Mel Gibson's antisemitic rant

Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten, who happens to be Catholic, had this to say in an article published on August 5, 2006:

[Excerpts]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Aug 2 2006, 12:09 PM) [snapback]296471[/snapback]</div>

This was in response to:

"And yes, it is not a crime to be an anti-Semite. It is only immoral."

I'm learning a lot about you folks on this thread.

Morality is 100% subjective. Hmmm.... Even dismissing the religious opposition to this statement, it still seems to me we have a culture that gives some objectivity. American culture (not Islamic, Japanese, Mayan or whatever) is the basis for our daily interactions with other Americans. It isn't well defined, like British Common Law, but, like they say about pornography, "I know it when I see it."

Our culture allows freedom of speech but you exercise it absolutely at your peril. Humans tend to be a little flaky about this. Flip somebody the bird and ace him out of the parking spot he was patiently waiting for, both valid freedom choices, and don't be surprised if your Driftwood Pearl gets keyed in the next half-hour. You can scream, "Foul!" all day but you know why it happened.

One of my instructors, some years ago, showed up a little late for our simulator lesson. He told me that he saw a cop run a stop sign out on a country road in Nowhere, Kansas, and he chased the cop down to tell him that, unless he was in pursuit of a criminal, which he clearly wasn't, he had to obey the laws just like us civilians. I asked him what happened next and he said the cop rolled up his window and just drove away. I told him how lucky he was. In some parts of the country, the major qualification for being a cop is owning a gun. (This instructor latter had to resign due to heart troubles. Surprised?)

In other words, you have to learn when to keep your stupid mouth shut sometimes. While you're exercising your rights, you're liable to get decked by his left.

If I get stopped by a Black policeman, for example, after a few glasses of wine, I guess I've got the right to start spouting off all kind of vitriol, but I think, if I had the least amount of common sense, I wouldn't. Unless of course I thought myself on a level where I imagined I could do almost anything, and could get even if anybody crossed me in the slightest. I still wouldn't spout off any of this bigoted hatred because I don't believe in that stuff. But IF I did, I suppose the wine, and my almighty attitude might allow the truth of my soul to pour forth. In such moments you get insights about folks.

Other cultures allow hatred of one group by another. It's even established in law at times. A friend of mine of Korean ancestry, who had parents that were born in Japan, as he was, was legally barred from Japanese citizenship. I don't need to go to other cultures or Nazis to help me with this. I saw the South, from my birth up to the sixties, keep their majority population drinking from dirty, uncooled water fountains while I got a cold fresh drink at the gleaming machine across the hall that said, "For Whites Only."

Morality is subjective, huh? I don't want folks who believe that living next door to me. I could never trust them not to always define their morality as being identical to their self interest.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Aug 2 2006, 12:31 PM) [snapback]296483[/snapback]</div>

Go on, call me a cynic. Oh yeah, an ACTOR giving a Yom Kippur sermon because he has been whacked about being an anti-semite. Oh yeah, that's sure gonna make me go to THAT shul and daven with him because I KNOW he understands about repentance. Especially on Yom Kippur. And isn't worried AT ALL about his box office income.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ Aug 2 2006, 08:49 AM) [snapback]296308[/snapback]</div>

Expressing an opinion is not a hate crime in the United States, and even racist, bigoted, sexist, homophobic, anti-sectarian and anti-semitic rants are allowed under our First Amendment. The funny thing about the First Amendment, the wrong people keep taking advantage of it! But in Canada you can have your speech "pre-censored" if you try to broadcast an opinion that is considered "hate speech".

And the idea that my opinions may "inflame" someone else is a handy way to justify limiting free speech. But it isn't going to fly ... we can say what we want, as long as it isn't "fire" in a crowded theater.

Here's my analysis of why the media is so impressed with this story: its a classic case of the dichotomy the press loves to play up. Here's the guy that produced a movie that people were very worried about setting off anti-semitic events, and nothing happened. Gibson produced a movie that was close to the Gospel accounts, removed the portion that could be misconstrued as supporting the "blood libel" theology that saw persecution against Jews in past times, and had a hit on his hands. He looked like a saint to the people who saw the movie, and knew how he persevered against his critics. Now, the saint is revealed to be an anti-semite, corrupt to the core with the anti-semitic ramblings we usually associate with bitter old men jealous of their more successful Jewish neighbors.

Like all Greek Tragedies, this one plays well. Plus, he looks better in a mug shot than most of us look on our best days.

A commentator on Fox News Watch said that this will play out with Mel's "redemption" on Oprah in a few weeks with an apology much like the one earlier in this thread. I have another prediction; Mel will announce that he is teaming up with Spielberg to help finish the Holocaust Project, or will work with the Simon Weisenthal Center (which is how Arnold Swarchen-whatever redeemed himself).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Aug 6 2006, 04:22 PM) [snapback]298728[/snapback]</div>

Seems to me Gibson should be sitting with the congregation and listening to the Rabbi give the sermon if he's going to learn anything. In fact, he should probably attend some classes or instruction on the weeks preceeding the service if he's to really get the message.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Aug 6 2006, 11:03 PM) [snapback]298903[/snapback]</div>

Yup. Just don't expect me to be in the same sanctuary, please. The guy makes movies for a living--he has a high tolerance for boredom and/or what does not interest him. Gibson has spent at least a couple of years of his life making his opinions about Jews eminently clear, drunk and/or sober, through his actions. Yup, that counts making abhorrent, to many, movies. NOT writing them...making and promoting them.

I will make my peace with my god(s) when the time is right for me. I'm not ever going to do it because it'll make my publicist/bank balance happy.

And I'm not going to believe anyone else really "means" it when it is forced on him or her. Yup. Actions DO speak louder than words. Gibson's ACTIONS to date show him for what he is. Actions that are written in a script do not count, in my book. Old Testament, New Testament, Ann Coulter, Al Franken, The Passion of the Christ, or Jon Stewart. Nope. None of them books count on this score sheet. Write the words, ok. Walk the walk WHILE running your mouth...that's different.

To me, in MY OPINION, Mel Gibson is a bigoted hate monger. I have not seen or heard anything from him in years that is likely to change that view. Sit in a shul for a few weeks? As my gramma would have said, geh gesundt (go in health). Doesn't change who you are unless you show, outside of the shul, that you have actually learned anything.

Feel free to get back to me sometime Gibson does something truly surprising...like shutting the hell up and not imposing his foul mouth and beliefs on the rest of us.

Yeah, I am tougher on him...it's the public figure thing. He earns his living from being a public figure. Period. That, to me, means he owes us, his employers, some loyalty.

And, if it were up to me, just like any drunk driver, regardless of what he said while under the influence, he'd just go through the same legal procedures all the rest of DWIs go through. Period. Lost license. Maybe jail. Months of education. TOTALLY irrelevant that, as an habitual drinker, .012 would be barely detectable. IT IS ILLEGAL. Why is he just not having to go through the same stuff any other dwi would be?

Highly functioning or no, a drunk is a drunk. Period. And...even drunks don't usually spout off stuff they DON'T believe...just are more likely to go on...and on...and on...about what they DO believe.

I DO NOT CARE that Gibson is an anti-semite, as such. I AM pissed off as hell that he can get THAT focus changed because of who he is. The guy has what, eight kids? This is not a person I admire. I believe in zpg. I believe in taking care of the planet. I believe in doing unto others...as I would have them do to me...NOT before they do. Live and let live is a great idea--but a contract can't be one-sided.

Gibson is a jerk. And, lately, a criminal jerk (DWI being the crime here, not what he SAYS).

I guess maybe he'll just get locked right up. Right next to all the other high profile criminals. Like OJ, for example.

Shalom my friends.

 

Thank goodness none of you people has more legal power (ie, a more influential single vote) than I do!

Anyone who wrote a huge diatribe in a thread about an issue as trivial as this ought to Take A Deep Breath, Push Back From The Keyboard, and Get Outside.

Mel's got much bigger fish to fry, anyhow. He's got a serious addiction problem that's going to cost him much more than this little debacle if he doesn't work on it. You pros who know alcoholism know this, just like I do. I think we all have bigger fish to fry, too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zapranoth @ Aug 6 2006, 11:54 PM) [snapback]298926[/snapback]</div>

But, apparently, many of us don't have much that we feel a better way to spend time...and vent spleen, more to the point.

 

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Aug 9 2006, 11:41 AM) [snapback]300208[/snapback]</div>

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I think its a sad day, when people have to point out someone elses short comings....
The guy was drunk, he said some things he shouldn't have he appologised for it. We all do it all the time in FHOP except for the appoligies...

Let it go, its his right as it is your right to freedom of speach. If you do not like what he said ignor it...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Aug 10 2006, 09:04 AM) [snapback]300851[/snapback]</div>

Ah. I see. A valuable lesson in "live and let live," from someone who is absolutely not pointing out anyone's shortcomings.

Thanks!