Seriously anti-semitic article re: Mel Gibson in The Telegraph, UK

[oberliner]

Some highlights:

Mel Gibson deserves pity, not pillory
By Andrew O'Hagan


<snip>

There's a problem here. Jews, and by extension Israelis, are un-insultable in ethnic terms, though everybody else is. I know it's hard to tell a people who saw six million of their number murdered to turn the other cheek, but turn the other cheek they must, unless they want to present themselves as the great unimpeachable race apart.

Gibson's absurd remark should be like water off a duck's back, but no: in the eyes of American Jews, it is a sin against nature, and he must be punished to within an inch of his life.

<snip>

There seems to be no question of forgiveness for Mel Gibson. No question of proportion, to say nothing of understanding for a damaged person struggling with the nightmare of alcoholism. We need not plead his case, but perhaps, in the midst of the mass execration now engulfing him, we should remind ourselves that no people which cares for balance and calmness - not even God's people - should assume itself to exist above the common miseries of man.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/08/02/do0203.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2006/08/02/ixopinion.html

[Orrex]

1. Yeah, those Jews have had it too easy for too long

:sarcasm:

(mods: if this bit of snarkiness is over the top, please delete)

[rockymountaindem]

2. That's whack

I don't know what to say about that. I'm not giving them the satisfaction of clicking that link though.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. That could have been written here!

I am appalled at the minimization of anti-Semitism by some members of DU. Then, when two real stories come along showing ACTUAL anti-Semitism, it is blown-off or treated as some conspiracy to get every one's minds off of Israel. I think it says something about someone when they deny, minimize, or mock racism, especially when it is right up in their face!

[NYCGirl]

4. If Gibson had gone on a tirade against blacks, would the Telegraph

be saying the same things?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. The message the author gives to Jewish people is "suck it up"

It's easy for a white male middle-class conservative centre-right Telegraph columnist to say.

[survivor999]

Ahem... Freedom os speech?

So, yes, suck it up is about right.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. That's right. And I'm free to say

that the author is a piece of shit British anti-semite.

Who probably eats too much boiled cabbage, has shitty breath and horrible teeth.

[survivor999]

13. Fair enough!

:) :)

[mr blur]

15. How incredibly enlightened of you, and witty too.

The Telegraph is an incredibly bigoted right-wing British newspaper which probably makes it the equivalent of your American mainstream media. I understand you don't actually have a left-wing in the US, so you can't be expected to understand. Still, nice bigoted anti-British slur there. Well done! Award yourself another Big Mac and a bucket of Coke and get back to your widescreen Nascar drivel. See, easy, isn't it?

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Yep.

Glad you got the joke.

:thumbsup:

[survivor999]

17. Easy and innocuous!

See? Suck it up! Let people talk.

[dionysus]

6. snips seriously taken out of context, too, for fairness;

>>snip

Gibson reportedly said: "F---ing Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

Silly man - pathetic, even. There isn't an ounce of reason in what Gibson said, but then, who could expect there to be? Well, the entire Western world, apparently, which imagines that what a drunk Catholic actor says in the extremity of his cups might represent a threat to civilisation.

>>snip

In the present Middle East crisis - and since the horror of 9/11 overall - it has become pretty impossible to make any remarks about Jews or against Israel which are not immediately seen to be either monstrously anti-Semitic, or indicative of supporting terrorism. The thought-police are out in force in almost every publication in America, and to suggest that the Israeli lobby has an undue weight on American foreign policy - as two writers did recently in the London Review of Books - can cause a storm of protest, much of it insinuating that the authors or the publications concerned hate Jews.

Further, it is suggested that any Jews who criticise Israeli actions are self-hating. These seem to me to be insults of a much more worrying kind.

>>snip

You can't police thoughts; and only a fool would seek to police the rantings of a drunken actor. Hollywood Jews, in the last century, were often the very people who fought for liberal freedoms - of speech, of thought, of political complexion - and their recent oversensitivity to insult puts them in the seat of their former enemies, the McCarthyites who once sought to silence so many of them.



seems fairly evenhanded to me if you read the whole piece.

[NYCGirl]

7. Of course, few — and especially few liberals — are seeking to silence

Gibson, as the writer says.

[dionysus]

8. Mel's a flippin idiotic loon, who cares what he thinks?

he was brainwashed by his holocaust-denying father.

[High Plains]

9. Okay, where is the anti-semitism in the extract you posted?

The author complains that Jews are "uninsultable in ethnic terms," while he claims everyone else is fair game. I think the author's premise is flawed--try making cracks about Italians and the mafia, for instance--but hardly anti-semitic.

Do I fail to see the anti-semitism in front of me, or do you see it where it doesn't exist?

[survivor999]

10. Bzzzzzz. Second choice. n/t

[treestar]

12. I'm with you

What is "anti-semitic" about talking about this?

[jonnyblitz]

14. there is no anti-semtism in this article. nt

[cali]

23. For once we agree

I don't see any antisemitism in this rather banal article either. But then I can't even work up any indignation over the rantings of Gibson. I think it's all been completely overblown, and says more about the American (and yes that includes DU)fascination with celebrity than anything else.

[jonnyblitz]

28. I bet we have agreed more than once.

:hi:

[oberliner]

19. Must be me

Of course, I do feel that Jews are "un-insultable in ethnic terms while everyone else is."

And I do present myself as being part of the "great unimpeachable race apart" for getting upset about Mel's comments.

And, of course, I do claim Mel Gibson's remark was "a sin against nature, and he must be punished to within an inch of his life."

Or at least that's what the author of this article is accusing me and "Jews" of.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. If A Public Figure Made Racist Remarks About African Americans

he would be pilloried too.


If you're in the public eye there are just things you shouldn't say unless you want to be ostracized.

[Codeine]

21. This board would be ripping him to shreds

and deservedly, I might add. Nobody would suggest for a second that black Americans should shrug it off, let it go, or are trying to silence debate.

A curious double standard at work here, methinks.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. Earl Butz Had To Resign His Cabinet Post Thirty Years Ago

for racist remarks.

Maybe Americans have a lower tolerance for overt racism.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. One would think, with a name like "Earl Butz", he would know not to

throw stones at other people.

Ah, well. At least he got the chance to load all our food with High Fructose Corn Syrup before he was sent on his way.


Thanks, Mr. Butz.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. Mel Is A Nasty Fellow-A n Anti-Semite, Misogynist, And Homophobe

"Some gay rights groups accused Gibson of homophobia, after a 1992 interview in the Spanish magazine El Pais. Asked what he thought of gay people, he said, "They take it up the ass." Gibson gestured descriptively, continuing, "This is only for taking a shit."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Gibson



I guess he has never seen mainstream porn which is full of heterosexual anal sex.

[TorchTheWitch]

24. "This is only for taking a shit."

Unless you're a woman (straight, bi or lesbian).
:grr:

And it's homosexual MEN that is a problem... two chicks getting it on is every redblooded American male's dream.
:mad:

This outrageous double standard has always pissed me the hell off. Homophobic Gibson just doesn't want anything up his own ass.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

32. You Should Listen To The Eminem Song-Rainman

He has a lot of fun with this double standard.

[Nikki Stone 1]

25. Funny, if his remarks had simply been misogynist, there would be no issue

Der Gropinator could physically assault women NOT DRUNK at that was ok. Women count for less than anyone.

[survivor999]

27. Men suck!

[Warren DeMontague]

29. Really? You've seen people defending Arnold on this board?

That's surprising.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. You Do Know These Reactionary Attitudes Come In Clusters

eom

[Cha]

30. So forgive mad max, already

..is he going to forgive those he's been railing against?