Liam Neeson

Octafish

guitarfishbay said:

Watch his interview on ABC and John Barnes on Sky then make your mind up.

I have no idea why he thought it was a good idea to make this story public. 

Strikes me as a classic case of lost in showbiz.

heavyrocker

EricTheWeary said:

He has said yes he would have had similar thoughts if the rapist had been white ( ‘if he’d been Irish, Scot, Lithuanian...’). 

That doesn’t make it any less racist though. And you’ve hit the nail on the head - if it was a white man then he would have to have been Irish, Scot etc. Not enough to just leave it at white person. Our whole culture and terms of reference are steeped in racism and most people, as this thread shows, aren’t even aware of it.

Octafish

heavyrocker said:

EricTheWeary said:

He has said yes he would have had similar thoughts if the rapist had been white ( ‘if he’d been Irish, Scot, Lithuanian...’). 

That doesn’t make it any less racist though. And you’ve hit the nail on the head - if it was a white man then he would have to have been Irish, Scot etc. Not enough to just leave it at white person. Our whole culture and terms of reference are steeped in racism and most people, as this thread shows, aren’t even aware of it.

I thought it was telling that one of his first questions to his friend was "what colour were they?"

Sassafras

heavyrocker said:

Emp_Fab said:

Boils my piss.  Not Liam Neeson, but all the morons calling for his head on a pike because he told the story of how he once wanted to attack a black man, any black man, after a friend of his was raped by one.  He told the story about how he was so furious that his anger drove him to that place, and that he realised afterwards how wrong that was, and that we should be more honest in our discussions about racism.  Absolutely Liam.  Yet, here we are with the professionally-waiting-to-be-offended completely missing the entire point of your disclosure and screaming "RACIST !!!  RACIST !!!".

They are so short-sighted, or just too thick, to be unable to comprehend what he's actually saying.  It's depressing and merely reaffirms my belief that the vast majority of people are complete numbnuts, dingleberries and spudnudgers.

Well I must be thick then because I don’t understand what he’s saying. Is he saying that if your friend gets raped by a black man then it’s understandable to be so angry that you want to murder a black man, any black man? Um, sorry but that is racist.

I think his main point is that such feelings are unacceptable and that he deeply regrets having them.
These days we're encouraged to share our deepest feelings and as soon as we do we're demonised by people trying to validate their high moral virtue, as if they've never had any shameful feelings or urges.

Sassafras

I fucking hate the social media moral outrage brigade. If I see one I'm going to beat the crap out of them.

boogieman

Does it matter that he thought about specifically murdering a black man?  The fact is he’s admitted he wanted to murder someone and went as far as carrying a weapon around for a week while he contemplated doing it. If that’s his reaction, and he was seriously that angry that he thought about it that much, then he’s got huge anger and/or mental issues.

Or of course it may be all “any publicity is good publicity” or La La Land celebrity bullshit. 

horse

Octafish said:

heavyrocker said:

EricTheWeary said:

He has said yes he would have had similar thoughts if the rapist had been white ( ‘if he’d been Irish, Scot, Lithuanian...’). 

That doesn’t make it any less racist though. And you’ve hit the nail on the head - if it was a white man then he would have to have been Irish, Scot etc. Not enough to just leave it at white person. Our whole culture and terms of reference are steeped in racism and most people, as this thread shows, aren’t even aware of it.

I thought it was telling that one of his first questions to his friend was "what colour were they?"

Exactly.

Also, going out armed intending to kill a random innocent person for several weeks is not normal behaviour.

Strikes me he is so obsessed by sharing his 'complex troubled personality' that he has no concept of reality.

Terrible thing to have done. Bizarre thing to share with the media.

Octafish

Sassafras said:

heavyrocker said:

Emp_Fab said:

Boils my piss.  Not Liam Neeson, but all the morons calling for his head on a pike because he told the story of how he once wanted to attack a black man, any black man, after a friend of his was raped by one.  He told the story about how he was so furious that his anger drove him to that place, and that he realised afterwards how wrong that was, and that we should be more honest in our discussions about racism.  Absolutely Liam.  Yet, here we are with the professionally-waiting-to-be-offended completely missing the entire point of your disclosure and screaming "RACIST !!!  RACIST !!!".

They are so short-sighted, or just too thick, to be unable to comprehend what he's actually saying.  It's depressing and merely reaffirms my belief that the vast majority of people are complete numbnuts, dingleberries and spudnudgers.

Well I must be thick then because I don’t understand what he’s saying. Is he saying that if your friend gets raped by a black man then it’s understandable to be so angry that you want to murder a black man, any black man? Um, sorry but that is racist.

I think his main point is that such feelings are unacceptable and that he deeply regrets having them.
These days we're encouraged to share our deepest feelings and as soon as we do we're demonised by people trying to validate their high moral virtue, as if they've never had any shameful feelings or urges.

  I think the whole thing from Neeson's faux angst to the moral outrage is straight out of Southpark episode.

heavyrocker

boogieman said:

Does it matter that he thought about specifically murdering a black man?  The fact is he’s admitted he wanted to murder someone and went as far as carrying a weapon around for a week while he contemplated doing it. If that’s his reaction, and he was seriously that angry that he thought about it that much, then he’s got huge anger and/or mental issues. 

Yes it does matter. Wanting revenge on the person who did it is understandable but the object of the hatred is one person. Saying you want revenge on any black man is objectifying a whole race, all of whom, except one man, had nothing to do with the crime.

Cols

https://newsthump.com/2019/02/05/honesty-no-longer-the-best-policy-confirms-liam-neeson/

“I did something I’m not proud of, at a time when my mind probably wasn’t right due to a traumatic event in the life of someone close to me, but no-one got hurt and I soon realised I was wrong. I’m ashamed of how I behaved.

“But it turns out I should have kept my big mouth shut, because stories about people realising they were behaving in a terrible way are clearly not something the public is ready for.

“It seems no-one is interested in the ‘realised I was wrong’ bit, and more in the ‘went around angrily looking for revenge’ bit.“

Bellycaster

Whoever Lolled my fact, you cannot sink to any lower level of pathetic.

Sassafras

If no one's every said or done something regrettable or had any shameful thoughts or urges then they can really congratulate themselves on being morally superior and the best they can be. Doesn't make me want to be like them though.

octatonic

Sometimes people LOL by accident on the mobile app @Bellycaster.

heavyrocker

Bellycaster said:

Whoever Lolled my fact, you cannot sink to any lower level of pathetic.

It wasn’t me who lolled it but I can understand why someone might. You didn’t go into detail but it was almost like David Brent pointing to a black man and going “look he’s not offended!”

pmbomb

jonnyburgo said:

We were probably all a bit racist in the 70s it was pretty much the cultural norm, I remember my dad dropping some right clangers when I was a kid, thing is I remember laughing along with him half the time.

I think we all are now. It's the sea we swim in, and I suspect favouring "people like me" over "people less like me" is part of our evolutionary make-up.

Trick is to use the awareness of it against itself. We have choice.

Basically that's what Neeson was saying. Brave step I think.

Bellycaster

octatonic said:

Sometimes people LOL by accident on the mobile app @Bellycaster.

True, they do, but I doubt it on this occasion.

Thanks to @heavyrocker ;mind reading skills for explaining why I posted something

heavyrocker

Sassafras said:

If no one's every said or done something regrettable or had any shameful thoughts or urges then they can really congratulate themselves on being morally superior and the best they can be. Doesn't make me want to be like them though.

Some good whataboutism there. You should use that defence in a court of law should the ocassion ever arise.

Dominic

I wanted to kill a Loller ............but I ended up thinking better of it
I'm going to out myself in about 25 years and destroy my career

Philly_Q

I think in the initial interview he was primarily trying to make a point about understanding the urge to take revenge, to take the law into your own hands, when something terrible happens to a loved one.  And realising now that was a mistake.  I'm not sure he really thought about the seriousness of what he was saying. 

(He was also using this powerful personal anecdote to publicise his latest geriatric-tough-guy action movie, which rather trivialises it.)

Unfortunately he completely obscured his own point by clumsily talking about the race of the attacker in such a way that that's become the main focus of attention.  If he'd chosen his words a little more carefully it might not have blown up in this way.  Perhaps he did actually intend race to be part of the discussion - which seems to be what he's saying in the aftermath - but he was naive if he didn't realise that was asking for trouble.  Big trouble.

In the current climate, I do understand some of the reaction.  What is utterly stupid is the way some commentators ignore half of what he said - or never listened to it in the first place - and want to write him off as an evil racist who should never work again.  I've never heard of the Guardian's Gary Younge before, but this is hysterical nonsense:

"The next time someone asks me why I have a chip on my shoulder, I need no longer brush the question away with disdain. I can say, with all sincerity: 'Because there may well be an Oscar-nominated actor out there who wants to kill me, so I have to be alert at all times.'"

(That's a single quote from a longer article, so perhaps I'm being unfair.  I've read it, and I'm still not sure.)

Can no one ever make a mistake and learn from it, or be forgiven for it?  Is it impossible for anyone to change?  There's no sense of perspective.  Liam Neeson makes a stupid mistake 40 years ago.  Mary Poppins puts soot on her face.  And apparently that's enough to lump them in with Nick Griffin and Tommy Robinson.  If any controversial comment is enough to end someone's career, then discussion ends and people become more entrenched in their own views, right or wrong.

jonnyburgo

He’s admitted to a serious wrong doing and for once the apology hasn’t come after being caught out which is pretty rare