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DFP - Westboro Church Founder Near Death - Official ES Fred Phelps Death Watch

Dan T.

By Dan T.
in The Tailgate

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Burgold

Burgold

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Had an interesting interview about Phelps yesterday with Jody Armour, a USC prof of law.  One thing he suggested was that Phelps may have actually helped gay causes in a contrarian way by putting a hateful face on the bigotry against them.  He helped concretize the ugliness.

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gbear

gbear

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Had an interesting interview about Phelps yesterday with Jody Armour, a USC prof of law.  One thing he suggested was that Phelps may have actually helped gay causes in a contrarian way by putting a hateful face on the bigotry against them.  He helped concretize the ugliness.

 

If he had the Carroll O'conner (Archie Bunker) impact, I never got the impression he intended to do so. 

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Dan T.

Dan T.

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Who believes in the First Amendment?  If nothing else, the Westboro Baptist Church, put that belief to the test.  That should be their only  legacy after Fred and all of his hateful followers are dead.  They pushed their First Amendment rights to the breaking point and tested our ability to live by the credo "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." 

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Larry

Larry

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Had an interesting interview about Phelps yesterday with Jody Armour, a USC prof of law.  One thing he suggested was that Phelps may have actually helped gay causes in a contrarian way by putting a hateful face on the bigotry against them.  He helped concretize the ugliness.

 

I can see that reasoning. 

 

I have occasionally expressed the opinion that Archie Bunker did more to make open racism unacceptable than MLK did.  By becoming the icon for it. 

 

But I also find myself of the opinion that if WBC had chosen to do exactly the same things, at the funerals of people who died of AIDS, instead of at the funerals of straight soldiers, then he'd be hailed as a hero, and probably be a member of the US Senate, today. 

 

 

Yeah, WBC is hated, by a whole bunch of people.  But not because they hate gays. 

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SJValleySkinz

SJValleySkinz

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I can see that reasoning. 

 

I have occasionally expressed the opinion that Archie Bunker did more to make open racism unacceptable than MLK did.  By becoming the icon for it. 

 

But I also find myself of the opinion that if WBC had chosen to do exactly the same things, at the funerals of people who died of AIDS, instead of at the funerals of straight soldiers, then he'd be hailed as a hero, and probably be a member of the US Senate, today. 

 

 

Yeah, WBC is hated, by a whole bunch of people.  But not because they hate gays. 

 

You realize Topeka is an the U.S and not Russia right?

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RansomthePasserby

RansomthePasserby

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So it ISN'T a religious brainwashing motivating them? They're just going around instigating confrontations on subseptible people because they make money on damages?

They make enough money doing that? They win a lot of cases? What is the loophole they're using?

Sorry for all the questions.

Not sure, but they were very successful civil rights lawyers back in the day, so I imagine they're good at figuring out how to win in court.

That being said, I'm not saying they DON'T believe what they preach, but fanaticism isn't the only (and maybe not even the primary) motivation.

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Forehead

Forehead

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I know we haven't done the ES death pool in a few years (probably just as well) but Fred Phelps would have been worth 1,000,000 points, in my opinion.  I won't celebrate a man's death, but I do think the country is better off without him.

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Predicto

Predicto

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Do you really think this psychopath would suddenly be a hero if all he did was refrain from protesting at funerals of soldiers?

 

Larry may be overstating his point, but he is correct.  Pretty much no one cared about Westboro when they were just tormenting the families at funerals of dead gay kids.   It was when they went after soldiers that the public suddenly got outraged by their cruelty.   

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balki1867

balki1867

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Larry may be overstating his point, but he is correct.  Pretty much no one cared about Westboro when they were just tormenting the families at funerals of dead gay kids.   It was when they went after soldiers that the public suddenly got outraged by their cruelty.   

 

Couldn't agree more.  In Michigan a few years ago there was an anti-bullying bill that was about to be passed and certain religious groups lobbied the state government pretty hard, saying that it violated their first-amendment-protected religious right to make bigoted comments to gay teenagers.

 

If the WBC stopped picketing soldiers' funerals but continued to believe what they believe, they'd be just one of hundreds of other hate groups hiding behind the bible.

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balki1867

balki1867

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CNN is discussing how his death might be connected to missing Malaysian Flight 370.

 

Haha, I can't wait for Wolf Blitzer to join the broadcast and tell everyone that according to his source with the Boston PD, they already have the person responsible for both of these things in custody.

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