OK, time to jump in hot water.  My wife thinks I'm just asking to be flamed for posting this on this site, but, I'd like to honestly discuss this with my parenting peers.  So, here goes.

 I'm looking at this controversy from a couple of perspectives.  First, I'm a parent of twin children, both of who are on the Autism Spectrum.  Also, traditional research (though now somewhat challenged) suggests that children such as my son with moderate or higher levels of autism also display at least some degree of mental retardation.  This has not been confirmed for my children as yet, but may be in later years.  Both kids are almost certainly going to be grappling with social issues.  Having felt much like a social untouchable from my elementary through high school years, I worry quite a bit about this.  My difficult peer situation growing up had a pretty extensive impact on my personality.  Some good, but some stuff I still struggle with.  (I'm 38 - Not the best at letting go.)  I'm also Jewish, and in spite of never been deliberately attacked for my religion, I probably wouldn't have much humor about being called a number of specific names related to that.  Even without attacks for my religion, I was called a number of non-group names as a child which definitely hurt at the time. 

Now, for the other side.  Especially because I work with minority populations, I tend to default toward political correctness.  I try to be very careful in my use of terminology.  (I do still need to work on using "individual with autism" as opposed to "autistic".)  For all of that, I am a big fan of guys like George Carlin and Randy Newman.  The former deliberately attacked political correctness and euphamistic language.  The latter creates satirical music, but he does it by portraying the characters he's satirizing.  So, rather than saying, "Racists are morons", he'll sing a song from the racist's point-of-view.  This approach has historically made it difficult to tell if he's joking or serious.  I've also seen the backlash side of political correctness.  Politically correct people are often perceived as easily offended control freaks who want the whole world to be bright, rosy, and no offense anywhere. 

Now... Tropic Thunder.  Haven't seen it.  I would like to do so.  Without having seen it, I've only heard anecdotes of what it contains.  And I'm a bit torn.  Because a) If somebody calls my kid a "retard", I'm probably going to have to restrain myself from doing something inappropriate to that person.  b) Should "retard" be acceptable when some racial and relgious epithets aren't?  However, I do have a couple concerns.  Just from the little bit I know, it sounds like the intent at least is to not so much make fun of individuals with mental / developmental disabilities as it is to make fun of people trying to get awards / respect / fame for playing people with these disabilities.  But would that argument hold up if it was another group?  I'd say that's questionable.  Furthermore, individuals (particularly kids) with intellectual disabilities may have a difficult time seeing the intent, and may just get hurt.  

On the other hand, I think of how I reacted to kids picking on me when I was growing up.  I got emotionally overwrought.  The result was that the teasing increased tenfold.  So, when I look at people protesting this film because of the use of the word, and knowing about the political correctness backlash, I'm frankly concerned that this is going to make the population appear weaker rather than stronger.  Is the public going to respect individuals with disabilities more because of the protest or less?  Is the group standing up for themselves?  Or does the group not have a sense of humor about themselves?

 Looking back on this, I honestly don't have an answer.  Maybe I will as I see how my kids adapt to the world and are treated by the world over time.  Right now, I just don't know.