-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Please Stop Apologizing by Bill Maher (NYT Editorial)
- Thread starter Black Mamba
- Start date
- Status
No one knows.
faceless007
Member
No, it's explicitly what he's talking about. He doesn't draw a line between "warranted" outrage or not. He explicitly said the Sandra Fluke comments shouldn't have provoked the outrage it did (in fact, that's what's prompting this editorial).
It's easy to jump on the bandwagon of "I wanna say whatever I want and haters be damned" but I don't think anyone here realizes that taking his argument to the logical conclusion means never criticizing anything racist or sexist, because one person's legitimate complaint against overt bigotry is another person's "You're just manufacturing outrage." It's easy--and juvenile--in political and online discourse to dismiss your opponents as being too easily offended/hysterical/outraged/emotional without providing any sort of counter-argument (you see this in pretty much all women's rights/sexism debates). A lot of the posts in this thread sound exactly like what conservative bloggers and Fox commentators say everytime a Republican says something undeniably racist/sexist.
You think people should stop criticizing the Fred Phelps clan?
Crumpet Trumpet
Banned
Please Stop Apologizing by Straight White Male
P.S. Sorry in advance for offending straight white males
P.S. Sorry in advance for offending straight white males
Devolution
Member
No shit.
So no one should have been outraged at Rush going on air and calling Fluke a slut for 3 straight days when she testified about birth control because "get a thicker skin" or "don't listen to his program." Fuck Maher.
Glorified G
Member
fixed
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
The phony OUTRAGE!!1! that both teams have used for point scoring has been absolutely ridiculous recently. Blaming, counter-blaming, hand-wringing, double standards, and biased justifications all over the damn place. The effect it has had on freedom of expression is terrible.
I prefer Maher's world where people are free to say offensive shit if they want to (and get criticized for it, if others want to) without the whole witch hunt aspect.
I don't think he's saying "no one should be outraged".
I prefer Maher's world where people are free to say offensive shit if they want to (and get criticized for it, if others want to) without the whole witch hunt aspect.
I don't think he's saying "no one should be outraged".
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
Wot you talkin' aboot?
I'm about 99% certain that no one's upset by that. Gingrich is just trying to draw some negative attention toward Obama.
Also I'm not really sure I can get behind Maher on this one. Some of the examples given in the article may seem minor, but who am I to tell someone else what they can and can't be upset about. It's really easy to tell a group of people to "just get over it" when you don't have some type of personal connection to whatever the topic of controversy is. I see it all the time here on Gaf and it gets annoying.
As for the people making the apologies, it is true that they're usually being disingenuous, but at least it forces them to think twice when it comes to spreading their more hateful messages.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
How about now?
DeNiro made a joke deriding a group of people based on their skin color. It's a common thing to take offense at.
nVidiot_Whore
Banned
Except.. that wasn't the point of the joke..
The point of a lot of "racial" humor is to be satirical of racism...
Black Mamba
Member
He wasn't deriding a group of people based on their skin color, he was deriding a group of people who base opinion on the skin color of others.
good god, man.
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
Except that's a completely different joke? Like the exact opposite joke? I... jesus.
Edit: Taken care of I see, haha.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
nVidiot_Whore
Banned
It didn't go over my head at all. You reversed the races.. which changed more than just the races.. since no-one has ever questioned having a white first lady your version of the joke loses the satirical meaning.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
No shit.
But do you expect dimwitted oversensitive humorless mouthbreathers to make that distinction? To some people, all they're gonna see is a joke that insinuates a negative connotation based on skin color. Especially when they didn't hear it live, and only read the text on the internet.
Perspicacity
Banned
Yeah, it's like some people don't get satire, right?
nVidiot_Whore
Banned
Well it was difficult to guess what your point was with the post.
You appeared to be one of the mouthbreathers... my bad.
Trent Strong
Banned
Yep. It's like most of GAF has never heard a comedian in their lives.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I thought the context would have been clear, considering what I had just written 2 posts prior to that.
Black Mamba
Member
it was pretty much impossible to tell if you were trying to give an example of how the offended perceives the original joke or if you actually thought the modified form represented the original joke in another manner.
With this being the internet, kind of hard without some sort of clue.
Pft, like anyone pays attention to that!
I like Mittzkrieg, I want to buy Axelrod a drink now that I learned about this.
I'm a straight white male and personally I'm offended at the insinuation, your apology notwithstanding.
I'm a straight white male and personally I'm offended at the insinuation, your apology notwithstanding.
nVidiot_Whore
Banned
You wrote that people should be allowed to say offensive shit without a witch hunt...
I don't see how that relates to me somehow guessing you understood that DeNiro's comment actually isn't offensive in any way.
(not mad or anything.. this is a derail.. but really, even having read your previous post I had no clue you were being satirical)
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
That's not what I said.
The overall point of my post was that I agree with Maher's sentiment. Therefore, it makes sense that I would also agree with him that the original De Niro joke is also inoffensive to me.
nVidiot_Whore
Banned
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Dreams-Visions
Member
Good read.
It's nice to see that only minorities and females are allowed to have a say.
But for what it's worth, I'm not white, and I quite agree with Maher.
I hope one day we'll all look back and laugh at this stupid PC bullshit. I hope.
Being offended != giving out criticism. However, it is far too unfortunate today that most of the time, the vocal people rush to the former -- personal bashing, calling for boycott, demanding apology, and even giving out threats. If you can't even control your own self of these outbursts, should you really be outraged at other people who themselves act in the same outrageous ways?
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Locked