Liam Neeson wants to kill a black man

Blown out of proportion.

 

He told the story he hadn't mentioned before in the 40 years since the incident, to point out how horrible it was.

 

Which side are you pushing? The racist white guy one or the one that requires reading comprehension?

 

yeah it's pretty messed up regardless of any backtracking or justification anyone uses

 

That's the whole point though. He's saying it's messed up, that it was wrong, that there was no justification.

 

I get that but it's also weird and bad that it was ever a thought for an adult, especially when taken in the context of his ouvere. I mean honestly why would you ever ever admit this let alone think it

 

I think if you look into any person's past you'll find some kind of -ism which you can point to while you sit in your moral ivory tower and say aha this person is guilty of racism, sexism, nepotism, ageism, despotism, etc. While I agree that this is actually a healthy exercise as a start to being more of a reflective person, I just can't stand how it's handled in this tabloid approach that underlines the seemingly scandalous nature of everything and nothing else.

It completely dismisses any hope or chance that this person either doesn't think that way anymore or whether or not they stand against whichever ism they were guilty of. As if to say, how dare you not hold a perfect world view in your 20's, ffs who the hell does or has...? Especially in light of a traumatic event like that?

If someone raped a person I love then you can guarantee I'm gonna see red and nothing else and think irrationally as a gut reaction.

I say look for progress not perfection. If progress is there, we should celebrate it rather tear the person down for daring to be an imperfect human. It's not logical, sensible or hell even godly to say hey one strike and you're done for life.

There is a very distinct difference in someone being reflective about something they did vs. someone with no sense of remorse.

If Liam came out and said hey I had these racist thoughts and bollocks to you all if you disagree with my sentiment, then yes have at him.

But in this case Liam Neeson flat out said this is a problem and talking about it is necessary. That's progress, not perfection. That distinction is not being reflected in the media at all and since media molds people's opinions, Liam's put himself in the shit for awhile.

 

This makes me think of a reaction I had to a video I saw yesterday - on GMM, they kept just saying "Hulk Hogan is a bad man" over and over without saying why. I tried to google it, and all I found was that he used the 'n' word once? And that makes him the definition of evil? Someone the other day explained to me the idea of "cancelling" someone and my eyes rolled back in my head so far I could see into other dimensions. We've turned every social issue and political stance into a witch hunt. If you have, or have ever had, "the wrong" idea, you are literally evil incarnate. And it's so exhausting.

I know I like to say that, in the short term, in the context of an argument, you usually aren't going to change someone's mind - and I stand by that - but people's worldviews DO change. I can think of topics on which I've dramatically changed my stance since my teens or early 20s. I can recall having some thoughts as a young kid that would, in todays world, be construed as super racist, but I honestly didn't know any better at the time. It wasn't malicious, I was working off of a very incomplete picture of the world - and arguably we all still are.

I think that's a huge part that gets thrown out the window: Intent. I would much rather judge a person on their intent than just the face value of their statements. Someone might say something racist/etc because they don't know the difference - and I'm not saying that's ok - but those worldviews can be changed or updated. It's a far cry from someone who knows better and whose -isms come from a malicious place.

 

Ah. Well, maybe he's not the best example. But still.

 

This 100x
And to stress it out : when you're blinded by rage, you don't think striaght, you think/do stupid shit. And in his situation I think most people would have gone nuts.

 

It's Liam Neeson, so he obviously said it in a really charming way, which makes a difference.

Also, all he said was that he went walking around "carrying a baton" and he was looking to "beat that black bastard". For all we know, he just meant he was going to challenge him to a cheer off.

 

Wrong.

“I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody. I’m ashamed to say that, and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some black bastard would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.”

Anyway, this whole thing is idiotic and the people who are screeching about it are those same puritans who think that if you've EVER done anything bad or EVER had a racist thought you are horrible forever and there is no chance of redemption. This isn't like most cases, where someone is caught and then has to address it and would have covered it up otherwise. This is someone illustrating how they've grown as a person by BRINGING UP something horrible that they did, flat out saying it was a horrible thing, and showing how it was a teaching moment for them.

I HATE the outrage-o-sphere so much.

 

I mean, I hate exaggerated outrage as much as the next guy, but that's clear intent to murder someone. I don't care how mad you are, intent to murder is still telling of a person's character on some level. Adding a racial edge to it really doesn't help.

It's one thing to say you're so mad you could kill, as a figure of speech - it's another to take actual steps towards that end.