Another confusion of free speech and consequence-free speech. He attacks Trump protesters like many others have by saying that they’re shutting down free speech, yet they’re also using their freedom of speech.
It feels like they’re just lamenting the loss of the bygone days when they thought people would listen to them when they spouted mansplaining things. It’s only that the consequences for not listening to them have disappeared as there’s a modicum more of equality and freedom in society now. Poor racist one-pecenters can’t hold the ears of the people who don’t like them because those people no longer fear them.
Ugh! All I got to say is “Shut up, Iggy Azalea! No one cares about your lame-ass music and it’s not because you’re white, it’s because you suck as a rapper.”
Billy’s career is in no danger of ending. That happened 20 or so years ago. At this point, he should be dropping racial epithets at every opportunity. It might put him back on someone’s radar.
I’m not at all sure what you mean there? Do you have a couple examples?
Are you thinking of Marilyn Manson maybe? The Pumpkins had some pretty solid lyrics, and didn’t tend at ALL towards misogyny or -isms… rather mocking them really. Most of his songs are about shitty narccisist/borderline relationships and being drug addled and idealistic. I’ve heard just about all of them, and not one racial epithet comes to mind.
That part’s a very special kind of selective outrage. Trump rally attendees literally assaulting people for expressing their free speech with Trump egging them on to do so? Not a peep.
It’s kinda bookended by lame stuff you can certainly shoot him down for, but I’d say he might just have something about the shallow and tokenistic way we deal with this shit.
He seems to be oblivious to the fact that words have meaning and the words he can’t say all mean “I’m racist”. And announcing yourself as a racist has consequences. So it’s not “one word” – it’s the announcement that’s behind that word. If don’t want to announce yourself as a racist – whether you really are one or not – just avoid saying certain things. This is simple stuff, and I imagine this guy isn’t a total idiot. Not sure what he’s up to unless he really is just being an asshole for one reason or another.
I get the feeling that at least for part of this, he was trying to discuss a phenomenon that has been brought up on Boing Boing before (http://boingboing.net/2015/04/01/jon-ronson-talks-about-the-sha.html). The disproportionate response to off hand offensive comments that would have at one point been swept under the rug or forgotten now have the potential to ruin careers overnight. The Onion had a slightly related article on one of their sister sites (http://www.clickhole.com/splitpic/if-george-clooney-ever-says-something-racist-use-s-4320) which captured the spirit of this mindset quite well. Not quite sure if this kind of response is inappropriate per se, but I suppose that part up to interpretation.
Based on what I see in my family, my mom’s generation was taught not to say racists things in public as children but still grew up with older relatives that were pretty openly racist. Rather than learning that racism was bad, many seemed to have learned that racist language was reserved for old people. Now they’re getting old and just can’t understand why people are getting mad at them for saying things that their grandparents used to say.
