this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
414 points (97.3% liked)

politics

19137 readers
3395 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 195 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yes Mel Gibson is still bonkers.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Until producers stop giving him money and actors refuse to work with him he'll continue spreading hate, the guy has been an obvious bigot and moron his entire life

[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 days ago (3 children)

“I separate people and their art” people are the fuckin’ worst and huge part of the problem, too, since they don’t do a damn thing to incentivise those losers to stop what they’re doing, either.

When I learned that “Sweet Home Alabama” was in bitter response to Neil Young’s “Southern Man” I just stopped listening to it. There is so much music in the world, I’ve been fine without Lynyrd Skynyrd. I also don’t think I’ve ever seen a Mel Gibson movie and I seem to be ok.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

When I learned that “Sweet Home Alabama” was in bitter response to Neil Young’s “Southern Man”

You didn't learn that the first time you heard the song, where its laid out plainly in the lyrics?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I was a lot younger when I first heard it. I did think it was a little weird but not enough for that young Canadian white boy to really have too much of an opinion. The only “plainly laid out” reference to “Southern Man” is a single line referring to this “Neil” I also didn’t really know anything about at the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her

Well, I heard old Neil put her down

Well, I hope Neil Young will remember

A Southern man don't need him around, anyhow

I get that you were a kid when you first heard it, but it's absolutely all laid out in plain English. They even referenced the song itself.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Bro I was a kid and didn’t know what “Southern Man” even was, either, and the concept of a person from the south isn’t exactly unique to the song by that name.

Christ, you’re an asshole.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I'm not criticizing you for misunderstanding it as a kid. You're not a kid anymore. You just said, as an adult, that the only reference was a single line with the word Neil in it. That's wrong. If you can't handle being corrected when you say something wrong maybe the internet isn't for you.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Oh I’m so sorry, it was four lines back to back and three of them were just saying his name. Will you ever forgive me? Please, your admiration is all that I crave!

I know that you’ve never missed something small that you frankly weren’t paying much attention to in the first place. Teach me your ways, enlightened one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Step 1 is to want to learn instead of getting defensive and acting like a douche when someone tells you something you didn't know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 minutes ago

I already learned, I know what the song is about now and I not only knew it long time ago but I literally had already said that. You aren’t teaching anyone anything, you just tried to mock me for not knowing something.

I hope you find, one day, something kinder to fill that gaping hole in your personality. This ain’t it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I would say that "Sweet Home Alabama" is very different. It was not written bitterly and it was written by a bunch of Neil Young fans (and Neil himself loved the song). The point of "Sweet Home Alabama" was to show that there were people who grew up in the South who weren't racist, who acknowledged and decried the racist history of the South, but who also felt resentment at being lumped in with the racists, past and present. Being both proud of being from the South and ashamed of being from the South at the same time even has its own term, coined AFAIK by the band The Drive-By Truckers: "the duality of the Southern Thing."

There are plenty of artists and musicians that should just be written off, but I don't think Skynyrd is among them. They were actually relatively progressive for their background and were trying to paint a fairly sophisticated and balanced story; it's not their fault that their fanbase evolved into a bunch of racist assholes who preempted the song for their own causes, especially since the heart and soul of the band died in a plane crash in 1977. But that's just my two cents as a huge music fan who grew up listening to Skynyrd in the 90's.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Maybe Lynyrd Skynyrd shouldn't have constantly used the Confederate Battle Flag and other Confederate imagery if they didn't want to be lumped in with the racists.

Just a thought.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

It was bad, but mind the cultural context they it was widely considered the "southern" flag (by southern whites) which just happened to also have been used by the Confederacy. There was a century of pro-Confederate propaganda we were raised under, and we've only recently reckoned with that.

A lot of those same people who flew it when they were kids decades ago denounce the thing today, thankfully.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They heard “Southern Man” and went so hard “not all southerners” that they even included the line directly telling Neil to fuck off. One of their black back-up singers went on to cover “Southern Man” as a little bit of a personal win for her. Lynyrd Skynyrd could have done a million things that weren’t that in response but instead they wrote that little piece of whiny-baby bullshit. They did it all on their own, without their base needing to misinterpret anything. Fuck ‘em, I got loads of fantastic music to listen to without giving that one any of my time.

People have literally died for their rights and we’re so damned soft we can’t even just consume different yet equally good, or better, media and that’s fuckin’ weak. Sometimes we aren’t given much choice but it’s not like we’re hurting for high-quality music, TV, and literature. It’s so fucking easy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

They also can't really claim they weren't the same, when they constantly used Confederate imagery to sell shit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This is such a horseshit take.

The entire song is a screed to southern ignorance including the gem "Watergate does not bother me"

These assholes are part of the reason we ended up with trump.

Get fucked.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

"Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you?"

Bother in this case means he's not losing sleep at night over it due to any regrets. This was all Northern people being corrupt. An answer to southerners being bad and evil.

It was not meant to be interpreted as they don't care

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I agree, but take a fucking chill pill. Everyone has an opinion.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Eh, Mad Max, Road Warrior, and Beyond Thunderdome are classics. Lethal Weapon was good.

He was even decent in the John Wick flashback "The Continental".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Beyond Thunderdome is a bit shit to be honest, but I wouldnt say Mel Gibson can't act or hasn't been in good films. I just don't want to have to stare at his racist fucking face.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I haven’t seen ‘em and I’m doing perfectly ok. And guess what, I didn’t know he was involved and now I’m gunna not watch ‘em even harder. It’s just that easy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Congratulations, you haven't watched some movies. Truly a saint

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Man, really hurt that I’m ok to just not watch some fuckin’ movies, eh?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I've never watched those movies either, you're just a weirdo for thinking it's a brag

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 days ago

I didn’t say it’s a brag, I said it’s extremely easy to not consume content when you know that the people who produced it are garbage. I wasn’t even asking people to look up the histories of every artist they’ve ever seen.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Wow, your sacrifices are truly inspiring.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’m literally making the point that these aren’t huge, inspiring sacrifices. You’re not only weak, but stupid. Congratulations, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh I thought you were making the point that you're a pompous douche.

You certainly made that exceedingly clear.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I am, truly, impressed by how much you want to fight me because I said that maybe we shouldn’t be supporting massively horrible people and that we can do so very easily.

It’s a weird hill to die on but at least you’re dying and that’s a win for us all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So you've never seen a Weinstein production? I fucking doubt it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

Not on purpose. Keep up, dumbass.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

We don't have the celebrity thing you have in the US here, so I only see bits and pieces of this, but his (and several others, really) spiralling into insanity has been quite bizarre to witness. First into extreme bizarro religion and then (predictably) into far right politics.

As is often the case, the rejection just entrenches his beliefs.

I wish I knew how people started falling into that kind of mental trap. I'm not sure he was always like that (or maybe he was, I don't know the guy).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Well, in Gibson's case, he's been a loon for a long time now. This isn't a recent development.