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October 6, 2006
Classy, but Also Stupid
Radio host Mike Gallagher gave airtime the the Westboro Baptist Church assholes, in exchange for them not protesting at the funerals of the Amish girls slain earlier in the week at their school. While I appreciate Mike Gallagher's efforts to bring some comfort — or at least, to prevent the addition of insult to injury — to the girls' parents, there is the unfortunate side effect that the Westboro assholes are now confirmed in their faith that being assholes not only generates publicity, it can get them a relatively prominent (and monetarily quite valuable) platform to spew their hatred, bigotry and poison ideology. So they are likely to escalate, rather than de-escalate, their unacceptable behavior in the wake of this act by Mr. Gallagher. It's an old lesson: what you subsidize, you get more of.
On the other hand, how much of an investigation would there be if, say, a couple of hundred people were to show up at the funeral of an Amish girl or a soldier slain in Iraq or what have you, and beat the Westboro assholes to a pulp? (Ideally, leaving them alive: the idea is to teach them a lesson in what is and is not tolerated by a civil community which hopes to remain civil, which they desperately need to learn.) A few such examples might actually convince them to take their bigotry and hatred back into their walled compound, and drink their own kool-aid, rather than spreading their filth in public.
Actually, there's a larger point here, under the banner of "tolerating the intolerant." A civil society can only remain so as long as its norms of civility are maintained. Once those norms are thrown aside, and incivility becomes acceptable, incivility eventually becomes common, and civility uncommon.
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Comments
Unfortunatly, the westboro assholes are lawyers. They fund their hate speech by suing people who take an active part in discouraging them.
The Patriot Guard does a good job keeping these idiots from having much of an impact on morning friends and family members.
As repugnant as this group is, as citizens of our United States, they have the right to spew hatred and stupidity at the world. We can shun them, ignore them, ridicule them, insult them... but we can't physically attack them.
Posted by: Chris Midkiff at October 6, 2006 9:55 AM
Absolutely agree. It's almost embarrassing how wrong Mike Gallagher can be on almost every issue.
A couple of weeks ago, he was ranting about Air America filing for bankruptcy. He was venting about how he'd been in talk radio since 1978 and how he knew all about the business and how stupid imposters who hadn't put in their time weren't worthy of being in radio (a theme he repeats). That's the classic complaint of any talentless hack.
I know, I shouldn't listen to him -- but sometimes it's nice to know how the idiotic among us are sounding so that we can avoid being like them.
Posted by: queuno at October 6, 2006 11:30 AM
Chris, their being citizens does not mean that we cannot physically attack them. It means that they can expect equal treatment under the law, and if we physically attack them, we will be brought to trial for assault. I suspect that any jury would acquit under the "fighting words" doctrine: the law already recognizes that some people are badly enough behaved that they, in effect, "have it coming to them." Even so, I would not attack them unless I were prepared to do jail time for it.
Posted by: Jeff Medcalf at October 6, 2006 3:58 PM
When these clowns were protesting at soldiers' funerals, I strongly felt that if I were nearby, I would like to show up and beat the crap out them. Nothing more than a butt whooping, mind you - not even close to death. They may have the right to protest, but there are lines you don't cross unchallenged. If they had shown up in Pennsylvania, and I had been near, you bet I would have shown up to kick their asses. Frankly, I would see it as my duty. Yep, I might face jail time, but it would be worth it, regardless.
I do think that their behavior would qualify as fighting words. I don't think you would likely be convicted, assuming it was a minor ass kicking and not nearly killing them. Even if you were convicted, it would likely be a misdemeanor, and I doubt you would get more than probation, especially if you were a first time offender. Seems like a price I'd be willing to pay.
Posted by: Brian Medcalf at October 6, 2006 9:55 PM
Conviction of even misdemeanor violence is used as an excuse to infringe your right to keep and bear arms. Therefore subtler tactics must be used. Hose them down with a Super-Soaker containing the kind of entertaining water people used to get sprayed with close to the stage at a Grateful Dead concert.
Posted by: triticale at October 8, 2006 8:29 AM
Civility must be maintained at any cost. We cannot allow such stupid morons to ruin the repute of society.
Posted by: Rehab at October 9, 2006 8:56 PM