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Are we becoming a nation of incivility

Are we becoming a nation of incivility?

  • Yes

    Votes: 16 59.3%
  • No

    Votes: 11 40.7%

  • Total voters
    27
Well they didn't really preclude references to chimps when a big eared white fella was our president so why is Obama now off limits to the same jokes most every politician is subject to?

But you guys keep throwing out that race card...what you're going to accomplish is making an intelligenct and progressive political leader diminished to having his only legacy being that he was the first black man. That's gonna help you guys out a whole lot...LOL

I hadn't seen that about Michelle. What I have consistently seen is this:

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That's disgusting and not funny at all.
It's hilarious! Michelle is not attractive at all. Perhaps if you didn't act like a blind partisan you would laugh, too.
 
What about booing him?

Same thing. I think the office of presidency is owed a certain amount of respect.

We as a nation need to stop pointing fingers, and start just condemning those on the lunatic fringe who act the asshole. It is not, and should not be a partisan issue.
 
hehe.


To the OP, we're a nation of "me-firsts"...


Everyone in this nation is looking out for their own interests (I can't say I blame them)... but they're willing to do some pretty ****ty things to achieve their ends.

I think of it like this... You notice how people behave in traffic? If they behave in traffic in such a way to people they absolutely don't know... for such small rewards.. How do you think they'll behave when larger personal rewards are possible?

Basically, I've given up on the population as a whole.
And other countries don't do this? Hope you don't really believe that they don't.
 
Are we becoming a nation of incivility?

First we had the Palin crowd shouting things like "Kill him" in regards to Barack Obama.

Then we had the folk that showed up at town hall meetings, yelling and disrupting.

Now we have Joe Wilson shouting out during the President's address to Congress, Serena Williams fighting with the line judge and Kayne West interrupting the VMA awards.

Are we seeing a new rise of incivility in America today?



:lol: so it wasn't when movies about assasinating bush came out, it wasn't when politicians on the left called troops nazis, murderers and war criminals, It wasn't when a hurricane was blamed on a president, it wasn't when protestors carried signs for troops to shoot thier officers.


nah, its now, that there is a "rise" :roll:
 
It's hilarious! Michelle is not attractive at all. Perhaps if you didn't act like a blind partisan you would laugh, too.

The pic got a smile from me but i have to disagree on Michelle. She is very pretty and her dress sense is to die for.
 
It's hilarious! Michelle is not attractive at all. Perhaps if you didn't act like a blind partisan you would laugh, too.

I think she is a classy looking woman, if a bit mannish.
 
:lol: so it wasn't when movies about assasinating bush came out, it wasn't when politicians on the left called troops nazis, murderers and war criminals, It wasn't when a hurricane was blamed on a president, it wasn't when protestors carried signs for troops to shoot thier officers.


nah, its now, that there is a "rise" :roll:

Or the video game where assassinating Bush was the objective. Or the calls for war crimes proceedings. Or that the Bushes hate black folks. Or any of that...
 
Are we becoming a nation of incivility?

First we had the Palin crowd shouting things like "Kill him" in regards to Barack Obama.

Then we had the folk that showed up at town hall meetings, yelling and disrupting.

Now we have Joe Wilson shouting out during the President's address to Congress, Serena Williams fighting with the line judge and Kayne West interrupting the VMA awards.

Are we seeing a new rise of incivility in America today?

Meh, I wish we could shout and abuse our politicans in town meetings

I would say it is just a minority. I mean we have tossed abuse at our PM for weeks, it is a national past time watching him slowly collapse.

Off topic but i couldn't believe what Kanye did interrupting the poor girl.
 
:lol: so it wasn't when movies about assasinating bush came out, it wasn't when politicians on the left called troops nazis, murderers and war criminals, It wasn't when a hurricane was blamed on a president, it wasn't when protestors carried signs for troops to shoot thier officers.


nah, its now, that there is a "rise" :roll:

This is a good example of what I am talking about. People who point fingers rather than condemn those on their own side who act the asshole. That is the problem with America today, and why politics is continuing to get less and less civil.
 
One of my more arcane hobbies is to read Civil War letters. Letters both to and from the soldiers. Union and Confederate.

The written content is - almost without fail - strikingly magnificent. Always articulate and beautifully presented, always extremely civil and polite, and always very deeply insightful.

We have definitely lost a good measure of this wonderous gift.
 
This is a good example of what I am talking about. People who point fingers rather than condemn those on their own side who act the asshole. That is the problem with America today, and why politics is continuing to get less and less civil.




You should have said this to the thread starter. Pointing me out, makes you look part of the problem you bring up. :shrug:
 
The pic got a smile from me but i have to disagree on Michelle. She is very pretty and her dress sense is to die for.
Since I, like most men, don't pay much attention to dress, all I have to go on is her physical appearance, which isn't that great from where I'm sitting.
I think she is a classy looking woman, if a bit mannish.
Wouldn't that be right up your alley, so to speak? ;)
 
You should have said this to the thread starter. Pointing me out, makes you look part of the problem you bring up. :shrug:

Go back to my first post in this thread. Or my second.
 
Whats racial about it?

Come on Jall. You know there is a long history of white supremists claiming blacks are sub human monkeys/chimps/apes. There is a reason why some folks are sensative to comparisons of any black figures to monkeys/chimps/apes.

That said, I don't think every time we see it, its automatically racist. Bush was caricatured as a chimp based on physical features and I don't think its a stretch to make the same caricature for Obama based solely on his physical appearance.

For those who are offended, I urge you to look at the context. The Michelle Obama pic that was posted was part of a website that mocks all celebrities comparing them to animals or other bizzare looking individuals. Comparing Michelle Obama to Zira isn't racially motivated here, its just an attempt at humor - one that made me chuckle.

For those who don't have a problem with these sort of caricatures, don't pretend there isn't a long history of racists using similar caricatures.
 
Meh, I wish we could shout and abuse our politicans in town meetings

I would say it is just a minority. I mean we have tossed abuse at our PM for weeks, it is a national past time watching him slowly collapse.

Off topic but i couldn't believe what Kanye did interrupting the poor girl.
I so wish we'd do something similar to the UK's Parilament and have a periodic question time.
 
no, thank you. i remember everything you mentioned.

i DO NOT remember a congressman calling a president a liar during an address to congress.

Nope. At the same time, I don't MULTIPLE congressman booing a President during the State of the Union Event. So what's worse? A single congressman stating "You Lie" while the President addresses Congress about Health Care or an entire large contingent of a party interrupting and booing a president while addressing congress and giving his State of the Union?

i don't NOT remember cries of "kill him" at a presidential rally

Nope. However I can remember people here, and elsewhere, remarking how it was "too bad" it wasn't a grenade instead of a shoe thrown at him. What about Protestors holding signs calling for Bush "Dead or Alive" with the "Alive" X'ed out? Or signs of Bush with a gun to his head? Is it somehow worse if some idiot screams it instead of putting it on a giant sign? Or how about Nobel Prize winners saying, to wonderful applause, that they would "Love to kill" Barack Obama right now?

and i do NOT remember people calling our first lady a gorilla. do you?

No, the monkey references was saved for Bush. Whore was used however.

Oh, and lets not say race fueld insults was only present on one side

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Tlloyd_UTCondiRice.jpg


Has Obama been called a Terrorist in a wide spread fashion yet? Have they accused him purposefully allowing a terrorist attack for political aspirations? Called him a war hero? I think he may actually have joined with Bush in regards to images of him relating him to a vampire (Bush sucking on the statue of liberty, Bush sucking on a baby, etc). Has there been an entire Television series dedicated to insulting Obama yet? And don't worry about those links to Obama being the anti-christ, while Bush undoubtably had some, everyone knew from multitude of bloggers and leftists that Cheney was "the devil". What about people going on live national TV on a non-political show and telling the world that they feel that Obama hates an entire segment of the population? (and that Beyonce's video was the best ever! The Best Ever! ;))

No, I'm sorry, but you're wrong and looking at this completely and utterly with hyper partisan glasses on. The hate was there and has been there, on all sides, for some time now. What we're seeing is two fold:

1) The other side is in power which brings it more to the attention of that side as its now more targeted at them

2) We have increased amount of technology, and simple access, over the past 10 years. There wasn't dozens and dozens of cameras at every political rally, now i think it'd be impossible to find many rallies that don't have at least 3 video cameras of SOME form. Internet message boards and blogs weren't as proflic and the spread of information was not nearly as wide spread or quick. The world, in regards to information and how its discovered, distributed, and discussed is largely different now from 2000 or even 2004.

jokes aren't off limits, racial jokes should be off limits. but that's just me, and millions of other civilized people.

And can you prove or assert with certainty that somehow that was done because "OMG She's a black woman" and not because "wow they look alike"?

Cause obvious I mean, everyone doing the "warchimp" thing or the "no see, no hear, no speak" thing with Bush obvious was thinking "Haha, this'll teach that midnight white nigger whats what!". :roll:

COULD it be racist? Definitely. But in and of itself is it inherently racist? Absolutely not.
 
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Since I, like most men, don't pay much attention to dress, all I have to go on is her physical appearance, which isn't that great from where I'm sitting.

Must have very different tastes when it comes to what is pretty on a woman.

michelle-obama-vogue-cover.jpg


I admit i was one of those who fawned when she came to UK to visit, she couldn't have done it better
 
Come on Jall. You know there is a long history of white supremists claiming blacks are sub human monkeys/chimps/apes. There is a reason why some folks are sensative to comparisons of any black figures to monkeys/chimps/apes.

That's not a singularly black thing, much as race baiters and those who need race as a crutch in debate would like to annex it as their own. It was done to the Chinese, to the Irish, to Africans, to Europeans by other Europeans.

It's not a particularly black thing: its what humans do to each other...because monkeys are a step down on the ladder but not so absurd as calling another human a turtle or a goose.

I don't buy the whole poor, down trodden black experience of being called a monkey right before massa's whip came barreling down. That's over now.

That said, I don't think every time we see it, its automatically racist. Bush was caricatured as a chimp based on physical features and I don't think its a stretch to make the same caricature for Obama based solely on his physical appearance.

Exactly. Which prompted my question: what's racist about it?

I notice she ran like hell from the question.
 
I so wish we'd do something similar to the UK's Parilament and have a periodic question time.

I wish we could steal your primaries ... and mid terms ... and town meetings ...

We may have PMQ which is used every week to give another kicking to Brown whilst he is down but believe me, your system is much better when it comes to holding a politican to account no matter how much it seems it does nothing.
 
For those who don't have a problem with these sort of caricatures, don't pretend there isn't a long history of racists using similar caricatures.

It certainly CAN be racist. Anyone saying it absolutely can't be is insane. I just think its also wrong to say that it absolutely IS racist.

Context matters in that and there is no reason to see that and immedietely, instantly, assume the person is making a racist joke or trying to be racist or claiming that is what it is.

Perhaps in an absolute vaccum that assuption that could be assumed, but things don't exist in an absolute vacuum.

And I reject this notion that someone shouldn't post it or make such jokes out of this asinine feeling of Political Correctness so many people have.
 
That's not a singularly black thing, much as race baiters and those who need race as a crutch in debate would like to annex it as their own. It was done to the Chinese, to the Irish, to Africans, to Europeans by other Europeans.

It's not a particularly black thing: its what humans do to each other...because monkeys are a step down on the ladder but not so absurd as calling another human a turtle or a goose.

I don't buy the whole poor, down trodden black experience of being called a monkey right before massa's whip came barreling down. That's over now.

You are quite correct that the monkey/subhuman slur has been used against other races and ethnicities. I remember the first time I saw an old political cartoon with an ape dressed like a leprachaun in a history class. It made no sense to me and my class. My prof had to explain to all of us that it was a common slur against the "subhuman" Irish at the time the cartoon was published.

That said, I do think blacks have it a little different. Most ethnicities were assimilated and no longer had to deal with severe prejudice in a generation or two. The Irish were slurred in the mid 1800's, but the turn of the 20th century they were mainstream and running the political machines of many major cities. Blacks were not allowed to assimulate for years, first due to slavery and then segregation. They've dealt with this slur for centuries, not a generation or two. I can understand sensativity on their part.

And again, that said, I think we've come a long way on race and such caricatures no longer are exclusively racist.
 
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