Effigies?

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So, what do you all think of hanging, burning, or otherwise executing a current political figure in effigy?

 

Not a big deal. Not great, but not terrible either.

 

As opposed to doing it for real?

 

Great way to annoy the USSS.

So I guess if you hate America, it's awesome.

EDIT: Disclaimer: As I make it a habit to use the words and phrases, "bomb, terrorism, praying toward Mecca, Jihad, Islam, Mohammed, death to America, etc" when speaking on the phone--so as to annoy the NSA--I clearly hate America. Therefore I think hanging in effigy is awesome.

 

It all depends. Effigies of Republicans are perfectly acceptable. Democrats, not so much as it is deemed "racist"

 

Just a little Halloween fun.

Well that's no fun at all. I know it's Halloween, but couldn't you have been a pirate or something today? I mean you already play the victim the other 364 days of the year...

 

Nothing wrong with it. There's a hell of a lot worse things that people can (and do) legally do to people. The one that I've always found strange (related to this) is how countries make it illegal to burn the flag. Never quite got my head around that logic.

 

DR, I think the post in question was more a result of the two guys that got arrested for hanging an effigy of Obama, while the hung effigy of Palin got left in place for a week with nothing more than a stern talking-to. Of course, from what I've read, the two guys in the first also broke into someone's apartment for materials or something, and they didn't do it on their property, but on a University campus.

 

NOG, come on. Do I really need to explain the difference in significance in hanging a white person from a porch in California vs. a black person from a tree in the South? I know I don't to Snook, hence my comment. You and I see a white mannequin with a noose and see it as a tasteless but harmless joke because, like mine, I'm sure none of your relatives or anyone they knew were ever lynched for being white. How do you think a black person sees it? In a southern state? You can't possibly be this blind.

I'm sure if someone publicly incinerated the effigy of a Jewish politician or public figure in Germany, some would feel quite a bit differently about it.

 

I take great offense to both, DR. Far from seeing no harm to it, I see a great deal of harm in both of them, the one no less than the other because of the way history has gone. Are you honestly saying you'd have no problem with a 'halloween display' that had an Obama effigy tied up like game on a spit and roasted over a fake fire?

 

DR, I know about history and such, but to be honest I don't care -- if it is wrong for one it is wrong for everyone. If we truly strive for equality then we can't make a distinction based on race -- IMHO hanging an effigy should be as unacceptable as using the "N" word in public discourse. If all people are created equal, then hanging any one person (in effigy) should be considered as vile and socially inappropriate as any other. Otherwise we have an Animal Farm situation "all people are equal but some are more equal than others."

I voted for the second option, but my disgust and disapproval for all effigy burning (of real life people, anyhow) is not sufficiently reflected in that option.

 

So what you are saying DR is that it is wrong in a southern state, because of history. So by that logic the one in ohio was ok because it was a northen state?

 

Look guys - I dislike burning, hanging, shooting, eating, mugging, screwing or serenading anyone in effigy. I also have a problem with flag burning. Both are however protected forms of free speech and as long as they are not a call to violence, while I find them abhorrent, I will defend someone's right to expressing themselves.

In the case of the guy from California, he was clearly doing it as a Halloween joke. Yeah he's a Democrat and yeah, he's a tool. But you have to take the intent of the person into account. Does he want Sarah Palin dead? Is he trying to intimidate other white people into not voting for her? Of course not, he's just being an ass. Can you say the same for the guys who were arrested in Kentucky? If you can, great - I'll chalk this up to two more idiots with a broken sense of humor. But they were arrested for this, so I doubt it.

There is not a historical precedent for hanging the effigies of white people as a form of intimidation and threat of violence anywhere in the United States the way there absolutely is in the southern states toward blacks. This practice dates back to the civil war and was especially common during the civil rights era. And though the practice is extremely rare today, when it happens it is still taken very seriously. It's right up there with cross burning and swastikas.

If Colin Powell or Condi Rice had ever run for President and some dickhead hung his effigy by a noose from a tree I would say exactly the same thing. In both instances, I don't approve of what was done - but any way you guys try to slice it, the circumstances mean these two situations are not equal (though I understand your reasoning). Certain symbols carry significant meaning and since all three of us are white we will never fully understand what this means to a black person. I however am trying my best.

 

Certain symbols carry significant meaning and since all three of us are white we will never fully understand what this means to a black person. I however am trying my best.

This I can get behind -- I could imagine if it went to trial it would be brought up that the act of hanging -- or cross burning -- DOES have a history. But the baseline revulsion for me is the same. I guess dickheads (man, DR, I haven't heard that epithet in YEARS!) span all sorts of spectra.

 

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. The people arrested in the south will probably be charged with a "hate crime" and do extra jail time. The guy in California on the other hand will be invited to a better class of cocktail party.

 

Looks like moral relativism to me, liberal scum!

 

Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander. If you want to bring the force of law against one group for an effigie, then anyone resorting to such vile acts to show their political views. That clown in California lived in a prominently homosexual community, while Palin has made something of a big deal of her religious faith during the campaign. Her selection was to be an olive branch to the Evangelicals that have traditionally supported the republican party. It was an act of hatred, just as vile as the display of Obama in effigie.

The guy in California should face the same legal action as these guys in Kentucky for the display.

 

Perhaps Gnarff, but hanging Palin in effigy will not bring an angry mob and riots. Sometimes laws are different in different regions for a reason.

... unless the christian right soccer mom crowd is more violent than I thought.

 

I voted for the second option - legal but distasteful. The one thing everyone keeps overlooking - well maybe not everyone, but everyone saying that the guy in California should be charged the same as someone in Kentucky - is that the guy in California did this on the porch OF HIS OWN HOUSE. That's totally different than doing it at the campus of a public university. The distinction is one of private versus public property. There's tons of stuff that is legal to do on your own property that you cannot do on public property.

I don't like either one of the examples, but saying that both are identical and the punishments should be exactly the same is ignoring serveral important facts of the two cases.

 

As a student of the Revolution, I see nothing wrong with it, on either side - And God Bless the Sons of Liberty!

http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/related/sons.htm

Well, it almost did. In fact, one of the reasons the mayor asked the kid with Palin's effigy to take it down was because he feared that it would result in violence to him and his house.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27430997/