Jerry Falwell Dead

[DaShi]

That was the good thing about Falwell, he so nicely defined the extreme.

[Dr Strangelove]

I have a confession to make. I would never consider marrying, or even dating, a homosexual.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
BTW, the same thing applies to terms like "bigot", "racist", "sexist", etc. There certainly are real bigots, racists and sexists, but frequently the terms are used as a lazy way to label an ideological opponent as beyond the pale of civilized society, thereby eliminating the need to actually engage them or address their arguments.

There is nothing lazy about calling Falwell for what he was; a racist, sexist, homophobe, and xenophobe. His words and his actions demonstrated his bigotry toward the different minority groups he dehumanized through his cruel rhetoric.

It's simply not possible to engage in sensible, honest dialogue with a person who has lost so much rationality; BUT I agree with you in that it didn't make him less human. It just meant he was incredibly bigoted, willfully ignorant, and irrational.

I can speak with people who disagree with me on issues such as equal rights for gays and lesbians. But the kind of people that I'm willing to speak with on such issues are not on the same low level that Falwell was at. The ones I'm speaking of, are those people who are still uninformed or misinformed about such issues, but are willing to engage in RESPECTABLE, HONEST dialogue with people such as myself. In my opinion, Falwell did not fit in this group of people who waver on the fence regarding equal rights for gays and lesbians.

[Drake Tungsten]

I think Drake means the common usages of dehumanizing, to mean more like de-empathising, where calling someone evil allows you not to empathise with them or seem them as human in the same way that you are. It allows you to draw a line between us (non-evil people) and them (evil people), the same way racists used to draw a line in the 19th century between us as in whites and them as in blacks, enabling people of otherwise sound morals to treat black people as sub-human.

Saying "Jerry Falwell is evil" allows you to seperate yourself from him in a way that allows you to then say "therefore I'm happy about him suffering", as you don't then empathise with the suffering.

Well said.

[Drake Tungsten]

It's simply not possible to engage in sensible, honest dialogue with a person who has lost so much rationality

Larry Flynt doesn't seem to agree with you and he has more reason to hate Jerry Falwell than any of us...

In my opinion, Falwell did not fit in this group of people who waver on the fence regarding equal rights for gays and lesbians.

So you will only engage people lacking in strong opinions who you believe you can sway to your point of view? Anyone who can't be brought around to your point of view isn't worth dealing with? Don't you see the problem with this?

[DaShi]

I'm just glad he's gone.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

It's simply not possible to engage in sensible, honest dialogue with a person who has lost so much rationality

Larry Flynt doesn't seem to agree with you and he has more reason to hate Jerry Falwell than any of us...

In my opinion, Falwell did not fit in this group of people who waver on the fence regarding equal rights for gays and lesbians.

So you will only engage people lacking in strong opinions who you believe you can sway to your point of view? Anyone who can't be brought around to your point of view isn't worth dealing with? Don't you see the problem with this?

Even if I do not change a person's opinion after such conversation, I can still appreciate the fact that we had a respectable conversation and in the end, agree to disagree.

Falwell was too far in the extreme.

[Rommel2D]

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians ... the A.C.L.U., People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

-- Jerry Falwell, September 13th, on The 700 Club about last week's terrorist attacks

Interestingly, the part that was poorly edited out of this quote earlier in the thread, "who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle", shows that he had moderated his opinion enough to draw a distinction between people's behavior in their personal lives and their political-economic behavior. Not that he'd be arsed that such a distinction has become irrelevant to most of the contemporary public or anything...

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Actually, my point is that in a liberal democracy everyone has the right to express their own opinions (no matter how stupid or vile) and work through the political process to bring government more in line with their views. Doing so is not evil, yet you increasingly see people/groups in American society being labelled as such without cause.

Who appointed you to decide what's evil?

[Drake Tungsten]

God.

[Last Conformist]

God's a dirty goatfcuker and a Jew.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
I'm still interested in what Falwell's defenders here had to say about Saddam Hussain. Can they honestly say that they didn't applaud his death or describe him as 'evil'?

Not that I'm a Falwell defender, but I certainly didn't celebrate Saddam's death. What did that sorry spectacle achieve beyond making the Iraqi personnel look like degraded goons?

[Rommel2D]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Not that I'm a Falwell defender, but I certainly didn't celebrate Saddam's death. What did that sorry spectacle achieve beyond making the Iraqi personnel look like degraded goons?

It created the ultimate recruiting PR for Islamic extremists...

[DRoseDARs]

Anyone else find it funny how Drake STILL hasn't even acknowledged the napalm thread?

[Kuciwalker]

Because the comparison is asinine?