August 26, 2010
damndanm: eeb: This article from the New York Times has officially scared the shit out of me. How do people like this actually exist?! How do they successfully live to adulthood with this much hate in them? I truly believe that hateful people like this don’t successfully live out their adulthood. Bill Hicks used to joke that when Jesse Helms finally died we’d find the skins of young children drying in his attic. (Sadly, that didn’t come true. Maybe it was simply because Mr. Hicks wasn’t around to investigate.) Yes, he was being hyperbolic—he was a comedian, it was a sizable part of his job—and this was at least twenty years ago, but his point that anyone so far to the right has to be hiding something dark still stands. Ditto anyone equally far left. Unlike faith or belief, fervent, black-and-white, hard-nosed zealotry almost universally stems from darkness. One can try to replace it or tamp it down, but it’s there. This man’s ignorance and fear, and the ignorance and fear of the (too) many like him, are no doubt a product of something else. And they likely manifest themselves in other areas of his life, too. I bet his kids could tell you some stories. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make generalizations about some other subset of humanity. This dude lives in my town. 1.  Mr. Jones, 58, a former hotel manager with a red face and a white handlebar mustache, argues that as an American Christian he has a right to burn Islam’s sacred book because “it’s full of lies.” And in another era, he might have been easily ignored, as he was last year when he posted a sign at his church declaring “Islam is of the devil.” Mr. Jones does not have the right to burn the Koran because it’s “full of lies.” He has the right to burn it because he lives in America and the act of burning of the Koran is most likely considered an act of free speech. 2. How much longer are we going to let the smallest groups of fringe society members dictate the public record?  3. The NYT failed to mention Mr. Jones’ church ran into so much financial difficulty not because of the Koran burning, but because he and and his wife failed to keep the church separate from their for-profit vintage furniture company. 

damndanm:

eeb:

This article from the New York Times has officially scared the shit out of me. How do people like this actually exist?! How do they successfully live to adulthood with this much hate in them?


I truly believe that hateful people like this don’t successfully live out their adulthood. Bill Hicks used to joke that when Jesse Helms finally died we’d find the skins of young children drying in his attic. (Sadly, that didn’t come true. Maybe it was simply because Mr. Hicks wasn’t around to investigate.) Yes, he was being hyperbolic—he was a comedian, it was a sizable part of his job—and this was at least twenty years ago, but his point that anyone so far to the right has to be hiding something dark still stands. Ditto anyone equally far left. Unlike faith or belief, fervent, black-and-white, hard-nosed zealotry almost universally stems from darkness. One can try to replace it or tamp it down, but it’s there. This man’s ignorance and fear, and the ignorance and fear of the (too) many like him, are no doubt a product of something else. And they likely manifest themselves in other areas of his life, too. I bet his kids could tell you some stories.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make generalizations about some other subset of humanity.

This dude lives in my town.

1. 

Mr. Jones, 58, a former hotel manager with a red face and a white handlebar mustache, argues that as an American Christian he has a right to burn Islam’s sacred book because “it’s full of lies.” And in another era, he might have been easily ignored, as he was last year when he posted a sign at his church declaring “Islam is of the devil.”

Mr. Jones does not have the right to burn the Koran because it’s “full of lies.” He has the right to burn it because he lives in America and the act of burning of the Koran is most likely considered an act of free speech.

2. How much longer are we going to let the smallest groups of fringe society members dictate the public record? 

3. The NYT failed to mention Mr. Jones’ church ran into so much financial difficulty not because of the Koran burning, but because he and and his wife failed to keep the church separate from their for-profit vintage furniture company. 

11:09am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZlJibyyUSKE
(Notes: 11)
  
  1. steampoweredmedia reblogged this from damndanm and added:
    This dude lives in my town. 1....Mr. Jones does not have the right to burn the Koran...
  2. damndanm reblogged this from larrysellers and added:
    I truly believe that hateful...out their adulthood. Bill Hicks used
  3. -roger-dodger- said: I want to stand next to this guy with a sign that says “handlebar mustaches are for ignorant cunts.” This fuckwad wants a holy war. Seriously. He’s itching for it. Get back in your fucking Crusades-era time machine, you magenta-face ballbag.
  4. larrysellers posted this