Liam Neeson: Rape, Revenge, and Race Relations

[Rev. Rye]

Looking through the controversy about Liam Neeson's recent interview... wow.





Just so we're absolutely clear, the scenario he described of what he was thinking for about a week was nothing short of monstrous, and if he actually went through with his murderous fantasies on some unsuspecting black person, it would be utterly indefensible even if he actually found the guy who raped his friend. And yet, as he described it, he made abundantly clear that he was ashamed he ever thought like that. He's describing how he briefly gave in to the racism that most white people end up struggling with, whether consciously or unconsciously, and at least made the attempt at trying to overcome it.

And, of course, there's a lot of outrage about the whole thing. On the one hand, of course what he admitted to was horrible. But to find that for so many his remorse about the whole ordeal means nothing (the fact that he framed his realisation in terms of revenge and not race relations probably has something to do with it, but given that Northern Ireland, where this appears to have happened, is the whitest nation on Earth might explain why his immediate thoughts were on the futility of revenge in general than on the specific racial dimension) concerns me if only because, well, if you want to actually stem the tide of racism, maybe giving people some incentive to change (as opposed to decrying them even as they apologise and express remorse) might actually help with that. 

The more I look at it, the more obvious it becomes that the zero-tolerance approach that many take to situations like this seems counterproductive. And now, we keep running the risk of becoming Chuck McGill, sabotaging a former crook's attempt at reforming because of that past, and inadvertently making sure he no longer sees a point in becoming a better person.





Accountability for horrible deeds done by unrepentant assholes is one thing, but what will punishing someone for thoughts decades ago they knew were wrong before they acted upon them accomplish?

[AFTT47]

We are flawed. That's something the Bible got right - albeit rather obvious.

Now, we need to deal with those known flaws as best we know how.

I won't pretend to know how to best deal with them, specifically.

I think it should be obvious that we should approach this problem the same way we should approach any other: logically. IMO, we should recognize our flaws and figure out ways to improve ourselves.

Doesn't seem that complicated in principle.

[Fake Messiah]

It rather seems that Liam tried to say that he was struggling with racism like someone who struggles with alcoholism.

[Rev. Rye]

Yeah, and it seems he figured out how horrible it was a lot quicker than many alcoholics do with their addictions.

[The Grand Nudger]

Or racists, for that matter. I think that the difference between committed and inadvertant racism lies in that moment of realization. When it dawns on you "fuck, why did I think that?". There are pretty much two ways it can go from that point forward, and down one of those paths there's no amount of incentivization that matters.

[Yonadav]

When the issue becomes too political rationality goes out the window. Liam Neeson is basically admitting to being a normal male in a culture where cracking heads has been a pretty common practice. Do you think that some Ulster heads wouldn't be randomly cracked in response to a nice Catholic girl being assaulted by a Protestant perp?

So Neeson spent a week being an angry irrational racist because he was outraged at the crime that had been committed against someone that he deeply cared about, and the only thing that he knew about the perpetrator was that they were black, and he just wanted to lash out at anyone who generally matched that description. Yeah, that's totally normal. Why the hell would we pretend that it's not? He recognized what a nasty rabbit hole he was going to go down, and he stepped back from it like your average sane person.

But it's a politically super-charged issue, so bring on the sanctimonious libtards.

[The Grand Nudger]

One could hope that looking for some darkie to lynch is less common today than it was 40 years ago, even if "cracking heads" is as common as ever. More than anything, it's an example of a celeb stepping in brand damaging shit. IDK why people rarely think of celebs as people with all of peoples faults and weirdness and regrets and misdeeds past and present, but it's a thing.

[brewer]

Sounds like he would have targeted any race/nationality given the circumstances. 

Was he a racist on some level previously? I don't know. Was he a temporary racist, definitely. Can we substitute temporary insanity for the racism, maybe. 

Wanting vengeance can motivate many undesirable behaviors.

[The Grand Nudger]

Black bastard sounds pretty specific, lol.

[paulpablo]

I don't know what the backlash is but if he's saying he once thought it and doesn't anymore I don't see what the big deal is.

If a black guy said he once wanted to kill will white people but killed no one and now he's remorseful then there's nothing much else to say about it.

I'm assuming it was a long time ago, if it was last week that he did it then yeh I can understand the outrage a lot more.