CRY ME A "RIVER"
Our current climate of racis cosmology dictates that those who are bigots are not really bigots, but rather, their accusers are for calling them bigots. The climate also dictates that certain "religious" types - i.e. hatemongers - are allowed to cry victimhood not in spite of the fact that they themselves have victimized others, but because of that fact.
Take (please) Mel Gibson. The Saddam Hussein look-alike, anti-Jewish, anti-thought hatehead recently revealed the following to a no-doubt shocked Diane Sawyer:
Gibson told "Good Morning America" host Diane Sawyer he has been angry for most of his life, but didn't realise the extent of the anger he still had over accusations that his 2004 film featured anti-Semitic imagery.
He explains, "The other place it may have come from is, as you know, a couple of years ago I released the film 'Passion.'
"Even before anyone saw a frame of the film, for an entire year, I was subjected to a pretty brutal sort of public beating." (Because, of course, the information that leaked out of the film - information about the script and so forth-revealed that Gibson was making a movie that portrayed Jews as they were portrayed in the passion plays of the past - as hook-nosed monsters).
"During the course of that, I think I probably had my rights violated in many different ways as an American. You know, as an artist, as a Christian. Just a human being, you know." (There is no right to expression of bigotry without the corresponding right of others to call you on it in the Constitution - and those who do not understand this - who do not understand the value of competing speech - fail to understand it because of deficiencies in understanding of the First Amendment generally - including its, shall we say, other clauses).
At the time, some critics worried that the film could incite violence against Jews, although Gibson insists that didn't happen and that he is owed an apology. (What exactly should the apology sound like? The concerns were legitimate. Jews have been the target of pogroms for millenia; they have been targets of violence as a result of bigots getting stirred into frenzies upon seeing passion plays. Even when this film premiered, any number of "good Christian" churches pointedly, through signs annointing their hallowed halls, "reminded" us that Jews were "Christ-killers" - an absurd non-sequitur. The more accurate term would be "killers of one of their own," and since the Gibson types hate Jews anyway, why should they care about intra-family violence? Aaah, religion. It's like its own form of mental Raid: it kills thought dead).
He adds, "The film came out. It was released, and you could have heard a pin drop, you know. Even the crickets weren't chirping". (Of course, Gibson knows this not to be true, but when you don't think, your memory gets rusty).
"But the other thing I never heard was one single word of apology."
What point would an apology have served? Would it have caused a diminution in his hatred of Jews? Would it have caused him to go back on the wagon? Would it make him more respectful of women or gays? A man so brimming with hate for hate's sake does not even know how to process an apology so as to gain the sense of requisite "peace" from it.
This man is sad and pitiful. There's nothing more sad than an old-school bigot who "cannot find a role for himself in peace" (well, relative peace, anyway). Such a man should be pitied. Dismissed, yes - because he does not fight fair - but pitied.
Take (please) Mel Gibson. The Saddam Hussein look-alike, anti-Jewish, anti-thought hatehead recently revealed the following to a no-doubt shocked Diane Sawyer:
Gibson told "Good Morning America" host Diane Sawyer he has been angry for most of his life, but didn't realise the extent of the anger he still had over accusations that his 2004 film featured anti-Semitic imagery.
He explains, "The other place it may have come from is, as you know, a couple of years ago I released the film 'Passion.'
"Even before anyone saw a frame of the film, for an entire year, I was subjected to a pretty brutal sort of public beating." (Because, of course, the information that leaked out of the film - information about the script and so forth-revealed that Gibson was making a movie that portrayed Jews as they were portrayed in the passion plays of the past - as hook-nosed monsters).
"During the course of that, I think I probably had my rights violated in many different ways as an American. You know, as an artist, as a Christian. Just a human being, you know." (There is no right to expression of bigotry without the corresponding right of others to call you on it in the Constitution - and those who do not understand this - who do not understand the value of competing speech - fail to understand it because of deficiencies in understanding of the First Amendment generally - including its, shall we say, other clauses).
At the time, some critics worried that the film could incite violence against Jews, although Gibson insists that didn't happen and that he is owed an apology. (What exactly should the apology sound like? The concerns were legitimate. Jews have been the target of pogroms for millenia; they have been targets of violence as a result of bigots getting stirred into frenzies upon seeing passion plays. Even when this film premiered, any number of "good Christian" churches pointedly, through signs annointing their hallowed halls, "reminded" us that Jews were "Christ-killers" - an absurd non-sequitur. The more accurate term would be "killers of one of their own," and since the Gibson types hate Jews anyway, why should they care about intra-family violence? Aaah, religion. It's like its own form of mental Raid: it kills thought dead).
He adds, "The film came out. It was released, and you could have heard a pin drop, you know. Even the crickets weren't chirping". (Of course, Gibson knows this not to be true, but when you don't think, your memory gets rusty).
"But the other thing I never heard was one single word of apology."
What point would an apology have served? Would it have caused a diminution in his hatred of Jews? Would it have caused him to go back on the wagon? Would it make him more respectful of women or gays? A man so brimming with hate for hate's sake does not even know how to process an apology so as to gain the sense of requisite "peace" from it.
This man is sad and pitiful. There's nothing more sad than an old-school bigot who "cannot find a role for himself in peace" (well, relative peace, anyway). Such a man should be pitied. Dismissed, yes - because he does not fight fair - but pitied.
posted by EnterCenter at 4:32 PM
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