There’s a reason revenge fantasy is such a popular genre.
John Barnes here does such a great job summing up how this Liam Neeson outrage makes me feel. We don’t want to go down the road where we cast people away for merely admitting (regretfully) to having unsavory thoughts in the past.
Well nobody here is, casting him away.
Because we’re mostly reasonable and thoughtful people and don’t have any financial incentives to make a furor over this.
I’m not necessarily referring to people here, but it’s a good encapsulation of my feelings about this being such a controversy.
Mostly, but George Soros pays me money to remain calm in this kind of situation when it happens with those on the left. It’s a great deal!
Wait, is that in addition to the checks for helping form those caravans? I could maybe double-up on my SorosBucks!?
This guy gets it.
It’s not like someone dug up video of Neeson being a racist shithead and now he’s trying to downplay it or claim he’s a changed man. This was Neeson admitting without provocation that even he once had this experience where the desire for revenge for a horrible thing that happened to someone very close to him drove him to think terrible, racist and irrational thoughts and attempt to go out and act on them, and that while thankfully he didn’t get the chance, he recognizes even all these years later how horrible and wrong he was at that time, and that it’s shaped who he is as a person ever since.
That’s some pretty deep and relevant shit, and it took courage to admit it. Anyone labeling him a racist because of it is completely missing the whole point, and probably just looking to cash in on ratings or retweets.
Neeson asked me to be ‘really careful’ if I wanted to use the story. Then he made what was clearly a joke
See, that’s the problem, Liam Neeson is well known to be terrible at improv and humor.
Liam Neeson was racistly angry when he was young, nothing happened to anyone because of it, and he is now telling a story of how guilty he feels for having those emotions. Good on him. His detailing of his thoughts was very scary violent and racist, but they didn’t get acted upon. So while we can condemn his past thoughts, I don’t think we can condemn the man who never carried them out and seeks contrition for his past racist ideology.
I think it is important to have discussions like this. Liam Neeson isn’t the only person in the world to have done something like this, but having someone like him show the world that not acting on those thoughts is a better option, is a good thing. It certainly isn’t very safe or clean to talk about, it certainly made his publicist’s life hell for the next few months.
Gotta give the guy some credit for calling himself out on his own bullshit.
Also, that Life’s Too Short clip is so good, as was that show.
Is it possible this recent revelation of his during the press junket was to prevent people from thinking of this too much?
I agree with your last post. Now, is the difference between how Neeson handled that and how the two politicians in North Carolina handled the blackface reports the way the reports came out, or the way they failed to acknowledge them and apologize properly for their actions. What they did was almost 40 years ago, and as the incident with Neeson shows people do change, or at least say they change.
Shouldn’t they be given the same opportunity to show they are not racist now?
Well one important difference is that what Neeson did was mostly in his head. He never acted on this, while the people decided to wear blackface and did so.
Well, I think what Neeson said was almost as bad. I mean sure he didn’t act on what he felt, but the way he said it sure indicates that he would have given the opportunity.
The politicians “only” dressed up in blackface, something that today is surely racist but that even in 1980 could be explained as a “Halloween” costume. I saw yesterday that even Joy Behar has admitted to “darkening” her skin for a Halloween costume years ago.
Millennials: Everything stupid/offensive we did as a kid is now archived for eternity on the internet and its so damaging.
Boomers and Gen X: Hold my yearbook
Hahaha - that made me laugh out loud :D
I bet his publicist had absolute kittens. I have this mental picture of him making frantic silent hand gestures during the interview.
This is not true. It a myth that people keep spreading. This was not acceptable in the 1980s. Ignorance is just a bullshit excuse that has been used for decades. This is the 80s not the 60s.
I will definitely agree with you that anyone doing it in the 80’s was an idiot at best. But I think referring to all of them as racist is perhaps taking it to far. However, I fully understand we come from different backgrounds and understand if you see it differently. And I won’t argue with that.
I know you can’t really see what is in someone’s heart anymore than you can see what is in their head when they do something stupid like that. The fact that whoever put the photos in the yearbook and thought that was a good idea say a lot.
You mean the one standing next to a Klansman? That one? Yeah, oozing ignorance there. Couldn’t possibly be racist. Next you’ll be telling me if they walk around with nooses it was all idiot fun. No. They’re racists. But the state of being a racist doesn’t have to be permanent.
By the way, for those who don’t know, that one school stopped doing yearbooks because it was so bad. And they didn’t stop in the 80, they bred a culture full of racists.