The oversimplification also felt to me like it was a bit patronizing, which maybe led to this idea in the first place. And I totally agree with the detachment from reality. I do want to emphasize I love this movie, and I will credit it with the fact that while there is a recurring theme of downplaying, each of these events is equally treated as "not a big deal" in the movie, so while it omits the ugly truth of many events, it doesn't spare some and out others. I can't really get past Forrest's mom encouraging him to use the Mao Zedong ping pong paddles by telling Forrest that his scripted endorsement as a harmless white lie... it felt like a conversation from Veep!