So there’s a big uproar and accusations hate crimes out in West Hollywood, California where a homeowner hanged a mannequin that resembles Sarah Palin from his house. He claims it’s free speech and an artsy Halloween display, but some neighbors and community members think it’s downright disturbing, not right, and even call it a hate crime. This pisses me off. Sure, it’s offensive, and in bad taste, and probably unnecessary to hang effigies of Sarah Palin from one’s home, but a hate crime it’s not. In fact, in my opinion this is protected speech. And while I think as a decent human being he shouldn’t have hanged the mannequin with a noose in the first place, and should take it down to keep the neighbors happy, if he’s that set on keeping it, I say keep it, because that is his freedom to do, as guaranteed by the First Amendment, regardless of how tasteless or stupid it is. And what’s with people getting so worked up about these sorts of things? Again, yeah it’s stupid and tasteless, but is it really worth creating a big deal over? I mean, people are going to be stupid, and do what they do – we prove that all the time on this site, and allowing them to get to you so much, to make you so angry, really you’re just instigating more stupidity and fueling these idiot’s fires to do more stupid crap. Not only that, but the minute something like this is considered not protected speech because it is offensive or in bad taste, I’m moving to Canada. I think people just need to relax and stop being so damn sensitive and quick to get all bent out of shape.
Not surprisingly, the same thing has happened with Barack Obama, where an Ohio man took some rope and what looks like a white trash bag and hung it in his front yard tree and put a sign on it that says “Obama.” And, of course, people are upset about this too, calling it racist and all that. Now, it appears that the guy who did hang the ghost is in fact racist, however this specific action, to me, isn’t that bad. Not only do I feel it’s not that bad for all the same reasons as the Palin one (protected form of speech, more a political statement than a hate crime, and people just being stupid, and others overreacting to it) but this is not even in the shape of a human — it’s a ghost. Perhaps one could argue that the ghost of symbolic of the Ku Klutz Klan or something like that, but really, it’s a ghost with Obama’s name on it – in itself, not too offensive. Should the owner be forced to take it down? If it were most anybody else, I’d say no, but in this case I’d argue yes – because in the community he is known as a racist, and therefore I believe that it could be more likely that it is a form of speech that is promoting hate – not so much the ghost itself, but more the context, which in this case, is a racist’s front yard. If it were my front yard though, then no, I think it would be nothing more than a political statement, with no racial overtones at all, and should not be forced to take it down. I probably still would though, because, like the effigy of Sarah Palin, it’s in bad taste, and offensive to people, and I don’t subscribe to the ideas of “I’m going to do this just because I can” or “spite my neighbors just for the fun of it.” That, to me, is the ignorant and stupid part about all of this.
So to all of you retards who insist on offending people just for the fun of it (I suppose that might be us too – but we just call out peoples’ BS and stupidity) or get all worked up about people like this being idiots, stop being morons. Please. It makes Americans and America all look like retards too.
Slapbacks