Hate speech is not merely ‘unpopular’; it’s utterly corrosive to civilized society.
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Quite honestly, once you get a bit outside of the city, this sort of thing pops up more frequently than you might expect.
I used to drive the I-71 corridor between Cincinnati and Columbus Ohio quite a bit, and there’s been a barn right next to the freeway with a huge confederate flag on it for about 30 years. Not far from there are several gigantic popular flea markets, and among the booths selling old toys, “fell off a truck” electronics, Yankee candles, and Beanie Babies are tons of shirts, signs, and spare-tire covers with exactly the same sort of things on this guy’s billboard. Rural folks are often not shy about their racism.
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Inciting to violence? Sure. Just being a racist? I dunno, bro. My personal opinion allows a lot before I want the government to shut it down. Social ostracism is a fine option, though.
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How very privileged of you.
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Nice billboard you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.
No, really? You went there?
Jeez, peeps. I don’t like that billboard any more than you all do. I just really, really don’t want my government deciding what I can think. And it that means letting some fuck say some really nasty shit, but shit that does not meet the level of inciting violence or some other clear and present danger, then we have to put up with that.
We as a society need other ways to let the billboard owner know this is wrong, and that we do NOT agree, and that we DO not plan to allow these evil thoughts to shape our culture an more. Dialog like this is a small part of that.
Wouldn’t it, though?
No, bro; you did.
Maybe reread what you wrote, and try to imagine how glib it might sound to someone who isn’t straight, male, White, cisgender and/or able bodied.
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PA has been described as Philadelphia on one end, Pittsburgh on the other and Alabama in between. My whole family is from Pittsburgh, and I can say this is pretty accurate. And yeah, “Whites have rights?” seriously? When have we not had rights? It is really not a zero-sum game. Way too many cannot understand that.
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My daughter has that on a T-shirt she wears frequently. Gets some interesting comments!
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I’m originally from the Skook. Was thinking the same thing.
Maybe like IOT they can have it play PornHub!
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so to get free publicity, all i have to do is be hateful?
oh, right. that’s exactly how trump ran his campaign and arguably why he won ( though granted lost the popular vote. )
there’s no need to get the billboard owner’s take on things. the sign speaks for itself.
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Drive across the US American landscape on non-highways and marvel/vomit the number of confederate flags hanging on houses all over. North, South, East, and West.
Once from Thay always from Thay.
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I’d say there’s such a thing as “letting someone hang themselves by their own words”. They gave the guy about ten seconds to explain why this billboard isn’t racist (which is what he claimed when asked about it), and he made himself look as bad as you’d expect he would.
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First, it’s not on me to fix them. If the local newscast doesn’t want to do more with a news story then make them one way regardless of topic, that’s on them.
Second, I showed what they did wrong in a very clear fashion when you asked for it. So I will continue to say “fuck them” for doing a bad job.
It’s not an attack on journalism to say there should be a greater sense of importance to a story about race in America than to a story about a loud muffler mod on local cars.
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it isn’t working. giving a platform to white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxers only has encouraged and spread their messages.
profits are driven by eyeballs, so the media’s handling of this stuff makes sense. in terms of whether it’s good for the rest of us? it’s not. unacceptable behavior shouldn’t be rewarded with attention. that’s the whole point of the behavior in the first place.
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Read that as blacklash.
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There is an RV dealership in Washington state as you drive up I-5. They have a giant billboard that has some snarky GOP BS every week. When I commuted between Seattle and Portland I had to see it every week. Sooooo many fantasies of pulling off the road and using a rocket launcher on that fucker at 2am.
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