Things we'd be talking about if the forum wasn't deadFollow

Actually. I had no problem noodling out that he was bashing people who make the argument that those on "the left" are violent for attacking the poor harmless neo-**** on the bus.

Ironically, I'm in agreement with your response, despite it being a misunderstanding of the original intent. Those on "the left" do kinda set this thing up. Every time you fight to defend someone's right to burn a flag, or depict Jesus guzzing someone else's man juice in an art show, or any other form of offensive speech (often intentionally offensive so as to get a reaction), you're also, for good or bad, defending someone else's right to wear a swastika armband, or wear a "god hates ****" t-shirt, or any other form of equally offensive speech (also, often designed to get a reaction).

That is, if you're actually arguing the issue as a "speech is free, even if, and even especially if, it's offensive to others". The problem with the Left, is that they tend to want speech they like and which doesn't offend them to be free, while speech they don't like to not be free. Which creates a bit of an inconsistency.

I'll provide the exact same statement I made about the riots in Charlottesville. It's possible to condemn violent actions (like punching someone who does not appear to have taken any aggressive action first), while still disagreeing with the speech of the person whom the violent action was targeted. I don't find anything inconsistent about that at all. The guy with the armband was, as much as I disagree with it, still merely exercising his free speech rights. I didn't see anything in the linked article to suggest that he took a single violent action against anyone. He wore an armband and was alleged to have harassed a black man (again though, unless he threatened the person, that's also still free speech).

The guy who walked up to him and punched him committed assault. Period.

Let me be absolutely clear. I'm not defending the neo-**** guy. I'm not defending his opinions. My concern here is the growing perception by some in our society that the correct response to speech that is not liked is violence (it's what antifa is all about). And also a growing acceptance among others of the same. "he had it coming" is a terrible excuse IMO. Why is this a concern? After all, this just happened to a neo-****, right? We don't like them, right? You're not one of them, right? The problem is that once this become acceptable behavior, it creeps out of the obvious "bad people" and into "people we don't like for other/any reasons".

We already see rhetoric on the internet essentially claiming that anyone who is conservative or votes GOP is a neo-****, bigot, racist, hater, etc. See this constantly. How much of a step to say "well, that guy who just got punched had it coming, because he voted GOP, so he's a terrible person anyway"? Not much. Heck, we've already seen cases of this happen (assaults on folks for voting GOP, at least). If the guy had been wearing a Trump MAGA hat, how much different would the comments have been? I'm quite certain we'd have seen similar "he had it coming" comments, laughter about it, etc.

And yeah. That's troubling.

Actually. I had no problem noodling out that he was bashing people who make the argument that those on "the left" are violent for attacking the poor harmless neo-**** on the bus.

Ironically, I'm in agreement with your response, despite it being a misunderstanding of the original intent. Those on "the left" do kinda set this thing up. Every time you fight to defend someone's right to burn a flag, or depict Jesus guzzing someone else's man juice in an art show, or any other form of offensive speech (often intentionally offensive so as to get a reaction), you're also, for good or bad, defending someone else's right to wear a swastika armband, or wear a "god hates ****" t-shirt, or any other form of equally offensive speech (also, often designed to get a reaction).

That is, if you're actually arguing the issue as a "speech is free, even if, and even especially if, it's offensive to others". The problem with the Left, is that they tend to want speech they like and which doesn't offend them to be free, while speech they don't like to not be free. Which creates a bit of an inconsistency.

I'll provide the exact same statement I made about the riots in Charlottesville. It's possible to condemn violent actions (like punching someone who does not appear to have taken any aggressive action first), while still disagreeing with the speech of the person whom the violent action was targeted. I don't find anything inconsistent about that at all. The guy with the armband was, as much as I disagree with it, still merely exercising his free speech rights. I didn't see anything in the linked article to suggest that he took a single violent action against anyone. He wore an armband and was alleged to have harassed a black man (again though, unless he threatened the person, that's also still free speech).

The guy who walked up to him and punched him committed assault. Period.

Let me be absolutely clear. I'm not defending the neo-**** guy. I'm not defending his opinions. My concern here is the growing perception by some in our society that the correct response to speech that is not liked is violence (it's what antifa is all about). And also a growing acceptance among others of the same. "he had it coming" is a terrible excuse IMO. Why is this a concern? After all, this just happened to a neo-****, right? We don't like them, right? You're not one of them, right? The problem is that once this become acceptable behavior, it creeps out of the obvious "bad people" and into "people we don't like for other/any reasons".

We already see rhetoric on the internet essentially claiming that anyone who is conservative or votes GOP is a neo-****, bigot, racist, hater, etc. See this constantly. How much of a step to say "well, that guy who just got punched had it coming, because he voted GOP, so he's a terrible person anyway"? Not much. Heck, we've already seen cases of this happen (assaults on folks for voting GOP, at least). If the guy had been wearing a Trump MAGA hat, how much different would the comments have been? I'm quite certain we'd have seen similar "he had it coming" comments, laughter about it, etc.

And yeah. That's troubling.

From the guy that spends weeks ranting about soda commercials, Super Bowl Half Time shows, and protests he was told not to agree with.

No, dip. What you are seeing is people claiming that anyone who is supporting Trump is "a neo-Nazi, bigot, racist, hater, etc." ...because he is.

.

Uh, what I see is pretty much exactly as gbaji wrote in this quote. Come across as Conservative and you're a racist, bigot, etc. Come across as Liberal and you're a special snowflake, Libtard, etc...

The name calling is there, in spades, by both sides. Why? Because imbeciles are on both sides.

+1

I guess.

Edited, Oct 27th 2017 8:43am by Demea

Rule 34

POIDH

Having viewed the P with my own i's, I can attest that IDinfactH

ETA: ed. Because ed was missing.

Edited, Oct 27th 2017 7:55am by stupidmonkey

Edited, Oct 30th 2017 9:20am by lolgaxe

It is late. I can no longer tell ironing from non-ironing.

Our flag, of course. They don't seem to have much issue with burning other peoples' flags and books.

3/5ths of the time.

I've seen estimates between 6,000,000 to 150,000,000 depending on whether you're talking just the transatlantic trade or the entirity of the 15th to 19th centuries. I think the conservative estimates (marked by moderation or caution, not political party) puts our involvement between 12,000,000 and 15,000,000, but even then I kind of doubt they're counting anyone that died while being hunted or being tossed overboard for dying on the way.