Entertainment For Lively Minds
Foo Fighters v Westboro Baptist Church
Posted by DogFacedBoy on 18 September 2011 - 9:54pm.
The Foo Fighters respond to the poisonous bigots of Westboro Baptist Church picketing their Kansas City show in the only way they know how
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This must just
confuse the shit outta most of you.
Not really
Louis Theroux did two documentaries about them (the Westboro Cult that is not Foo Fighters) I think they're pretty well known over here.
I thought as much
Louis Theroux. Do you not think he's a little... sensationalistic? Tabloidy? One must despair over people who fashion aspects of their world view over these kinds of programmes on the television.
Tabloidy?
I think Theroux's films are generally the opposite. While he might pick "sensational" subjects to cover, his documentaries are usually gentle, thoughtful affairs, and lack any of the hysteria you'd get from a tabloid. More often than not he'll find a way to sympathise with the subjects of his films even when he disagrees with their actions and motives. Again, this isn't the way tabloids approach things.
Quite the opposite.
One salient feature of his modus operandi is to allow his subjects to speak for themselves. He chooses his subjects carefully.
You're right:
They're clearly waving those "God Hates Fags" placard at the funerals of murdered teenagers to make some kind of neo-Dadaist conceptual statement, but gutter journalists like Theroux never report that, do they?
Why?
Why must it MAM?
I posted that
after a long wet lunch that stretched into the evening.
I was wrong.
Thanks
Thanks for your honest response! Duly upped.
And...
The Westboro Baptist wingnuts win again - because by replying to them, even in a ridiculous way, you give them the oxygen of publicity, which is what they want. They're like the world's best internet troll, but in real life. Ignore them. Pretend they don't exist.
So
that with which you disagree strongly you ignore?
...
Played a blinder there, Len
and really added something to the thread.
Yes.
But only the truly idiotic. Like people who picket soldiers funerals with signs blaming acceptance of homosexuality for all the ills of society. They are not actually worth engaging with. They are just too stupid to be worth the effort. Dave Grohl plainly disagrees and good for him.
What good does engagement do with that lot?
Kind of agree
they're only there to wind people up and seek media attention... which they get a lot of and seems disproportionate to the size of their cult which as I understand it is a pretty small lunatic fringe thing.
Tis better to ignore them..but must be very tempting to roll up on a float, dress up as rednecks and take the piss!
The Phelps
Family is many many things, and deserving of all the epithets you can throw at them
Stupid, however, is not one of them
Either
completely ignore them or take the piss, but if you're going to take the piss it needs to be good. That was good.
You are correct that they are not stupid. They love publicity and they don't care if it's good or bad. They will just try harder to provoke a response if ignored and will never give up, because they know someone somewhere will eventually react and give them some more publicity. That's depressing.
Arguing with them just wastes your time, makes you even more annoyed and has no positive effect on them. A good successful pisstake makes you feel better for a while, OTOH, so why not have some fun.
All that - and a fish supper
At least one of the kids is a lawyer - and good one.
There's some very interesting 1st Amendment issues circling around these folks.
I agree with your 'pisstake' is right. ridicule is often a better weapon than trying to reason your way out with inherently unreasonable people
I can think of a few fundamentalist demonstrators
we've seen testing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour in the UK that I'd like to see trying to exercise their 1st Amendment rights on the streets of Kansas City.
The Phelps may be obnoxious, but they're smart enough to know pretty much where the line is in their neck of the woods that it's unwise to cross.
Dave Grohl is God!
On a banner near you soon.
They were supposed to come to Aberdeen
over some gay vicar business.
Never happened.
Great pity.
I was looking forward to charges of asault, GBH and,possibly, manslaughter upon my person.
(even though selfsame vicar is a prime prick).
Apologies on behalf of actual Christians
Those people clearly claim to be Christian, but I'm fairly sure aren't, and are idiots. If only for not understanding the gospel they claim to preach. Loving your neighbour doesn't involve telling them they're wrong and evil. It involves making a cup of tea for them and visiting them when they're sick, surely?
But let's not go down this route again, shall we?
No need to apologise, Brock old son.
There's a corner of the playing field no-one in their right mind ever visits that's chock full of weirdos and loonies, and the Phelps are over there with the beardy weirdies and the Neo Nazis, all arguing furiously and wasting their time on earth. Silly billies the lot of them. Anyone thinking they're representative of anything mainstream probably belongs over there too.
Sympathies to you, BK.
The Westboro brigade do more damage to the Christian faith than Dawkins et al could ever manage. You do wonder how they manage to twist the gospels to support their views.
General lunacy
And lack of actually reading the things, basically.
Reading vs understanding
I am sure that lot have read the Bible. It is clearly understanding what is in it that is the problem. Like Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda - its not enough to read the book, you have to know what it means.
OK, I'm an atheist but I have read the Bible and there does seem to be a problem of people reading the words and not getting the point (and picking and choosing which bits they like, which is not really allowed with religous texts as I understand it).
I rather suspect
that when they sit down to do some "reading" it's because they have been instructed which part of the Bible they need to read to bolster a specific interpretative slant.
In other words, they're always steered to read an excerpt in the context of a specific cultish belief, never with an open mind.
In addition, I doubt if there is any room for manoeuvre for the WBC Bible reader as regards making some rational sense of the complex diversity of sources that make up the Bible as it is known today; as far as they are concerned, every verse is sacred and divine. Just ask pastor.
Show me the money
I read a blog a few months ago which made a very convincing case that certain "churches" are nothing more than money making outfits: it would work something like this: they turn up unannounced and unwanted at the very places where their presence and antics are most likely to cause offence, and possibly, rile people into extreme reactions, possibly to include violence. Should an "unfortunate incident" take place, the good people of the "church" respond by instructing m'learned friends. Apparently, yer man knows his way around the law and is very careful to ensure that the "church" don't actually contravene it. All this, of course, is only a theory. Ahem.
With you on that, Badge...
...but more to the point, has no one else noticed how uncannily similar to Arlo Guthrie (90s/00s vintage) Dave G looks in that get-up?
If his band ever hits hard times he could probably make a decent living as a tribute act to the ARH / CILAH (work it out!) - if his fingerstyle playing is up to it, of course...
Top work by Grohl
But you do have to ask why the words 'man muffin' are deleted from the broadcast!
I'm with the non engagement line of thought
However, I'm also of the view that if you can take the piss, as Dave does rather well here, it's just as good. Westboro want reaction, but I doubt that laughter gives them their jollies.
The bit I'm unsure about is when not speaking out is taken as acquiescence. It's a debate that's passed by on here before. I always feel I want to say "you don't speak for me" but I'm not sure how you register that without giving them what they want.
To engage
with them about their views in any serious way is to give them and their twisted logic worth
Just rip the piss out of them - its all they deserve
Yeah
I believe there's a fairly well-supported theory that they are primarily a money-making scam. Wind people up until they hit you or trample on your First Amendment rights and then sue them for whatever you can get.
Scum.
Snap!
Uncanny timing! Truly, the lord moves in mysterious ways...
WBC
The Westboro Baptist Church is a fringe bunch of lunatics. The Foo Fighters have a global congregation of millions. I know which worries me more.
Coming soon to magazine merchandise near you
"The Word Massive is a fringe bunch of lunatics. The Guardian has a global congregation of millions. I know which worries me more."