Comments on: Anonymous declares religious war on Westboro Baptist Church

By: Expatriot23

Expatriot23 — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 06:07:00 +0000

>implying Chanology was well thought out

By: Zahira Rodriguez-Torres

Zahira Rodriguez-Torres — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:30:00 +0000

I agree it is just a show…

By: Funk Daddy

Funk Daddy — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:03:00 +0000

Then my point stands C W, she would support picketing the funerals of children for no particular reason.

You have some strange heroes.

By: amuseamuse

amuseamuse — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:41:00 +0000

I’m so glad this is a thing.

By: amuseamuse

amuseamuse — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:37:00 +0000

C W: Coulter may well be an actor playing a role but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s decided to get paid to debase our culture, hinder productive dialogue, lower our standing in the eyes of our fellow nations, and make of herself a mocking husk of a human person. What one chooses to do with the lot they are given in life determines who they are. She has chosen to do something vile; therefore, she is precisely as horrible as her personal brand would indicate.

If you know her well enough to know what she’s like outside of her brand, please pass along the message that the distinction is not only meaningless, but does not exist outside her own head.

By: Cathleen Gilliland

Cathleen Gilliland — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:09:00 +0000

So I realize we all entiled to our opinion but I am rather sure if I made a public threat like this, the cyber police,homeland security and several other law enforcement agencies when be dogging my movements. I understand they are just seeking attention from another action but I am willing to bet there is at least 1 zealot among there ranks. Give it a rest dudes! There is no glory in death, your just worm food. And if you truly believe your soul will transcend to make you closer to God – hah! Playing God does not make one a God.

By: nowimnothing

nowimnothing — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:04:00 +0000

@BillStewart2012:disqus I disagree, I am sure to him it is just sinners killing sinners. A win, win in his book. As crazy as it seems there really are people out there with these kinds of beliefs. They think natural disasters and tragedies are divine judgement and that we are in the end times. They read the bible and see a vengeful, jealous God who is perfectly fine with sacrificing the innocent just to make a point.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:53:00 +0000

Well we’re talking about what, the 80′s here? In a time of friction and terrorism and a seriously conservative government. This was, I believe, before the UK was subject to the EU’s freedom of expression laws and certainly before the human rights act – so a bit moot, as what you describe also isn’t hate speech (is hate speech really that difficult a concept for people to comprehend?).

Although I wouldn’t necessarily put the UK out there as the bastion of perfect free speech law anyway, even now; there are probably better European countries to single out for that – I’ve just never seen the blanket law of the US to be superior, or even more ‘free’; it’s flawed, but like the gun laws it’s enshrined in the constitution and so treated like gospel.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 05:02:00 +0000

In your country, defending freedom of speech necessarily involves not only defending offensive scum, but also defending nice people who say things the government or other important people don’t like, and anything in between.

But as long as your laws are relatively well-defined, and have some mechanism for illegally harassed subjects to be compensated for it, trolls like this can figure out the boundary, stay on the legal side of it, and piss off enough people that there’s somebody to sue. That may involve being less offensive than they are over here, but back around 1970s a friend of mine was in the UK on a high school football team trip and got arrested for singing “Give Ireland Back To The Irish”, which was banned in those days.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:52:00 +0000

They don’t need you to defend them to the death; enough of them are lawyers that they can successfully sue just about anybody who attacks them illegally.

What they really don’t want is you telling your town council “no, you can’t ban them, it’s what they really want, because then they’ll sue you and win.”

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:48:00 +0000

Fred doesn’t care if it’s true or not, and you can’t tell from interviews with anybody in the church how much of it they believe. He does probably hate gay people, and certainly disrespects everybody else, but what he really cares about is whether _you_ believe he hates you enough to attack him or get your town to ban him (both of which can be profitable to him), or at least enough to give him free publicity by complaining about him.

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:40:00 +0000

At least Fred actually does hate a number of the groups of people they picket, and they certainly disrespect everybody in the world even if they don’t care about all of them enough to actually hate them, but if they actually happen to hate the people they’re picketing, that’s just gravy on the trolling business. Do they actually believe that God is letting Muslims kill American soldiers because he’s mad that America tolerates gay people? I doubt it.

By: Sekino

Sekino — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:29:00 +0000

We have hate speech laws in Canada that I’m pretty sure would cover these folks’ arses (they were already denied entry before). While it sometimes lead to a few controversies (what doesn’t?), we’re not, you know, Eritrea.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:59:00 +0000

The rule of law is a great idea and all, but it doesn't seem to be going too well lately. I'm starting to think the only way forward for justice is crowdsourcing.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:53:00 +0000

I generally disapprove of vigilantism, but this is great fun.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Required reading for anyone trying to make sense of US political insanity, and to a lesser extent, anywhere tainted by authoritarian idiocy.

By: benher

benher — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:17:00 +0000

Nathan, have you ever read any of the interviews with any of his escaped/reformed kids? This is the first link that came up, but there are numerous interviews:
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/25/son_of_a_bigot/

Fred really does believe it.

By: edkedz

edkedz — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:01:00 +0000

Yeah, yeah, yeah; you’re a paragon of stick-up-the-ass consistency, we get it.

Not these shitbags, sorry.

By: CognitiveDissident

CognitiveDissident — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:55:00 +0000

As horrible as Westboro is, let’s not ask for something that might be worse. I’d rather have a law that deals with this kind of extreme religious hate that WBC spews than potential Orwellian religious vigilantes running amuck (assuming that this isn’t all bluster) because they’ve been offended. Picketing funerals of dead children or soldiers is akin to crying fire in a theatre, so the law should address it. Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it/regret it. (apologies to Metallica)

By: C W

C W — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:25:00 +0000

“which has a moral connotation that just doesn’t apply to these scum.”

I’d say that anyone who tries to remove my civil liberties because they dislike my speech deserves what they get.

By: C W

C W — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:22:00 +0000

Coulter is an actor playing a very well-paying role. She dates Dems from time to time, only her target demographic can’t tell that she’s not as horrible as her personal brand would indicate.

By: edkedz

edkedz — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:03:00 +0000

”Legally entitled to,” maybe, but not “deserve,” which has a moral connotation that just doesn’t apply to these scum.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:26:00 +0000

Find me the “sensible” distinction between the WBC doing a peaceful demonstration at a miltary funeral, and me doing a peaceful demonstration in front of the holiday creche on public property in my home town.

It would be more like me carrying a picket sign on the public sidewalk outside your office announcing that you fuck your own children. But I’m sure that you’d defend my right to speak freely on that issue. And if it causes you any pain and distress, who gives a shit? Because you’re going to Hell anyway, right?

By: level

level — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:54:00 +0000

WBC is to Christians as Crackers is to Hackers.

By: Lupus_Yonderboy

Lupus_Yonderboy — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:53:00 +0000

I think that it would be cooler if we saw a montage of all their tax forms at some end-of-year show.

By: Lupus_Yonderboy

Lupus_Yonderboy — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:51:00 +0000

This is also what I’ve always heard as well. Hearsay, rumor, don’t-believe-everything-you-read, YMMV, etc. but it sounds about on target to me.

By: Gilbert Wham

Gilbert Wham — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:30:00 +0000

^^^This.

By: C W

C W — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Occupy challenges authority in a different way. WBC doesn’t change any systems, doesn’t affect business, doesn’t attack politicians, mostly hurts fee-fees.

Plus, very few Occupy members are lawyers with the background and finances to sue the city for unconstitutional behavior. That, and religious beliefs are more protected than protest activity.

By: C W

C W — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:27:00 +0000

He does take particular… delight in talking about the mechanics, but they glomp onto most sacred cows. They loooooooooooove targeting the military and other Christian sects because they can get the charismatics and Republicans riled up as well.

By: artbyjcm

artbyjcm — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:09:00 +0000

I hate how occupy people get arrested, but westboro baptist get to use freedom of speech? I wish it would at least be equal across the board.