bragger you are…
Well at least the owner of the sign, one John Placek, knows his place.
If you read the article, at the end, he admits he is “an American period.”
More than that - I think people aren’t just revealing their bigotry, but becoming more bigoted in the current climate. I just saw some survey that showed that among young Republicans, support for LGBT rights dropped 10% in 3 years. It’s possible that the missing 10% simply stopped identifying as Republicans (I hope that’s the case), but it’s also possible they’ve changed their views. Other indicators suggest people are changing views - the Overton Window for certain issues has shifted, places that host Trump rallies see their hate crimes increase by more than double, etc.
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I think he’s more like an American colon.
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No way., really? Redneckistan racist? sarcasm
They showed four slides: one saying “whites have rights too”, one saying “something something Jussie Smollet is bad”, one saying “these black people are racist too”, and one saying “there’s only one race: humanity.” They managed to skip over all the most racist ones, especially since at least one between “whites have rights too” and the Jussie Smollet one literally cannot be aired on television without blocking out a part of the message. So all they did is contextualize an old racist public ramblings in the standard way that should be criticized: minimize what was done, make people that find it offensive seem like they are overreacting, and give extra uncritical time to the person making the racist ramblings. They did this all in an effort to weigh two things with equal weight in a discussion. And that’s without going into why it’s on the news now since it’s obviously not a recent addition to the local area.
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Ok. Just so I’m clear, are you arguing that the news shouldn’t have covered the story whatsoever, or that they shouldn’t have given the owner of the sign a voice on-air? Seems like either one would be abdicating their job as journalists.
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No doubt he’d be very uncomfortable if someone outside his probably narrow definition of American said “I’m an American period too.”
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me neither. this would be an EXCELLENT opportunity for some local to practice their aim with their trebuchet.
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Looks like he’s gotten a cease and desist for use of Peanuts characters.
Also, the billboard apparently sits on Fire Department land, so folks are calling up the FD and complaining.
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There’s more options than the most bog-standard cookie-cutter presentation of an issue, and that an issue like intensely racist brightly glowing billboards should have more effort put into it. Because the standard presentation filtered through their standards department and put out fast enough to match people noticing it online is doing a disservice.
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Cool beans! Feel free to offer concrete suggestions apart from dismissing them by saying “fuck them” and saying they should try harder.
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From the videos, it looks like it’s at the corner of the lot at a street corner.
The borough should check the width of their road variance. They probably own the land out from the middle of the road for quite a distance. Also check the road safety laws over road-side signs. Animated/flashing signs that close to the road are restricted in many jurisdictions.
Someone already vandalized the sign by cutting some wires. (See video)
“I can tell you categorically I am not a racist, but we need to have a conversation about racism,” Placek said.
Placek says he has seven grandchildren. Three of them are black, two Hispanic and two are white.
And what awkward family dinners those must be.
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The fuck it is.
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You got that right. The First Amendment is there to protect speech, which includes speech you DO NOT agree with. It would not be much of a thing if it only protected speech that was popular.
But there are hate speech exceptions for a reason.
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Western PA resident all my life. Know Tarentum well. Sounds like a pretty typical experience.
Interacting with hundreds of these types throughout my lifetime has taught me one thing about these folks…
they are some of the dumbest, most ignorant imbeciles you will ever possibly meet.
It’s not just Fox News. It’s an entire “bunker down” mentality. There are people who refuse to drive 15 miles into Pittsburgh because that’s the “big city” and they are afraid of having to park their cars. Their only knowledge of African Americans mainly comes from local news reports on random shootings and street violence.
Which, of course, they use to justify their racists opinions. Although they never seem to remember incidents when some group of sick deranged white people torture a mentally ill person to death, or burn their famiily alive inside a dilapidated trailer.
Yea, those happened.
If you live here long enough, you come to realize that there isn’t much to take seriously about these idiots. They are morons, and if you have any sense you avoid interacting with them as much as possible.
At the end of the day nobody really gives them much credence because they are so tied up trying to save money doing a diy transmission fix on their beat to shit 1992 chevy Silverado they don’t have much time or ambition to do anything else. I’m not saying they are all harmless, because I know some off them work up the courage to do some nasty shit. But it’s a far cry from a race war.
It’s the stupidest of the stupid, and the worst part is that they can vote.
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I love how the Era of Trump has distorted our relation to Free Speech. There are some things you used to be ashamed to say. Now, people fall over themselves to lack-of-virtue-signal, showing how crap a person they are because it might, somewhere, trigger some libs. It’s all a consequence. of electing a sleazy braggart who thinks bragging about his vices makes him a ‘straight shooter’ emboldening a similar generation of rude solipsists Yes, you have the First Amendment right to do this, but WHY WOULD YOU? Similarly, people who believe in racial equality don’t put up signs to shout about it, just like Atheists don’t go around America firebombing churches: The era of the Performative A-Hole is on us, and it will not go well between now and whenever Trump steps down/is beaten at the ballot box/dies.
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Agreed on all counts, and yes, I live here too.
Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh on one side, Philly on the other, and the most idiotic, racist part of Arkansas in the middle. And Amish people, who I don’t necessarily have any opinion about.
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emo_pinata did offer a concrete suggestion - the news story should have shown the slides that people were most upset about instead of editing them out.
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