Yossarian wrote:

No chance, all the doctors around here are foreign.

In 1820? That London.

It would actually be pretty remarkable if Brits in Europe started getting a fucking shoeing over Brexit. Don't see that happening tbh.

Lol.

No, Lesley Neeson.

I'd love to meet an Asian kid whose folks were proper slobs, they must exist somewhere.

Seems all the more tragic when I finally run one of them over, which I probably will. The Chinese are shit at crossing roads.

 not based on the traffic signals, but by whether there are a sufficient number of pedestrians who feel it’s safe to cross. 

I do this too, good plan.

dynamiteReady wrote:

Kow wrote:

Out of context I'm not sure black bastard is much more offensive than fat bastard, ugly bastard, stupid bastard etc When we insult someone we tend to just latch on to whatever is in front of us. I don't think it's necessarily an indication of racism. I haven't read the thing about Neeson so I'm not really making a comment about that.

Nope. It's a epithet on par with the N word.

To 'contextualise' it, how often do you hear 'white bastard'?

And in this specific case, why did the guy make a point of isolating the perpetrator's race?
It was calculated.

That's why he's on ABC sitting for an exclusive interview.

Quite possibly a very expensive form of therapy.

And by expensive, I'm talking about the collateral, intellectual damage it will do, in normalising these views amongst a cachet of white, middle class westerners.

^

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/world-news/report-probably-couldve-kept-that-one-to-yourself-liam/

Everyone has flaws including Liam Neeson.
Yes, he may have (subconscious?) racist tendencies but the ugly truth is so does all of humanity. At least Neeson is aware of it and actively reflects on it which is more than most people are willing to do.

Not condoning racist thoughts but it's good people are having this discussion.

I don't think talking about racist thoughts normalises them but if it does it isn't necessarily a bad thing. People feel how they feel and suppressing it doesn't make it go away.

If we view racism as a psychological defect, and we should because it is, then why should we shy away from discussing it? We need to look honestly at ourselves and address the flaws, and if talking about it helps then so be it. As long as it's never condoned it should be treated like any other mental health problem, and that starts with communication

Kow wrote:

I really don't see what problem people have with someone admitting character defects, recognizing how wrong they were and actively changing. More people should do it instead of this awful internet perfection everyone seems to need to present.

As a foreigner and a minority who -lets face it- is most likely to get it in a backlash, or maybe is tied with Jews in the who do people hate most stakes, I am deeply mistrustful of this so called perfection. I'll bet you anything that the typical "you can't say that" bozo who watches the Neeson clip and concludes "he said black bastard, that's racist" will be precisely the same person cheering the neo fascists and policing their own speech norms, while I get dragged kicking and screaming to the gulag

In other words, that person is a formless fucking cunt and I don't trust them, zero percent. I am, in fact, deeply mistrustful of them. I'm not condoning casual racism, but the average nat cabbie in Glasgow who will use racist terms while explaining to me why he's open etc earns more trust from me. He's being open. He likes to say paki, he don't mean it in a bad way. He's wrong, but he means well.

The PC white guy who never says anything racist, never has a racist thought, says he is a feminist - alarm bells all over.

Surely everyone is racist and the first step is in acknowledging it, that instinct, that reaction? And noticing it is good, surely?

Hence the introspective reflection on racist thoughts being integral guys.

acemuzzy wrote:

Context is king...

Indeed it is. That's why racist language is condemned very strongly on mainstream channels of communication. Because the context is ever prevalent, and very deep.

Remember Ron Atkinson's case?

When I contemplate the likes of Jeff Sessions, Cheryl Tweedy/Cole, Liam fucking Neelson, I think of Big Ron quite a bit.

Ron paid the right price for his language (because, context aside, 'nigger' is much worse than 'black bastard', of course), but do I seriously believe Big Ron is a card carrying racist?

I don't think so.

The man is a genius. Culturally, through football, he's done an incredible amount of good for race relations in Britain, and possibly the whole of Europe.

And his racial slur? Very likely a product of his environment in this case. Genuinely so.
And even with that said, throughout his career, he'd proven the will to rise well above some truly negative ideas.

But yes, he lost his media role for a very good reason, and he himself accepted it. He didn't ask for any exclusive interviews, did not try to justify what he said, and in those actions, I see remorse.

No rush to see him back though.

This Neelson thing (or whatever the fuck his name is... I don't collect his DVDs) is comparatively much, much worse.

Look at the details of the story he has told.

He uses crime as an anchor, and champions vigilante behaviour, which strangely, echos the themes found in the films he stars in.

There are no redeeming features to his case here.

Fuck that motherfucker.

Ach I have issue with this full blooded openness. The thing is I sympathise that nobody is perfect so it is work to hold in every thought for a second and filter it out but I don’t see a problem in people having to work in not being dicks. The thing is as we casualise dehumanising language (ie broad brushes with violent undertones) I think it actually makes it much easier to actually see people in those lower status terms and treat them in an escalatingly bad way.

There is something also to be said about the actual words - eg Paki- causing, personally, a real gut wrench. I can’t help it but it is a fucking horrible feeling.

My feeling is as we get older our energy and ability to think with more time dissipates so we start seeing these base thoughts more and more.