Society/Culture Liam Neeson: Should we be condemned for thinking the wrong thoughts?

[JackOutback]

Neeson will be fine; once cooler heads prevail, people will see that it was a long time ago, caused in part by a trauma, something he admitted was wrong quite quickly and continues to admit was wrong. It shows a disturbing thought process and one that is ripe for interesting discussion, but that's not the kind you can expect to find on social media. I mean, he said he would have targeted a different group of the description of the attacker was different, but we tend not to group certain nationalities/races into one homogenous group as some people do with black people (or Asians or many others).

 

[ShanDog]

The question is, why are the studios (or anyone else) listening to the tiny minority of flogs whining on twitter? I don't see anyone here suggesting that he deserves any significant punishment, yet his movie premiere was canceled / postponed. Is it because the clickbait media give the loudest of the outraged a platform?

Yes, that is why. And society hadn't yet figured out how to deal with that. So often, people and corporations will take the safe route to protect themselves. It makes sense to do so, as cowardly as it is.

Things will only change when the overwhelming majority of people consistently push back against those taking the easy way out and drag the media narrative with them by making it a worse story to cave in as opposed to pandering to clickbait-driven outrage culture.

 

[Dixie Normous]

The uptight social media-attentionwhores outraged over this non-event aren't the kind of people who go and see Liam Neeson films anyway - his career will be fine.

 

[Snake_Baker]

 

[Brick Loosener]

Hopefully Neeson's victim finds the courage to come forward.

 

[Bollox]

Will need to hear Madonna and Robert de Niro's thoughts before passing judgement.

 

[Seeds]

The question is, why are the studios (or anyone else) listening to the tiny minority of flogs whining on twitter? I don't see anyone here suggesting that he deserves any significant punishment, yet his movie premiere was canceled / postponed. Is it because the clickbait media give the loudest of the outraged a platform?

Cos the studios are stupid and its nothing new. In the past our tv stations would change their shows and even cancel segments if 10 people rang up and complained about something. They only hear the complaints .

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Hi career is probably in trouble due to being typecast as a revenge-killer rather than anything he said in an interview.

 

[Benny78]

No idea why Sam Harris is hanging around family guy calibre idiots like Seth Rogan and Rob Shapiro. All he's doing is diminshing the name he has built for himself.

 

[Run n Spread]

Weird s**t to come up with in an interview. I get he was distressed but going through some weird inner monologue he had 30 years a go. Bizzare.

As far as I can tell he didn't murder anyone or racially abuse anyone either so play on.

 

[perthblue]

It's a weird thing to bring up, I'm sure if he had mentioned it to one of his entourage beforehand they would have said "yeah, appreciate the honesty, but definitely don't bring that up"

The worst part of this story is the reminder of how much power twitter lynch mobs yield.

 

[Snake_Baker]

It's a weird thing to bring up, I'm sure if he had mentioned it to one of his entourage beforehand they would have said "yeah, appreciate the honesty, but definitely don't bring that up"

The worst part of this story is the reminder of how much power twitter lynch mobs yield.

Why shouldn't he be honest? Surely society has the issue here?

 

[perthblue]

Why shouldn't he be honest? Surely society has the issue here?

because he had some pretty dark thoughts, like we've all had, and you have to be careful who you share them with. this is just common sense. 'honesty' is a virtue of course but is honesty is not a pass to say what you like without consequence.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Yes, that is why. And society hadn't yet figured out how to deal with that. So often, people and corporations will take the safe route to protect themselves. It makes sense to do so, as cowardly as it is.

Things will only change when the overwhelming majority of people consistently push back against those taking the easy way out and drag the media narrative with them by making it a worse story to cave in as opposed to pandering to clickbait-driven outrage culture.

Our biology has programmed us not to be moral but to appear to be moral. It is to our advantage to present an appearance of being 'good' whilst not necessarily living up to those values. As Henry Mencken once said, our conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking. This results in a battle for the moral high ground. This has always been so.

But what is new is social media and its ability for masses of people to take the moral high ground on issues or against individuals. It's the most cowardly form of bullying. There's no reciprocality about ones own foibles when piling on. Without personal examination or consequence people can express a view of high morality and are able to feel good about themselves.

It has coincided with the decline in Christian values. I would not class myself as Christian but I can see value in a saying such as 'let he that is without sin among you, cast the first rock'.

 

[Rob]

The uptight social media-attentionwhores outraged over this non-event aren't the kind of people who go and see Liam Neeson films anyway - his career will be fine.

Ironically they're also the sort of people that advocate for identity politics - i.e doing exactly what Neeson did.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Motivated by vengeance on behalf of a friend, his reasoning was wrong (considering all members of an ethnic group fair game for the misdeeds of an individual from that group) but it never went beyond thought. His career should not suffer for it.

 

[Dixie Normous]

Cold Pursuit was a pretty average film (saw it today). Heavily influenced by Fargo and has a lot of wannabe-hip Tarantino dialogue. The jokey tone of the film fell completely flat and it was completely predictable. There's a black hitman in the film too and he gets killed (offscreen)

 

[awaremind]

Hopefully Neeson's victim finds the courage to come forward.

Everyone is a victim. The suggestion of toxic masculinity harms us all and says to the subconcious mind "its ok tofeel like this, Liam Neeson did so I can too." . Ha ha

 

[Crankyhawk]

So how do we fight back against it. We should not have to just sit and accept the views of the irrationally outraged.

We should condemn them for their words in turn, but because those who condemn are Twitter nobodies there won’t be any traction.
Judge people for actions not their thoughts; words are in between but context is important

 

[dumb]

most people that take up the pitchforks in online lynch mobs have said or done something (or even worse, said something) questionable on twitter, in conversation etc. just that there's a safety in numbers - no-one cares enough about them to look into their pasts until it comes time to climb to the top of some s**t-heap that they share. most movements such as metoo eventually sacrifice their figureheads because of this past history, as if it proves their righteousness and legitimacy. it's hard work keeping yourself on a pedestal AND famous.

it's pretty dark, but nothing came of it. if you've had nothing but pleasant thoughts about your fellow man you probably haven't lived.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Maybe Liam Neeson was one of the guys who attacked this Jussie Smollett bloke

Nah. Just another story that the media went early on without waiting for the full facts.

Was reported from the start as a racist, homophobic attack by two white Trump supporters. Politicians coming from everywhere to condemn this "modern day lynching". As it has now been discovered, the two attackers were actually two black dudes that Smollett worked with and followed on Instagram. Whoops. Either a staged attack or, according to some rumours, a lovers' quarrel.

 

[JackOutback]

Nah. Just another story that the media went early on without waiting for the full facts.

Was reported from the start as a racist, homophobic attack by two white Trump supporters. Politicians coming from everywhere to condemn this "modern day lynching". As it has now been discovered, the two attackers were actually two black dudes that Smollett worked with and followed on Instagram. Whoops. Either a staged attack or, according to some rumours, a lovers' quarrel.

Speaking of going early...

This has not been confirmed, the police put out a statement saying media reports it was a hoax are not confirmed and that reporting has been uninformed an inaccurate. Also, 20th Century Fox put out a statement saying he was not being written out of the show, which was supposedly the motive for the hoax.

There's more to play out here, but doesn't pay to criticise people for not having the full facts while not having the full facts.

 

[Jobe Watson]

Speaking of going early...

This has not been confirmed, the police put out a statement saying media reports it was a hoax are not confirmed and that reporting has been uninformed an inaccurate. Also, 20th Century Fox put out a statement saying he was not being written out of the show, which was supposedly the motive for the hoax.

There's more to play out here, but doesn't pay to criticise people for not having the full facts while not having the full facts.

I didn't say that it had been confirmed as a hoax. It likely is still a legitimate attack... one of the rumours I saw, as I said in my previous post, was that it was potentially a lovers' quarrel. But the two suspects that have been arrested HAVE been confirmed. They are two Nigerian brothers, at least one of whom worked on the show. Jussie followed them on Instagram and went to the gym with them.

This was not a random attack perpetrated by two white, Trump-supporting racist homophobes as was reported. That we can say. Smollett lied about that and the media couldn't wait to report that more Trump supporters had engaged in another act of public racism. Where have we seen that recently?

 

[JackOutback]

I didn't say that it had been confirmed as a hoax. It likely is still a legitimate attack... one of the rumours I saw, as I said in my previous post, was that it was potentially a lovers' quarrel. But the two suspects that have been arrested HAVE been confirmed. They are two Nigerian brothers, at least one of whom worked on the show. Jussie followed them on Instagram and went to the gym with them.

This was not a random attack perpetrated by two white, Trump-supporting racist homophobes as was reported. That we can say. Smollett lied about that and the media couldn't wait to report that more Trump supporters had engaged in another act of public racism. Where have we seen that recently?

The brothers haven't been charged, they are being questioned at the moment. Smollett is currently standing by his story. The story isn't adding up, but you're still jumping the gun.

 

[Moshie The Mook]

Cold Pursuit was a pretty average film (saw it today). Heavily influenced by Fargo and has a lot of wannabe-hip Tarantino dialogue. The jokey tone of the film fell completely flat and it was completely predictable. There's a black hitman in the film too and he gets killed (offscreen)

I was about to call RACIST then I saw the (offscreen) bit. Actors of colour should NOT have to die on camera. However! Death in deleted scenes is allowed.