@hawkeye10,
Quote:
if they are so hard to identify that regular folk need help in finding them i have to wonder if we should be concerned at all
Oh, the purveyors of bigotry and hatred are not hard to identify at all. Several are quite visible in this thread. It's silence in response to what they say we should be concerned about, not the sentiments they voice.
I'd be much more concerned if they're weren't some outrage about Robertson's blatantly bigoted remarks, because negatively stereotyping, and demeaning, and defaming, and inciting hatred toward, an entire group, should not be met with neutrality, let alone indifference, if we have any humanistic values.
These remarks are not legitimate Biblical sentiments--they are personal expressions of bigotry, designed to promote hatred.
Robertson promotes intolerance, and, for that reason, it is rather ironic that he's become the current poster boy for someone his supporters, like Sarah Palin, feel should not only be tolerated, but who, further, represents "Christian morals" and "American Values". Well, that may be true if Christians no longer believe in the Golden Rule, and Americans have stopped believing that
all men are created equal.
If A & E wants to continue to employee someone who promotes intolerance and hate, that's all right with me, that's their business, if they don't want to continue employing someone like that, that's also their business, and it's all right with me. It's up to me whether I want to patronize their business by viewing their channel and programing. That's the extent of my control as a consumer. I can take my viewing elsewhere.
But I'd never try to silence those, like GL.A.A.D, who have every reason and right to protest being defamed in this way, nor would I try to demean and marginalize their efforts by dismissing them as some "minority pressure group", rather than according them a legitimate civil rights advocacy, for a group that has historically been on the receiving end of considerable discrimination and hate. We should applaud them for speaking out.