But when does it cross the line? In my opinion it crosses the line when a site like Free Republic, which is a highly popular conservative website, allows it's readers to comment and post racist slurs and incredibly offensive remarks about the Obama's 11 year old daughter Malia.
Recently Malia was photographed wearing a shirt with a peace symbol on it. The Free Republic commenters, or as they're known as "Freepers" made all sorts of ugly comments and insults about the 11 year old, including calling her "ghetto street trash" a "typical street whore" and wondered "When will she get her first abortion?".
Beyond the pale? Yeah, I think so.
And the reaction by the Freepers? To attack the people who exposed this. The FR site allowed the comments and threads to be on their site for a full day until it was complained about. And they reacted by attacking the person who complained, posting their email address encouraging their unhinged and racist readers to flood the person's email box with more of the same.
This is where the Republican movement is right now folks. There are some very well meaning and very polite and respectful people in the Republican party. There is also a huge side section of this party that is outraged at the election of the country's first Black president, and have lost their f*cking minds.
You can tell by them releasing the "Obama Waffles" box with the stereotyped black caricature. Or them sending an email out with the picture of the "Obama Bucks" featuring pictures of Fried Chicken, Watermelon and ribs on it. You can tell by the conservatives forwarding emails with pictures of Obama with a bone through his nose dressed as an African tribesman.
Or those who constantly put forth the false meme that Obama is a Muslim, as if that's supposed to be some vicious slur about someone. Ben Affleck had a great point when he was on Bill Maher's show last year during the election. He pointed out that when that woman stood up at John McCain's rally and said that she thought Obama was "an Arab" that McCain simply said, "No, he's a good guy". He pointed out (video below) that "Arab" and "Good person" are not antithetical.
But that doesn't matter for the Freepers and their ilk. They will use any and every disgusting vile racist attack against Obama and think nothing of it. And not only will they smile while doing it, but they'll also feign outrage that anyone would be offended by it. And then they'll attack you and post your personal information so you can be attacked as well.
These people are what's wrong with this country. These people are the bane of good people's existence and they need to be gotten rid of. Not violently, of course, but they need to just go away. They need to take their backwards ass thinking and just shut up about it.
Dissent is a wonderful thing. This President has given us many things to be upset about so far, but attacks on his 11 year old daughter, calling her a whore and "Ghetto street trash" and referring to Michelle Obama as "Mammy" is way out of line.
But you know there is a silver lining to this whole thing. At least we know how these people think. We know what they are. They've exposed their ignorance and their knuckle dragging philosophy for the world to see.
It's like the saying goes, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know." Print this post
2 comments:
Any politician who chooses to place his child or children in the public spotlight will be running the risk of subjecting that child or children to caustic comments and judgments from the hard left or the hard right. This is a given and the responsibility of such an action should be owned by the politician. There is a reason why David Letterman never or seldom lets his own child be photoed or appear in public. Barack Obama , himself, bashed Hillary by flipping her off as seen on public video. Even Michelle Obama has displayed some rather hateful remarks . Neither is hardly a model for kindness with regard to their opponents. If you step into the boxing ring , then expect the possibility of a hit!!!
Well I agree with a few things you said. Public figures know they'e going to get stupid and sometimes over the line comments thrown their way. Children should be off limits, unfortunately it rarely works out like that. Chelsea Clinton got some really hateful comments thrown her way by conservatives, Carter's daughter got some abusive comments as well.
The Bush daughters got some comments thrown their way, although they were a lot older. 11 year olds should be off limits, no matter what party they're from. THEY did not make the choice to be a public figure. THEY are NOT public figures, their parents are.
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