Tag: bigotry

queeranarchism:

afloweroutofstone:

Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done more to make our generation crueler than nearly anyone else, because they can get away with it under the guise of “this is satire, duh”, not realizing that poorly-done satire only reinforces the cultural forces it is meant to mock. When 13 year-old-kids are watching South Park, they aren’t tuning in to the little infinitesimally small lessons supposedly being taught, they’re laughing at Timmy being severely disabled, they’re laughing at sexual harassment, they’re laughing at child abuse, they’re laughing at anti-semitism, they’re laughing at people who have had sex reassignment surgery.

And the “satire” is so often pathetically weak. There isn’t a single nativist in this entire country who can’t laugh at a “der takin er jerbs” joke, because those jokes don’t actually rebut or mock the arguments made by people opposed to immigration. It’s just saying a common political phrase in a funny voice. Is that how low the bar for “satire” has been set? There’s occasionally more effective satire on the show, but not nearly enough for it to be defended on the basis of its value as satire.

But if you try to explain any of this to die-hard South Park fans, they’ll completely blow it off. They think that the fact the show upsets me simply means that the show has accomplished its purpose, never actually questioning whether or not that purpose is a worthy one. That’s why the show is so insidious: it wraps itself in this cynical layer of self-containment that prevents it from ever being pointed out for what it is: a detriment to the type of society that any decent person wants to see. South Park is far more dangerous than the Westboro Baptist Church, because South Park is something that people accept and defend.

Yes. And there’s a whole genre of shows, news websites and media out there now whose ‘satire’ amount to LOL IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE ITS OFFENSIVE. That is not harmless, that is actively creating (and has created over the last decades) a culture in which bigots can thrive and feel like they never have to defend themselves.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Being a bigot and spouting bigotry is not illegal.  It is protected under the rights of free speech.  Even preaching bigotry is usually protected speech.  However.  

Targeted harassment is NOT free speech. 

Banning someone who supports and engages in the negation of other human lives isn’t an offense to freedom, it affirms it.

Freedom of speech does not include the right to terrorise other humans, to bully, to create an unsafe environment, to silence others.

Those who endorse a hateful style, who gather followers to engage in such fashion are no protectors of freedom, they would deny us all.

We can’t allow the rise to power of those who seek control using the endorsement of hate as a righteous cause.

Targeted harassment is NOT free speech.

Terrorism isn’t free speech, either.

Fighting back against targeted harassment is not reverse harassment. 

disabilityhealth:

I know that there’s a lot of uncertainty and distress in regards to the UK voting to leave the EU, but the ageism I’ve seen in response is pretty alarming.

In case you’ve missed it, there have been many people calling for voting rights to be taken away from the elderly “because they’re not going to be here as long.”

A person’s worth is not measured in how much longer they have to live (would you take voting away from terminally ill people???) and oftentimes the older voters still have 20+ years left to live. 

I don’t think anybody votes for things because they’re old and therefore don’t have to live with the consequences. They vote the way they do because that’s what they genuinely believe (whether it is right or not). 

Discussing the removal of voting rights from one group of people only opens the door to a broader conversation as to “who deserves to vote.” (Which hasn’t worked out so well in the past.)

Disagreeing with the older generation is not a reason to strip them of their rights. It’s a reason to go out to vote in force.

Plenty of young people voted Leave.  

Plenty of young people who wanted us to remain didn’t bother to vote.  

You can be a xenophobic, racist, ignorant bigot at ANY age.