#no confederate

[goawfma]

the only thing worse than seeing one in the south is seeing them in the north 🤷🏾

[confessionsofatvjunkie]

Remember how the finale of HIMYM was so bad it killed the spin off? Maybe the silver lining of this awful Game of Thrones season will be we won’t have to watch two white dudes make a TV about slavery not ending?!?

[frontpagewoman]

[femestella]

(!!!)

[yasbxxgie]

[AwDaniel23]

[gahdamnpunk]

Finally some good fucking news

“This week, the Virginia House voted to strike Lee-Jackson Day from the list of state holidays. The holiday honors Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson as "defenders of causes." Both men owned slaves and fought to preserve slavery in the US. In its place, the House bill proposed that the state replace it with Election Day, the first Tuesday in November, instead.“

Source (x)

[carnivaloftherandom]

Words mean things: #NoConfederate is not Censorship

First, I’m going to strongly recommend that in any instance where you believe that an abrogation of Free Speech exists, you go read the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Then, go read what the people objecting to A Thing are saying, (preferably while restraining yourself from responding until you’ve taken the time to parse through your ego response and sit with Why People Feel This Way and Why Do I Disagree.)

Literally the only thing I’m going to address here, is the fundamental flaw in every counterargument to People Objecting To A Thing, for about the eleventy billionth time.

Freedom of Speech and Expression is protected in the U.S. Constitution, yes.

The ONLY things they are protected FROM, are the government.

That’s it.

Art for sale, in any medium, on any legal topic, by anyone, is ONLY protected from government restrictions on it. And, lbr: between the MPAA RATINGS BOARD and the FCC, let alone Free Speech Zones, don’t act like there aren’t already actual government regulations on speech

The repeated conflation of People Objecting To A Thing, with Free Speech infringement, is not only a lazy, grotesque silencing of Other People’s Free Speech, it is a fraudulent invocation of Free Speech. Stop that. It’s Boy Who Cried Wolf bullshit, you know it, we know it, and I’ve got so many posts on it in the last 10 years that it is insulting on multiple levels.

The only place you are entitled to say, do, or make things in an inviolable way, without consequences, criticism, or interference, is in your own home, (assuming what you make does not violate any other extant laws.)

Once you propose it or publish it to the world, you do not get to dictate the response it receives. If you’re SELLING it, you are not guaranteed a profit, and you are not shielded from a negative response. It is beyond disingenuous to suggest that criticism of something proposed for public sale or consumption, is not allowed until the product is on the market, and if a product fails on concept, perhaps blame the Creator and not the market, who are not OBLIGATED to give you their time, money, or positive response.

Criticism is not bullying, either. There is a difference between saying, with an explanation, “I would rather eat ground glass than see this prosper,” by individuals or groups of individuals, and someone saying, “I’m going to wage personal attacks directly at this individual,” and there is certainly a difference between either of those things and threatening HARM to someone. Again: conflation of criticism with bullying, you know it’s bullshit, we know it, and we know you know it. Stop that.

*NB: Protests involving destruction of a piece of art offered for sale, by a person who purchased or was given the object as their personal property, ARE PROTECTED SPEECH, btw. It is legal to burn an American flag, ffs. You may not like it, but a person burning a book, album, home video copy of a filmed thing, photo, poster, or whatever, is not the same as the STATE doing it, and it is a person’s right to protest in this way.

The disturbing thing about the invocation of Free Speech, surrounding commercial product (if it’s being sold, it’s a product and this is all confined to the business sphere ANYWAY, so seriously: stop,) is that it is an argument specifically designed to silence actual Free Speech, usually by marginalized people who have the temerity to speak truth to privilege and power. It’s slamming a fist into a Big Red Button of agreed-upon Rights, with NO LEGAL STANDING, in order to shut people up for daring to say, “No.”

As an example: Darrell Issa hiding from constituents on the roof of his office, Pat Toomey refusing to meet with or take calls from constituents, those things, because their jobs are specifically required to allow for, “Petition for redress of grievances,” by the Constitution, are probable violations of Free Speech. HBO is not required to listen to anyone about this project, and will make their decision to do so (or not) based on what they view is a good business decision. Which is not now, and never has been, Censorship.

The Comstock Laws were Censorship, people having Opinions and not shutting up about them, is NOT.

People protesting Mapplethorpe, Not Censorship, the govt cutting funding to the NEA because of Mapplethorpe, Censorship. Do you get the point?

So, unless the funding for whatever it is that you think is being Censored is coming from the government or unless the government is threatening people with fines, shutdowns, or jail because of art that itself contains nothing illegal, (hey, FCC, about Saving Private Ryan and the reason a lot of TV stations refused to air it about 10 years ago, that was some THIN ICE,) your argument is self-serving, farcical drivel.

And as for the, “People forced off Twitter,” aspect, that gets messy. Yes, there are people who cross a line and make threats, but sometimes creators just can’t stand to be criticized (Hey, Joss, you precious snowflake, sorry not sorry we refused to coddle you about your misogyny,) and leave, (Damon Lindelof, this means you.) Threats are not to be tolerated, it goes without saying, but since some of your faves (Adam Baldwin,) have doxxed people, please don’t act like we’re new here.

Power and privilege are dangerous drugs, they lead people to think that they’re not accountable. The people who are most frequently in high dudgeon and screaming, “Free Speech,” in response to a person or group of people saying, “No, we’re not going to take this lying down,” are people who already have some level of power and privilege who just DON’T LIKE IT that people they think are BENEATH THEM have the right to tell them, “No.”

Which is exactly the reason we HAVE a 1st Amendment, so, yanno: Irony.

Insofar as Confederate is concerned, there is literally nothing stopping that production being made by the creators with their own money, they are entirely free to do so, if they believe that strongly in the project and HBO decides that it’s a better business decision to pass on it. If your counter to that fact is, “But they can’t afford it,” well them’s the breaks, buckaroo. Nobody owes them the money to make what they want.

TL;DR: CREATIVE IDEAS GET PASSED ON ALL THE TIME, THE MARKET DOESN’T OWE YOU JACK, AND STOP MAKING FALSE ARGUMENTS BECAUSE YOUR FEELINGS ARE HURT THAT PEOPLE DON’T LIKE YOUR IDEAS.