Liam Neeson: Rape, Revenge, and Race Relations

[bennyboy]

No, actually.  I've said at least a few times that I thought black people should openly rebel against tyranny.  One of these days, I'd like to see a thousand pissed-off citizens take over a police station, for example, and let it be known what happens when a kid gets shot for no reason.  

I can quote several times in which I've said so in the past.

I'm not against black people.  I'm against internet trolls who hide behind a pseudonym and patronizing white PC fart-sniffers who treat black people like they can't stand on their own two feet.  It's gone beyond the brotherhood of a shared social contract, or an issue of fairness-- I think it very much is just another side of the racist coin: by putting on a big show of helping, these white knights for justice are reinforcing their own sense of entitlement and privilege, and condescendingly extending the umbrella of their much admired narcissism onto these poor victims (as they paint them).

More dissimulation. The fact that you consistently rage against people's legitimate concerns and automatically rebuke any non-black person who expresses the slightest empathy for others as a freakin' POS SJW suggests otherwise.

Raging, huh? Nah, if I was RAGING, I'd be typing in ALL-caps, like YOU.

I just happen to believe in free speech. I endorse the right of anyone, from any race, religion or background to say whatever you want. I even endorse your right to screech or call names.

In the cases where free speech is deeply offensive, I'm fine with people using THEIR free speech to respond-- or their fists if it's appropriate. But this case isn't that-- this case is just a slightly weird comment by an actor about some of the feelings he was portraying in his movie, and he was relating it to an experience 40 years ago. You have to try really really hard to be deeply offended by that.

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I get that. Satire doesn't always come through. However, you called it satire and then proceeded to double-down on the sentiment. Men don't need to sack up. (I'm guilty of thinking in terms of toxic masculinity myself.). They need to be whoever the fuck they are. It doesn't matter. A manly man has his merits. My father is one, and I'll tell ya, he really comes in handy. A man who's more comfortable with his feelings has his merits too. That said, his merits don't matter. Be who you are, whoever the fuck you are.

I dunno, Shell. My cousin has a lot to say about stuff, but he lives in his Mom's basement. I get out of bed every day in a country I hate but will almost certainly die in, go do a job that I haven't enjoyed in 10 years, and I put food on the table. If I need to cry, I do it on the inside, because there's no room in the budget for goddamned hankies.

And that's kind of a problem-- there are so many kids running around worrying about mememe, or looking for ways to express themselves, making sure their food is vegan or gluten free, making sure their $20 lattes are made with free-traded coffee, and generally filling space in the most annoying way possible that they are forgetting to do anything productive. How many lifetimes of manpower have been wasted just over an old man's description of an even that happened 40 years ago, when he was a different person?

As for toxic masculinity, I'd say this. When there's nothing that needs to be built, or dug out of the dirt, or shot out of the sky before it drops a bomb on your family, manly men are kind of the wrong tool for the job. I get that. You don't need chest-thumping in an ad campaign meeting. But what's going to happen when shit goes down, like say if China starts dropping bombs, and you have a bunch of super-sensitive guys running around with their little satchels and their shiny skin and their manicured nails?

On that day, I'd give 10 of those whiny fuckers for one of your Dad. You want young Liam manning a turret. And so would they.

And one more thing about that-- manly men are born that way, too. Their hormones are what they are. Their brains are what they are. It's a struggle with aggressive or sexual instincts that have no place, and with a personality set that is called "toxic," when that's how men have always been, and always will be. Is there any other group of people who are more castigated, or more unabashedly mocked, simply for being what they are born as?