Look, I have plenty of complaints with the way my government conducts itself in the community of nations, and within its own borders. I get plenty pissed off all the time. But I also get pissed off when someone uses that fucking swastika to express their political disdain.
Recently, the Republicans have been orchestrating these prefabricated protests against the President’s attempts to enact health care reforms, and at many of those protests, people will hold up signs and placards comparing Obama to Hitler, and displaying the swastika. It pisses me off.
During the long, sad reign of George W. Bush, the many protests against his war in Iraq also occasionally featured signs and placards comparing him to Hitler, and displaying the swastika. Although I was also vociferously against that war, they, too, pissed me off.
There’s just something about making that comparison that pisses me off. It’s because it cheapens the idea just how evil, how despicable, how vile the Third Reich was. Using the swastika, making those comparisons … it’s simply ignorant and selfish. It’s cheap. It’s sleazy. It shows a lack of ability to find a way to articulate one’s political dissent in an imaginative or expressive manner. It's resorting to a simplistic, grotesque exaggeration, one which tastelessly compares the vilest act in human history with whatever their complaint happens to be. It’s a sleazy, lazy, cheap shot, and one made at the expense of those that suffered or died at the hands of Adolf and his vile minions.
My anger doesn’t come from any emotional Nationalism I harbor, or anything like that. I do consider myself a patriot. I love my country. But I have no quarrel with those who would justifiably criticize America’s policies. I may argue with critics who I feel are unjustified in certain criticisms if I feel them to be wrong, but they don’t piss me off like those using that goddam swastika do.
That is why when I came across this LeonValentine fellow, and his despicable profile picture, I felt compelled to speak out. It simply pisses me off.
Original Blog Comments:
niamhis: omgggggg this guy is an assshole he really shud take this down 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: As distasteful as I find this, I don't think he should be banned, or forced to remove the image, or anything like that.
He should, however, catch a good sized load of shit from anyone offended by it. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: It reminds me of those who use the word "rape" in the same cheap sleazy manner in order to exaggerate their disdain with something. Someone throws a hamburger wrapper down on the sidewalk, and someone complains that they're "raping the sidewalk." Not exactly respectful to rape victims.
That's what this reminds me of. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: I wouldn't be too pissed off at a Stalin/Pol Pot/Hitler comparison, but LeonValentine, and whoever put together the image, are a pair of wankers. 1 year ago
arkle: ITS "friends" should hang their feking heads in shame! 1 year ago
SABLES:
1 year ago
Outbackjack: I have to totally agree with you SITS.Even when people were comparing Bush to Hitler(as much as I hate Bush) I found it offensive.
Not only is it an insult to all those who suffered under the Nazis.If we overuse the term Fascist then it has no meaning when real fascists raise their ugly head and they do from time to time like the Francos and Pinochets of the world.
As for this profile above of this Leon character you showed us and his "friends".I have a feeling you may have been absolutely right about that nasty little Nazi coming back as Red eye.
Anyhow I honestly understand your idea of free speech to all but dont agree with it when it comes to people like this who would deny you that same right if they came to power.So I am off to post his profile in the Anti-Racist club and see if we can get rid of him. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: This may surprise many, but I will actually defend LeonValentine's right to use such a horrible and asinine image. As much as I detest it, I'd prefer not to have his right to be a wanker taken away.
Restricting free speech is a slippery slope that should be tread on only with a great deal of caution. Laws designed to protect free speech protect all of us by protecting those among us who express the outrageous. The answer for this is not to remove his right to speak, even if his ideas are cheap, unimaginative, and ugly.
The answer for bad speech isn't less speech.
The answer for bad speech is MORE speech. 1 year ago
Outbackjack: Ok sits.Lets try your way as well. I have just commented on the picture and encourage everyone to do the same. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: Because intellectually I can see the value in allowing that sort of expression, even if I don't like it. Because I don't want someone telling ME, or YOU, what we can say. I prefer an environment where you can say what you want, and then suffer the criticism that results if you say something controversial, rather than not being able to say it at all.
I'll repeat the little platitude I said above, because it really gets to the heart of the matter:
The answer for bad speech isn't less speech.
The answer for bad speech is MORE speech.
"Bad speech" is relative. What you think is bad might be quite acceptable for another. "More speech" is pretty well defined. More is more.
If the Ku Klux Klan wanted to parade down the main street of my town, I would want to let them. However, if they did, those white-sheeted shitheads would get a heaping load of my free speech, as well.
Free speech isn't easy. It often stinks. But it's far better than having someone in charge decide that you get to say this, but you don't get to say that. 1 year ago
Karma: Ick. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: (laughs) Ick indeed. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: Oh, I forgot to do something. Let me do it now. Let's examine the little caption under that ugly flag that details the USA's "fascism," and see how accurate it is:
-- Concentrated private control of wealth > Okay. I can't argue that one. However, the same could be said of many other places too, particularly in the Third World. -- Control of information > That one is a big miss. Anytime a news agency can dig up something that'll make a good headline and sell ads, it flies. Politicans are pissed off by the press every waking minute. I don't think that was happening in Germany in 1938. -- Massive investment/manufacture of arms and military equipment > A huge miss on this one. While it's true that the USA has the world's largest arms industry, they have the world's largest all-kinds-of-industries. Other nations have thriving arms industries, as well. How about Israel? They have a thriving arms industry. Does that make Israel a "fascist state"? -- Suppression of labor movements > Another big miss. President Obama could not have been elected without union support.
I score that as one out of four. Not too good. 1 year ago
SABLES: I don't think that what he is doing is free speech, I believe he is just trying to get a rise out of people. What neo nazi would accept someone that is homosexual. And he has stated on his profile that (supposedly) he is. What some people find as funny 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: (shrugs) The impression I get is that he's just decided that he hates the USA, and is taking hateful Nazi symbology and attaching it to something he hates.
I just remembered something ...
Right-wing radio talk show buffoon Rush Limbaugh uses the term "Femi-nazis" to express his hatred of feminists. He uses that term all the time. Like every fruking day.
Is that any different than this? I don't think so. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: It's one of his "trademarks." I have no doubt that if you Google the word "femi-nazi" or "feminazi" that Rush Limbaugh will top the list.
(laughs) I just Googled "feminazi." Here's the first heading, a Wiki:
Feminazi is a pejorative term used to characterize feminists. Coined and popularized by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, Feminazi is a portmanteau of the ...
By the way, the definition of a "feminazi," as Rush uses the term, is any woman who has the unmitigated audacity to express an opinion he disagrees with. 1 year ago
LittleAntonov: i have no idea if this has been said but im gunna say it(too lazy to read through it all) YOu cannot compare Obama's Policies ie universal health care etc.. to Hitler's Facist state as Fascism is on the extreme right of the political scale which is to say its about money not socialist reforms like sharing cars, money etc.. being a Canadian i can honestly say that Universal Health Care does not in anyway mean the government is a socialist state, ffs how can people be so dense, if anything if they wanted to protest in comparsion they should be using the hammer and sickle and even then its just as bad as way back in the day there were awful experiments on ppl and again death camps, work camps... If you want to protest think up something yourself because when you grossly exaggerate when comparing you just help promote ignorance, stupidity and all around disrespect for anyone and anything anybody did in the past. Now that being said everyone deserves their own opinions and views, somepeople should be taken and given a big smack and a stern talking to before they express them in such a vile, unimaginitive manner. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: Free speech should come with a cost. I'd say that LeonValentine deserves a good slap with a wet flounder. 1 year ago
LittleAntonov: hmm i think flounders have too much mercury in them he might get poisoned 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties: I sprinkle mercury liberally on my flounder.
And no, that's not a euphemism ... 1 year ago
Karma: ha 1 year ago
veronica: Veronica has just been sent some video of white supremacist neo Nazis on YouTube,,,,and is pissed of that an invention such as the internet one which can communicate mans collective knowledge cab ne debased to peddle hate from russian skin heads and that her inbox would be polluted by such spam 1 year ago
Note:
Original blog comments may appear disjointed. This is because over time, some users that posted comments later deleted their Wireclub accounts. When users delete their accounts, their comments are (usually) deleted as well. Also, during the conversion to New Wireclub, many of the emoticons used have unfortunately disappeared.
Original Blog Title:
“This Pisses Me Off …”
Original Blog Posting Date:
September 27, 2009
Original Blog Text:
Look, I have plenty of complaints with the way my government conducts itself in the community of nations, and within its own borders. I get plenty pissed off all the time. But I also get pissed off when someone uses that fucking swastika to express their political disdain.
Recently, the Republicans have been orchestrating these prefabricated protests against the President’s attempts to enact health care reforms, and at many of those protests, people will hold up signs and placards comparing Obama to Hitler, and displaying the swastika. It pisses me off.
During the long, sad reign of George W. Bush, the many protests against his war in Iraq also occasionally featured signs and placards comparing him to Hitler, and displaying the swastika. Although I was also vociferously against that war, they, too, pissed me off.
There’s just something about making that comparison that pisses me off. It’s because it cheapens the idea just how evil, how despicable, how vile the Third Reich was. Using the swastika, making those comparisons … it’s simply ignorant and selfish. It’s cheap. It’s sleazy. It shows a lack of ability to find a way to articulate one’s political dissent in an imaginative or expressive manner. It's resorting to a simplistic, grotesque exaggeration, one which tastelessly compares the vilest act in human history with whatever their complaint happens to be. It’s a sleazy, lazy, cheap shot, and one made at the expense of those that suffered or died at the hands of Adolf and his vile minions.
My anger doesn’t come from any emotional Nationalism I harbor, or anything like that. I do consider myself a patriot. I love my country. But I have no quarrel with those who would justifiably criticize America’s policies. I may argue with critics who I feel are unjustified in certain criticisms if I feel them to be wrong, but they don’t piss me off like those using that goddam swastika do.
That is why when I came across this LeonValentine fellow, and his despicable profile picture, I felt compelled to speak out. It simply pisses me off.
Original Blog Comments:
niamhis:
omgggggg this guy is an assshole
he really shud take this down
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
As distasteful as I find this, I don't think he should be banned, or forced to remove the image, or anything like that.
He should, however, catch a good sized load of shit from anyone offended by it.
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
It reminds me of those who use the word "rape" in the same cheap sleazy manner in order to exaggerate their disdain with something. Someone throws a hamburger wrapper down on the sidewalk, and someone complains that they're "raping the sidewalk." Not exactly respectful to rape victims.
That's what this reminds me of.
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
I wouldn't be too pissed off at a Stalin/Pol Pot/Hitler comparison, but LeonValentine, and whoever put together the image, are a pair of wankers.
1 year ago
arkle:
ITS "friends" should hang their feking heads in shame!
1 year ago
SABLES:
1 year ago
Outbackjack:
I have to totally agree with you SITS.Even when people were comparing Bush to Hitler(as much as I hate Bush) I found it offensive.
Not only is it an insult to all those who suffered under the Nazis.If we overuse the term Fascist then it has no meaning when real fascists raise their ugly head and they do from time to time like the Francos and Pinochets of the world.
As for this profile above of this Leon character you showed us and his "friends".I have a feeling you may have been absolutely right about that nasty little Nazi coming back as Red eye.
Anyhow I honestly understand your idea of free speech to all but dont agree with it when it comes to people like this who would deny you that same right if they came to power.So I am off to post his profile in the Anti-Racist club and see if we can get rid of him.
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
This may surprise many, but I will actually defend LeonValentine's right to use such a horrible and asinine image. As much as I detest it, I'd prefer not to have his right to be a wanker taken away.
Restricting free speech is a slippery slope that should be tread on only with a great deal of caution. Laws designed to protect free speech protect all of us by protecting those among us who express the outrageous. The answer for this is not to remove his right to speak, even if his ideas are cheap, unimaginative, and ugly.
The answer for bad speech isn't less speech.
The answer for bad speech is MORE speech.
1 year ago
Outbackjack:
Ok sits.Lets try your way as well.
I have just commented on the picture and encourage everyone to do the same.
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
Because intellectually I can see the value in allowing that sort of expression, even if I don't like it. Because I don't want someone telling ME, or YOU, what we can say. I prefer an environment where you can say what you want, and then suffer the criticism that results if you say something controversial, rather than not being able to say it at all.
I'll repeat the little platitude I said above, because it really gets to the heart of the matter:
The answer for bad speech isn't less speech.
The answer for bad speech is MORE speech.
"Bad speech" is relative. What you think is bad might be quite acceptable for another. "More speech" is pretty well defined. More is more.
If the Ku Klux Klan wanted to parade down the main street of my town, I would want to let them. However, if they did, those white-sheeted shitheads would get a heaping load of my free speech, as well.
Free speech isn't easy. It often stinks. But it's far better than having someone in charge decide that you get to say this, but you don't get to say that.
1 year ago
Karma:
Ick.
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
(laughs) Ick indeed.
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
Oh, I forgot to do something. Let me do it now. Let's examine the little caption under that ugly flag that details the USA's "fascism," and see how accurate it is:
-- Concentrated private control of wealth
> Okay. I can't argue that one. However, the same could be said of many other places too, particularly in the Third World.
-- Control of information
> That one is a big miss. Anytime a news agency can dig up something that'll make a good headline and sell ads, it flies. Politicans are pissed off by the press every waking minute. I don't think that was happening in Germany in 1938.
-- Massive investment/manufacture of arms and military equipment
> A huge miss on this one. While it's true that the USA has the world's largest arms industry, they have the world's largest all-kinds-of-industries. Other nations have thriving arms industries, as well. How about Israel? They have a thriving arms industry. Does that make Israel a "fascist state"?
-- Suppression of labor movements
> Another big miss. President Obama could not have been elected without union support.
I score that as one out of four. Not too good.
1 year ago
SABLES:
I don't think that what he is doing is free speech, I believe he is just trying to get a rise out of people. What neo nazi would accept someone that is homosexual. And he has stated on his profile that (supposedly) he is. What some people find as funny
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
(shrugs) The impression I get is that he's just decided that he hates the USA, and is taking hateful Nazi symbology and attaching it to something he hates.
I just remembered something ...
Right-wing radio talk show buffoon Rush Limbaugh uses the term "Femi-nazis" to express his hatred of feminists. He uses that term all the time. Like every fruking day.
Is that any different than this? I don't think so.
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
It's one of his "trademarks." I have no doubt that if you Google the word "femi-nazi" or "feminazi" that Rush Limbaugh will top the list.
(laughs) I just Googled "feminazi." Here's the first heading, a Wiki:
Feminazi is a pejorative term used to characterize feminists. Coined and popularized by radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, Feminazi is a portmanteau of the ...
By the way, the definition of a "feminazi," as Rush uses the term, is any woman who has the unmitigated audacity to express an opinion he disagrees with.
1 year ago
LittleAntonov:
i have no idea if this has been said but im gunna say it(too lazy to read through it all) YOu cannot compare Obama's Policies ie universal health care etc.. to Hitler's Facist state as Fascism is on the extreme right of the political scale which is to say its about money not socialist reforms like sharing cars, money etc.. being a Canadian i can honestly say that Universal Health Care does not in anyway mean the government is a socialist state, ffs how can people be so dense, if anything if they wanted to protest in comparsion they should be using the hammer and sickle and even then its just as bad as way back in the day there were awful experiments on ppl and again death camps, work camps... If you want to protest think up something yourself because when you grossly exaggerate when comparing you just help promote ignorance, stupidity and all around disrespect for anyone and anything anybody did in the past. Now that being said everyone deserves their own opinions and views, somepeople should be taken and given a big smack and a stern talking to before they express them in such a vile, unimaginitive manner. 1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
Free speech should come with a cost. I'd say that LeonValentine deserves a good slap with a wet flounder.
1 year ago
LittleAntonov:
hmm i think flounders have too much mercury in them he might get poisoned
1 year ago
StuckInTheSixties:
I sprinkle mercury liberally on my flounder.
And no, that's not a euphemism ...
1 year ago
Karma:
ha
1 year ago
veronica:
Veronica has just been sent some video of white supremacist neo Nazis on YouTube,,,,and is pissed of that an invention such as the internet one which can communicate mans collective knowledge cab ne debased to peddle hate from russian skin heads and that her inbox would be polluted by such spam
1 year ago
Note:
Original blog comments may appear disjointed. This is because over time, some users that posted comments later deleted their Wireclub accounts. When users delete their accounts, their comments are (usually) deleted as well. Also, during the conversion to New Wireclub, many of the emoticons used have unfortunately disappeared.
This is Album #035.
This album was created on November 4, 2011.