Halloween costume PC rules: Good idea or[expletive removed]?

Post Reply New Topic

Walmart Pulls Israel Defense Forces "Sheik Fagin" costume

If you don't agree with my politics, you can get your candy somewhere else.

So, I'm not blindly/uncritically devoted to free speech in the way some here are. However, I do consider it to be an essential human right, and if it should be completely unfettered anywhere, it's a venue like this one--a sub-forum devoted to politics, etc...

If you cannot express yourself freely and honestly here, what's the point?


Alex and his mods should just delete the whole goddamn thing.

If OOM was actually threatened with banning for posting her opinions... well, that's pretty despicable.


Free speech means you should be free to express yourself, but you should NOT be free from criticism or counter speech. Those bits are free speech too.


IF OOM just wanted to vent, she could/should have labeled her post as such and put it in the haven.

This is (supposed to be) a place for discussion and a frank exchange of views...

PS

Considering some of the things she's posted, I'd have to think OOM would be highly offended at your attempt to defend her...


It's all good.

How about this? Where a kid was told he couldn't even dress in an outfit from his own culture because "culture is not a costume."

Just to point out, mrctv.org is sorta like the right wing Weekly World News. Do a quick google and you'll find that strangely enough, that story was reported...nowhere else.

Let the kids dress up as whatever they wish. Within reason, that is -- dressing up as a dead elephant might be overdoing it a bit (1: since he wouldn't be able to move under his own power, you'd have to tie a log chain around his legs and drag him, and 2: someone might cut his tusks off and sell them to the Chinese to make medicine to help them maintain their erections).

If someone is offended, that is their problem, not yours. Give them the finger.

Dressing up as a Nazi and trick or treating at the house of a Jewish family that lost relatives to the concentration camps would be unethical, immoral and even cruel. Same if a white kid with much social and economic privilege were to dress up as a plantation owner carrying a whip and ask for candy from the neighborhood's only family whose history has been indelibly altered by slavery. Or, a bearded young man dressing up as Caitlyn Jenner and trick or treating at a house where a bullied trans kid who is on the edge of doing something drastic "just happens" to live.

Do people really not see anything wrong with that? When someone in a position of greater social power mocks someone of lesser social power, it is considered threatening. It sends a message that they can be mocked, and will be simply for being who they are. It is a display of power intended to intimidate and oppress. Why would any ethical, moral person do - or defend - such actions?

As to what I've bolded--from what I've seen, the type who like to go on and on about unlimited "freeze peach" don't have much desire to think about ethics and morals. They'd rather talk about what they feel they're entitled to (being thoughtless and treating other people like garbage for their own amusement). Ethics don't tend to matter much to people who think everyone who's ever had their feelings hurt by anyone else is "just too sensitive and needs to get over it".

The truth is, if we are going to live in a f*****g society we HAVE to have thoughts for the feelings of others. It is part of the responsibility of being an adult in a social species that lives in large groups--we have to have a thought and a care for each other, or we will never learn to live together without killing each other. If you don't care for ethics and morals and taking the existence of other people different from yourself into consideration when making your choices in life, then go live in a hermit cabin in the woods and leave the rest of us to learn how to get along with each other.

Did you look up the twitter accounts? Seems pretty legit. The kids are not happy with this STA Brampton person.

I did a google search for the boy's name + halloween and nothing came up except that article. It is a bit suspicious that no one else anywhere is reporting on it. One would think that kind of stupidity (the school's) would be newsworthy, if it really happened.

One year my son wanted to be a knight. I made him a homemade costume, and only realized when I was finished that I'd made him a Crusader (I based the outfit on a photo of a Templar). I let him wear it, anyway. I don't know of a single Muslim family in my community, anyway.

Edit: A picture of a Templar. It'd be pretty hard to find a photo of one!

I see, but freedom of expression trumps hurt feelings.

Shouldn't we ban LGBT customes, because they offend some religious people?

Shouldn't these customes be banned ...

Well, let's see......

I've lost count of the number of times of anti-PC a$$bags who demand I "shut-up" about any attempt to analyze art or culture, and place it in a wider socio-political context because, ostensibly, even discussing the influence of race, sex, or class is, "OMG SO PC SHUT UP SHUT UP."

The recent kerfuffle with Eli Roth's "Green Inferno" was equal parts extremely entertaining and extremely depressing as the anti-PC hordes went ape sh_t over a fake petition, and then proceeded to pounce on any movie critic who dared to suggest that basing a movie on out-dated, and possibly harmful, stereotypes of native people wasn't the best approach.

Extremists are fools. Full stop.

Freeze peach? Your contempt for the constitution and basic human freedom couldn't be more clearer. Have you have ever heard the saying that 'your rights end where mine begin'? Ethics and morals? What does this mean? I think it is unethical and immoral to have speech laws because speech laws as even our founders knew were a tool of despotism. Our 1st Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

A lot of people know about the Boston Tea Party and the group of patriots who dumped the British tea into the harbor but do you know that had all dressed up as Mohawk Indians before that they did it? Something tells me the Mohawks aren't so upset about that, I think its probably small potatoes in their long line of legitimate grievances but it is pretty funny seeing modern day "liberals" squirm over it, one must be reminded that these people idolize Karl Marx much more than they do Thomas Jefferson or John Adams and despise our constitution and the protections of our GOD GIVEN rights. No, in their mind the power of government and essentially the mob determines what your rights our. That is how the greatest crimes in history have been justified.

Your feelings don't trump my rights, you are not more important me and or anyone else, we are all the same. It doesn't matter if you think you were historically maligned since guess what, so has every peoples on Earth at one time or another and unless you personally have experienced this then your "triggering" is a learned response and not one based in reality. Be courteous of other peoples feelings sure but you and I both know that much more is being asked, you can't sanitize society of everything you don't like or offends you and the people that attempt to are the worst type of authoritarian.

You know a lot of Christians are offended by homosexuals just existing openly in society let alone the government actually recognizing their marriages? They are the majority, do we care about their feelings? No, because we as INDIVIDUALS have inalienable rights endowed to us by our creator and they do not get to dictate what we as individuals do with it so long as it does not infringe on the rights of someone else. There is no "right to not be offended", I am a nice person and will hear you out but you can't or at least shouldn't be able to force your views and beliefs system on me because if you can do it one way then it can be done the other way around. I actually live by a pretty simple moral code, the non-aggression principle and voluntary association. People like me don't hurt people, it's those who think that they can control the actions of others that have and always will be the worst monsters in history.

Last edited by Jacoby on 29 Oct 2015, 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

And what are you asking of people that offend you? Think about it, I think you're pretty smart...

That's the point:

I'm not "asking" anything of anyone.

If you're offended by the fact that people are having a conversation about the impact of negative stereotypes on the greater whole of society, and think these sort of discussions should never happen, you should probably reassess your position on "free speech."