YouTube contribution.

Try not to laugh too hard... :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO2g4FZaHMs


OK, I want to start by saying that I dont want you to feel like I am going off on yu or bashing you at all for your passion in supporting Dr. pauls campaign.

That said, as the loved one of a severly retarded child, I feel that this is totally classless. To me, it will actually push potential supporters away rather than help.

Again, I'm sure that your intent was never to offend, but sadly this did, at least to me.

I hope we can still be partners in paul though! no hard feelings?

[Sir VotesALot]

i think he meant politically retarded

[nullvalu]

this was in no means meant to offend really mentally retarded children, come on. "retarded" is a very popular word in youth culture..

[michaelwise]

Funny as hell. I get it.

[spacebetween]

Sweet photoshopping skills!

[Bradley in DC]

this was in no means meant to offend really mentally retarded children, come on. "retarded" is a very popular word in youth culture..

haven't seen it yet, but, yes, insensitive--Dr. Paul never makes personal attacks.

[nullvalu]

I can't take credit for the photoshopping..

& I'm not Dr. Paul...

I realize this video isn't for everyone.

[shrugged0106]

this was in no means meant to offend really mentally retarded children, come on. "retarded" is a very popular word in youth culture..

I understand that and really, I dont want you to feel attacked. It's just that you should understand the impact of things like this on not only his campaign, but more so on the hurt that it could cause (albeit, unintentionally)

thanks for understanding

[nullvalu]

I do understand, and for the record, I have a relative with down syndrome.. but you have to be able to take a joke.
Should I change the title to "Don't be politically retarded"?

EDIT: changed the title to "Don't Be Politically Retarded" - maybe this will seem less offensive.

[BLS]

Geez, some people got some thin skin.

[shrugged0106]

Geez, some people got some thin skin.



Not the case at all. In fact, I feel that I made my position perfectly clear that I wasnt bashing the OP.

Please use your heads when representing Dr. Paul.

Think about how you would feel if you were a parent of a child with a severe disability and you were on the fence between being a Paul supporter and another candidate.

Whom would you choose?

Just be rational folks! A sense of humor is awesome! Just use it wisely.

[BarryDonegan]

i dont think PC self policing is a part of making campaigns successful. think about south park. comedic shows like this make political messages which do appeal to a certain personality.

anyone making a video on youtube is obviously not an official member of ron pauls campaign and doesn't speak for him.

think about this

GEORGE W BUSH WON THE GENERAL ELECTION!

id be willing to say you could easily find a 7 or 8 % of his community who has publicly stated, and or written on a forum, posted on a youtube, that WE SHOULD NUKE THE WHOLE MIDDLE EAST AND TURN IT TO GLASS.

seriously, those people say that stuff. theyve been saying it for years.

everyone needs to stay focused on reaching out, not fiddling in.

name awareness drives campaigns, you can't possibly police every supporter of a candidate and fine tune their attitude to fit the political vernacular of the time. PC is somewhat of a dead paradigm. even ron paul feels that its divisive and causes things like racism and classism.

its not appropriate to call mentally challenged people retards, so when looking at the usage of the word, is it reasonable to say the intention is to be used as hate speech? does the video constitute hate speech towards people who are mentally challenged?

obviously not. no offense, mental handicap is a serious issue to you, definately, those who deal with it, but you can't expect everyone to tiptoe around every single word with any connotation that might be related to someone elses misery. if that were the case, every single joke on saturday night live would be totally inappropriate, same with daily show, colbert report, etc.

thats like when you say, man that english test today killed me!

i mean, if you just lost someone to murder, that joke wouldn't seem funny, obviously in theory, although the intention and usage of the word is not at all offensive, its being used with a different definition.

[bygone]

lol :)

In poor taste, maybe, but...

[DeadheadForPaul]

While I find it funny, most people have thin skin. Always good to keep that in mind. This ad might turn off people with family members who actually are mentally handicapped

[BLS]

While I find it funny, most people have thin skin. Always good to keep that in mind. This ad might turn off people with family members who actually are mentally handicapped

As one who is prone to 'speak his mind', I'll partake in my favorite pasttime and let you know this....

If you support Ron Paul, but then in turn, don't support him because you don't appreciate what one of his supporters did/said, then who's got the problem???

I realize it may offend someone...and in my opinion...tough hop.

It didn't say "Retards should vote Ron Paul" did it?

Everybody needs to lighten up. Maybe we should make a law so people can't say stuff like this.

I think you can find someone to pass that law at www.hillary08.com

Man....sad.

[Wyurm]

While I find it funny, most people have thin skin. Always good to keep that in mind. This ad might turn off people with family members who actually are mentally handicapped

ummm, ok. If this is true, then America is in far worse shape than I thought.

The video is different, and different is good. As for hurting, RP, come on, most people that would actually be offended aren't going to watch to the end where there is the absolute briefest mention of Ron Paul.

[Richie]

Rotf!

[Man from La Mancha]

This politically correct stuff is ridiculous. If you can't laugh at yourself or life you will always feel put upon and depressed. Call me cracker, white trash, redneck, skinny, fat ect. I don't care. Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me.

I'm not such an visual person with faces and it takes me a while to place names and faces together so the 1st 2/3 of the video I had a hard time telling which feature's are from what candidate but I really liked the last part with all the celebrities.

[Sir VotesALot]

This thread needs its own sub-section called "HOT REPLIES" where all of the people who weren't offended by the video can comment on it.

[DeadheadForPaul]

:rolleyes:

Don't act like I'm the one that is offended. I'm telling you how the average person thinks. Scary, isn't it? Yes, it is. I'm just telling you the truth. I try to be careful with everything I do because people are generally idiots and the media will take anything you do and blow it out of proportion. Welcome to 21th century America where Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction is more important to debate than unneccesary wars and bloated bureaucracies

[Razmear]

This is the first RP supporter video that I rated one star.

If the same photoshopping were done to show that all the other candidates are basically the same, it would be great, but the very annoying 'i am retarded' music loop made it almost painful to endure.

Good effort, good intentions, but I didn't like the end result, and yes, it will offend those who are not yet RP supporters, and that is who we are going after.

eb

[lucius]

Nice job!

[DJ RP]

I think we should legislate against using such hate speech. Ron Paul would agree.

[shrugged0106]

You know what? This is the first thread here that I'm disappointed in virtually all that posted.

I prefaced all posts with commentary that I wasnt trying to bash nor take away from the obvious good intent and effort that went into making the vid.

I also explained why to me it was somewhat offensive and I am a major Ron Paul supporter. If it bothers me (because my little sister is severly disabled) then it could easly bother someone who isnt already a supporter.

nothing beyond that, no rant from me nor any inappropriate comments towards anyone. just friendly advice for a fellow RP supporter.

Do you feel that it's right to get on my back for "thin skin" and that I brought this legitimate topic up?


I'm sorry, but the pile on was not needed and plain wrong

[BarryDonegan]

i don't see a pile on, this started a side issue, basically political correctness. we discussed civilly how we feel on that subject. noone said that your personal feelings about the video were invalid. we all just voiced in our opinion on the effect of political correct censoring.

and no, ron paul would not support a ban on any kind of speech. that is definately not outlined in the constitution.

one must remember to apply the appropriate grain of salt to things.

but its key to remember that political correct censoring is responsible for a lot of ignorance in debates.

some key examples, any critique of israel makes you anti semitic, even though the people they are often at odds with, arabs, are also semites, and in fact, if the israeli person in question is of eastern european origin, is EXCLUSIVELY semitic. haha. even if the critique in question is human rights violations committed by israel in war.

feminism, and misogyny is the most common argument to silence any mens issue also, if men want more money to spend on mens health issues, they are misogynous, even when this is not held contentious to the equality of women. similarly, if a feminist philosopher suggests something under the claim of egalitarian politics that is way over the line and not egalitarian at all, to contradict them makes you a woman-hater, even if you have greater equality at heart.

so for some people, who don't have hate in their heart at all, and who have a sense of humor, they don't think to police themselves for "hateful speech" because they are not at any time ever making hateful speech, no matter their choice of words.

we are a culture of victims, who are taught to seek out ways in which we can claim victimhood, in order to be pious, and i think that is wrong. i think everyone should be happy with what they have and have a sense of humor, and those who are able to do that should be free to express what they want.

i do not feel you should read any of this as a personal attack, i think your personal situation with your mentally handicapped family member sparked a really interesting and important debate that is very relevant today.

if you watch comedy central, almost the entire content of it now is racist humor, antisemitic humor, etc. and i think that is a sign of health in our nation with racial relationships, we've finally reached a point to where we are multicultural enough to be able to make little jokes to one another, in a friendly manner, and people don't take it that seriously. friends playfully pick on one another, and thats what America is about now.

living in the south, and being a touring musician, historically everyone has given the south an unfair rap about racism. its generally inappropriate here to make racist jokes even in the company of only your same ethnic group, as the history of problems from it is so rich. when in other regions i didn't notice this similar attitude. racism in the south is more common in communities where other races don't exist. but the funny thing is, when it comes to a highly uneducated southern sortof redneck stereotype, and their relationship with african americans;

heres my sortof example, this redneck stereotype, as much as he might scrutinize the different lifestyle of an african american, and vice versa, you take two southern people of different ethnic groups, put them somewhere else where the people around them are foreign strangers in a 3rd culture, and have the person in that 3rd culture pick on one of the two southerners, and the attitude quickly becomes "now wait a minute, i can pick on him a little, because we live together, but you mess with him and you mess with me"

thats america at its common element. we all agree to disagree on everything, but we are united in each others company, for better or for worse.

[shrugged0106]

Thanks Barry. I know there isnt malicious inten t here, but many of the comments were directed at me for bringing it up.


Not a biggie tho. I'm past it and ready to Campaign again!

[nullvalu]

So I guess that rules out submitting this to the commercial contest? :D :eek: :cool:

[BLS]

So I guess that rules out submitting this to the commercial contest? :D :eek: :cool:

Yeah, probably. :cool:

[wizardwatson]

It just want to say that everyone offended by the titling of the youtube video is being, well....

RETARDED!

Get over it, the video rocked.

The online webster definition of 'retarded' is:

"slow or limited in intellectual or emotional development or academic progress"

[michaelwise]

You can always change it to; Don't Be Two Faced.

[Syren123]

ummm, ok. If this is true, then America is in far worse shape than I thought.


Oh, it absolutely is.