Phil Robertson "Fired"

[D'Snowth]

Not to sound like a fangirl here, but I don't consider following South Park foolish.

Neither does Caroll Spinney.

 

[Slackbot]

I'm just quoting Star Wars, take it up with them.

 

[CensoredAlso]

LOL, touché.

To D'Snowth: What did Caroll Spinney say?

Sorry the quote function isn't working on my computer today for some reason.

 

[D'Snowth]

He said SOUTH PARK is just about the only thing he actually watches on TV, because it's so outrageous that he loves it.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Wow, cool, thanks! Yeah that's always been my feeling as well. That's oddly reassuring, lol.

 

[jvcarroll]

I think what's getting lost is how Mr. Robertson characterizes all women over 20 as pick pockets and schemers.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yes, I will grant you he is a chauvinist. That kind you find at your family gatherings who thinks it's hilarious to make fun of his wife while she's sitting right there. I'm sure guys like that really do love their wives, but I never can understand why they think such behavior is OK.

 

[jvcarroll]

Reporters will probably continue to unearth gems like this for months to come, some legitimate, others not so much. That's the way it goes when a famous person sticks a foot in their mouth. There's still a lot of hate he's getting, and I'm not saying he does or doesn't deserve it, but I've pretty much taken his pseudo apology toward LGBT people and moved on from that. I just wish more Christians would use this as a learning moment on how to respectfully treat people who fall outside of their belief system.

On another note, the Pope still apposes gay adoption. That's no surprise to me. He's still been rather respectful toward us even though he believes differently. That doesn't mean he can't speak-up. It just means he's toned down the useless rhetoric and stated his beliefs with civility. That's really all I'd ask of anyone. The Golden Rule should apply to all.

 

[CensoredAlso]

The Pope is trying to be more diplomatic than his predecessors and that's good, though I don't see big, significant changes happening any time soon. Frankly I think American Catholics have no idea how totally different our mentality is compared to the Vatican.

 

[Drtooth]

People say stupid, foolish things everyday. We can't be so thin skinned about it. We teach children to watch what they say and punish them when they don't because they are young and still learning. But you can't treat an grown adult like that. If they never learned manners, that's their problem, not yours.

There's a good point in that. What he says shouldn't matter, except that he's a celebrity. There's that whole "media culture" crap debate in here as well. However, he is a public figure, and public figures that say stupid, hateful, backward, disagreeable, and anything that characterizes them as a humongous D-bag are prone to backlash. That is our freedom of speech as much as it is for him to condemn everyone around him. Everything he said was offensive, and it's our right to be offended by it.

That said, again this is all huge disproportionate retribution. Free speech or not, words can screw up your career. Not because of a lack of freedom of speech, but when you're a beloved figure or the owner of a company, saying something idiotic can cause people to turn on you. Some jerk that owned a yoga pants (or something) store defended the crappiness of his product and blamed women's figures (essentially calling everyone who bought his products fat), and that huge backlash caused him to have to step down. Then there was that movie critic that, instead of giving a review of a movie, wrote about how fat and disgusting Melissa McCarthy was. No one takes him seriously anymore, can't tell if his career is over, but he got his but handed to him one way or another.

Then there's the case of Michael Richards. While there's no defending that at all, it came from a place of anger and passive aggressiveness. He was being heckeled, and he responded in the worst blow up ever. Now, while there legitimately was a group of people who were offended, most people thought this was the funniest thing ever. And when he tried to give a heartfelt apology, it was even funnier. This was the humiliation conga. A C-list celebrity who had one memorable role (two if you're totally into UHF) who hasn't had a legitimate gig in years who gets no respect at a comedy club because his material was bad being constantly heckled by 2 audience members in particular who went into this passive aggressive hateful tirade in a shabby excuse to try to get back at them and shut them up who actually did feel bad about it and completely lost whatever career he could have had right then and there giving an apology that seems like a Michael Scott joke on the Office. Admit it... you felt bad for this guy but watched Seinfeld awkwardly about it.And yet, he was able to make fun of himself on the Curb your Enthusiasm (which he was only hired as part of an in show Seinfeld reunion). If you have humility like that, you at least know you're wrong and did something bad.

So yeah. Phil is worse than Michael Richards.