Am I the only one who’s a little uncomfortable with the volume of folks who are flocking to take the piss out of Clint Eastwood for his largely confused and rambling introduction to Mitt Romney’s speech at the Republican National Convention in Florida?

I mean, regardless of your political leanings (I myself am very far left of Romney), let’s weigh up the evidence removed from the context of celebrity as if it was a Mental State Examination:

An elderly (82 year old) man, normally known for being pretty switched on and good with words (successful actor) presents slightly disheveled and with incoherent speech.

Now, I know people have already made jokes about Eastwood being ‘senile’ or having dementia when he came out in support of Romney (not funny by the way, but nice try for trying to derail a debate with ageism), but what if his being unwell is a legitimate option?

Prodromal and advanced dementia, acquired brain injury, medication side-effects, pronounced mania and psychosis, physical and learning disabilities can all present with illogical or incoherent speech patterns. Many people who fall into these groups (sometimes with associated motor impairments) can bear the brunt of discrimination and abuse from people who assume that they are drunk or high (though this is no legitimate reason to bully someone either: my thoughts on the stigma of addiction arising from the fucked up notion that people have ‘brought it on themselves’ or ‘deserve it’ is a whole other post I think). Can’t we find something better to amuse us than someone ‘talking funny’ anyway?

Exercise some caution with these three easy steps before you start laughing at people:

  1. Am I laughing for the right reasons?
  2. Is their behaviour actually funny?
  3. Am I being a douchebag?

Notes

  1. kdkorz10211 reblogged this from mindovermatterzine and added:
    Good point. Dementia isn’t funny, being old doesn’t invalidate someone’s opinions, and don’t be a douchebag.
  2. mslexip reblogged this from mindovermatterzine and added:
    Realtalk
  3. darziel reblogged this from myasphyxiatedmind and added:
    Thank.
  4. helena-r-s reblogged this from mindovermatterzine
  5. apothecandy said: You are not the only one. I agree with you as well.
  6. thatfeministdyke reblogged this from myasphyxiatedmind
  7. myasphyxiatedmind reblogged this from mindovermatterzine and added:
    Hm. This is a very good point…
  8. caprediem reblogged this from mindovermatterzine
  9. mindovermatterzine posted this