Arnold Schwarzenegger schools internet troll for mocking Special Olympics – Chicago Tribune
Arnold Schwarzenegger turned an offensive comment about the Special Olympics that someone left on his Facebook page into a “teachable moment” this week.
The comment came in response to a video the former bodybuilding champion posted Thursday to his page congratulating the winners of the Special Olympics World Games held earlier this week in Austria, where Schwarzenegger is from.
Schwarzenegger appears in the video message that also features the text, “These guys inspire me!”
The video has attracted more than 400,000 views and drawn hundreds of comments, but not all of them were kind. One, in particular, referred to Special Olympians using a derogatory term and questioned the need for the Special Olympics at all.
“The Olympics are for the best athletes in the entire world to compete against each other to determine who is the best,” the individual wrote. “Having r—–s competing is doing the opposite!”
Schwarzenegger posted his response just hours later, noting, “As evil and stupid as this comment is, I’m not going to delete it or ban you (yet) because it’s a teachable moment.”
The former Republican governor of California continued:
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That the 69-year-old actor stood up to a hater is not a surprise. He’s fired back at critics before, including President Donald Trump, who in January blamed Schwarzenegger for the low ratings of “The New Celebrity Apprentice,” the latest version of reality show franchise originated by Trump.
“Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got ‘swamped’ (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT,” Trump said in a tweet posted Jan. 6
This week, Schwarzenegger offered up a response.
“Donald, the ratings are in, and you got swamped,” Schwarzenegger, who did not support Trump in the election last year, said in a video.
Schwarzenegger was referring Trump’s sinking approval ratings, which had hit just 37 percent last weekend according to a Gallup poll.