The First Amendment is great. It allows us to express ourselves without fear of being forcibly silenced by government. Unfortunately, some people say some pretty ridiculous things that upset others. That's the sacrifice we have to make to keep this freedom.
With that in mind, I completely support Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall's right to tweet ridiculous statements on 9/11 and Osama bin Laden. I also completely support my right to call him an idiot.
If you haven't heard about Mendenhall's tweets, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a few here, and the Beaver County Times has some more here.
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| You might not want to make stupid comments that will get people angry when they are already mad you fumbled in the Super Bowl. |
The first sentence from his first tweet wasn't bad. He was questioning the people who were celebrating death. It was a valid argument. Then he went all conspiracy theorist idiot for the rest of the tweets. Neither of the sources linked to above had Mendenhall's tweet where he said "There isn't an ignorant bone in my body." That could be debated when you consider the rest of his tweets.
Mendenhall had a problem with people hating a man "They never heard speak." What? Where was Mendenhall when bin Laden was releasing tapes left and right bragging about the attack against the World Trade Center? We didn't hear just one side. It was very clear that bin Laden was happy he orchestrated the murder of thousands of Americans and wanted to kill more. I can completely understand people hating him with a deep passion. Especially those directly affected by 9/11 and the wars that followed.
Then there was the tweet about having no evidence that bin Laden was behind 9/11. Once again, someone needs to inform Mendenhall of the multiple videos bin Laden released touting the destruction of the WTC.
I guess Mendenhall thought he passed the point of no return, as he kept adding fuel to his tweeting fire. "We'll never know what really happened. I just have a hard believing could take a skyscraper down demolition style," Mendenhall tweeted. We know exactly what happened. There is video evidence, countless witnesses and phone calls from people trapped on the planes. Four planes were taken by terrorists, who then flew the planes into strategic targets. The passengers of one plane tried to retake the plane, resulting in a crash in Somerset, Pa. These are facts. Mendenhall comes off as an ignorant conspiracy theorist.
Promoting the conspiracy that perhaps the United States government played a role in plotting 9/11 is irresponsible. It's hurtful to the families and friends of the victims, first responders and soldiers who lost and sacrificed so much on that day and in the years following.
The man has a right to believe and say stupid things. I don't even want him punished by the Steelers or the NFL. I do think someone, a coach or a teammate, needs to sit down with him and tell him how ridiculously dumb he is making himself look with his tweets.
This is not an isolated incident. Back when Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was tweeting that the NFL was like modern day slavery, Mendenhall was tweeting away about how right Peterson was.
Mendenhall says he doesn't have an ignorant bone in his body. My Google on the human hand begs to differ. According to answers.com, the human hand 27 bones in it. So Mendenhall is using 57 ignorant bones to tweet his nonsense.
Bob Dylan - With God On Our Side
This guy has no brain. I hope he's punished. He thinks he coming off smart but he's really showing what a air-headed ignorant overpaid piece of trash dumb as*s DONKEY he is. Mendenhall get out of OUR country. No body Likes you anymore!
ReplyDeleteMendenhall should be slaughtered and buried along side Osama
ReplyDeleteSteelers Nation should be embarrassed. This guy made an AS* of himself and of sports in the U.S. People are supposed to look up to him not down. These are sickening comments. This guys I.Q must be below retarded
ReplyDeleteWow. How do you really feel about what Mendenhall said?
ReplyDeleteI like that you starred out ass but had no problem with saying retarded. That's a whole other topic on which words should be acceptable words and which ones shouldn't.
Thanks for reading and commenting. I disagree with him being punished or getting out of the USA. He's certainly stupid but his tweets didn't directly attacked anyone. I really think his teammates will or have already had a few choice words with him.
I think we can all agree that there is a lot of corruption in our government, so conspiracies are bound to be believed by many. I don't think Bush had the towers lined with explosives, but I also don't think those people should be labeled as stupid. They have a right to not trust our government because they have often lied to us in the past. Don't get me wrong, the U.S. government is better than most and I'm happy that I live here, but to completely trust everything they say...now that is stupid.
ReplyDeleteThe whole "you haven't heard both sides of the story" thing is one that I support in theory. If you grow up in Germany, WWII is taught a little differently. However, Bin Laden bragged about the attacks on 9/11, so we have heard both sides of the story.
I agree with his view that it is not Christian to celebrate death. If he didn't want to come off as an assclown, he should have just left it as "What kind of person celebrates death? I believe in God. I believe we're ALL his children. And I believe HE is the ONE and ONLY judge." I don't agree with that point of view in this case, but I understand where he's coming from.
All in all, I'm really just disappointed that an athlete's comments can take the focus off such a great day in U.S. history.
I really wish people were talking about this yesterday instead (the whole thing is good, but start at the 2:08 mark)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-may-2-2011/to-kill-a-mockingturd
First, the Daily Show and the Colbert Report did an incredible job Monday night. I think everyone should watch them again.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I have no problem labeling Mendenhall as stupid. I'm all for him speaking his mind, but 9/11 is a subject very near to a lot of people. The way he spoke about it could hurt people and there could have been a much better way to go about it.
Third, and this is related to me labeling Mendenhall stupid, it's not like the government told us 9/11 happened and we're just going by their word. We saw the second plane crash into the second tower on television. We saw the towers fall from the top. To me, it's stupid to believe or hint that it was an inside job. I also label birthers as stupid and have no problem doing so. There is a difference between conspiracies and desperate attempts to grab a lot of attention.
Like he said in his follow up, I don't think he intended to hurt anyone, just have people think about this from the opposite perspective. However, he did this very poorly and it's a great example of how bad Twitter can be when in the wrong hands. Give Mendenhall an editor and his comments may have been interpreted as rational and insightful.
ReplyDeleteAs for the conspiracies, I don't believe in the 9/11 one, but if you've ever watched Loose Change I don't know how you can completely dismiss it. Our government just doesn't have a good track record with these type of things. Many believe that they knew about Pearl Harbor and ignored it so we would have increased support in WWII. The World Trade Center attacks were our generation's Pearl Harbor, so it's only natural that people are going to have similar thoughts.