(July 19, 2019 at 11:47 pm)BryanS Wrote:(July 19, 2019 at 7:44 pm)Belaqua Wrote: Was it OK for Christopher Hitchens to say nasty things about recently-deceased Jerry Falwell, because we don't approve of Falwell?
Ummm...the person who died that you decided was mean without knowing him was not named Christopher Hitchens. So your point is what, exactly?
My point is exactly what I said it was earlier.
These days, it appears that if you no longer approve of a person, then you have no duty to be kind or empathetic to that person.
Hitchens thought Falwell was bad, so he showed no empathy or kindness to Falwell, his relatives or friends. I'd be interested to hear if anyone here thought Hitchens was wrong to write those unkind things.
Where we draw the line is maybe the point. When is it OK to stop showing empathy and kindness?
I think some people are very quick to draw that line, and very quick to decide that other people deserve to be treated badly. And I think that if the target of the nastiness is unpopular, we can spend a lot of time and effort being nasty to that person and still be called kind by our friends.
