Free Speech, Media, Society

YOUTUBE Takes Down Video Of Mob Taunting Beaten Man

150px-YouTube_logo.svgScreen Shot 2015-07-06 at 8.14.05 AMThere has been rising criticism of YouTube censoring content on its site and today is another example. People posted the video of a mob taunting a man nearly beaten to death at a Fourth of July event. The video has triggered a debate over hate crime investigations as well as the simple lack of humanity found in today’s society. In other words, there is a substantive debate surrounding the videotape. However, YouTube says that it has been taken down for disgusting content. It rekindles the objection that YouTube has become a private censor — rather than a forum that warns of such content but allows people to make their own choices. [UPDATE: The video appears to be going up and coming down on YouTube but appears to be currently available here with a warning. I have not problem as I stated below with the addition of such a warning and wall]

There is no question that there is a lot of disturbing videotapes out there. Another example is ISIS. The Islamic extremists clearly use their horrendous acts to recruit. However, these videotapes also show the vast majority of people — including the vast majority of Muslims — the depth of depravity of this group and the reality of religious extremism in the world. Shielding people from such images (rather than allowing them to decide) is a controversial role.

Screen Shot 2015-07-06 at 9.25.25 AM

Critics have said that the most important images on YouTube are often disturbing but that they are the very images that trigger meaningful public debate. Otherwise, YouTube seems catered to videos of cats playing piano. The removal of this videotape is problematic in my view. Yes, there is blood and a terribly injured man. However, most people linking to this video (as on this blog) are engaged in a discussion about our values and more concretely the evidence needed to start a hate crime investigation. Why not but up a wall and allow people to decide for themselves? What do you think should be the standard?

120 thoughts on “YOUTUBE Takes Down Video Of Mob Taunting Beaten Man”

    1. Inga – they have a defensive military. Our job is to supply the offensive military.

  4. The Treaty of Versailles was devastating to Germany. Paul as a history teacher, should know that.

  5. Paul,
    if Germany had been bailed out after WWI, there may not have been WWII.

    1. Riesling – We, among others, bailed out the Germans after WWI. When we did, the Nazis lost power.

  8. Karen,

    you´re right about the cash for cars, too. My husband and daughter had picked out a used VW Golf for her to have to get back and forth to the University. Neither of them had time to pay for it and pick it up, so my husband said to me, “Here, take these 7,000 Euros and meet a dark-haired man in a parking lot tonight in the village 14 kilometers from here. “He´ll give you a receipt and the keys to the car and we can pick the car up together later.”

    Well, being American, I just couldn´t walk around in the dark and meet a guy in the parking lot with 7,000 Euros in cash in my pocket. So, we had to wait until my husband had time and then we went together and then my husband told the car salesman the story. The used-car salesman said all of his customers paid in cash and that he was an honest businessman with a good reputation and that I had personally insulted him by being afraid to show up alone.

  11. Karen,
    I´ll answer your question with another question: do you think the investment banks are so naive to think that Greece´s books aren´t cooked?

    My opinion on your second question is: no.

    Re: the article you read: It could have been about the Volkswagen Autostadt in Wolfsburg. We´ve actually been there to pick up our car!!!!!! Have you ever been to an American Girl Doll Store? Well, my mom took me and my daughter to the one in Chicago way back when she wanted an American Girl Doll. Anyway, I got the feeling that the Autostadt was kind of an American Girl Doll store but with cars for men instead of dolls for girls. We took the train up (included in the package) and I swear I´ve never seen so many smiling German men on a train before. Then I noticed that they had their car licence plates with them, so they were also picking up their cars. It was quite the experience. I even have a picture of my husband´s name on their big screen announcing that his car was ready. So exciting ……for a man!

  12. Oh yes and Germany also has free tuition for those attending university. We could learn a lot from Germany.

    1. Inga – if we got involved in two world wars and lost and the victors bailed us out, yes, we could learn a lot from Germany.

  13. Germans also believe in worker’s unions. Germans also believe in providing health care for its population. Germany also has excellent maternity benefits and family leave. Germans also get lots of vacation time.

    1. Inga – Germany does not have to support an offensive Army.

  14. A fiscal conservative’s message can never compete with the politician roaring by in his campaign vehicle, throwing buckets of taxpayer money out the back with a “who cares where it comes from” attitude.

  15. Riesling:

    “Why don´t you and I start a bank together and lend money to Greece that we know they´ll never pay back so we can ultimately get bail-out money from Germany!!!”

    No kidding.

    I think the EU might be burned enough that no one will lend Greece a drachma for a couple of centuries. If they want a donation, call it a donation and not a loan.

    This is exactly why I drag out my well worn soap box every time our own spiraling debt and addiction to spending come up in the conversation. I should be a placard, too. The fiscal conservatives get ignored because who wants to cut back and eat Mac N Cheese when you keep getting new credit card offers in the mail to get more stuff?

    One thing I can say about the Germans, they do not take a casual attitude towards debt and spending like we do. Years ago I read a very interesting article about what it’s like to buy a car in Germany.

    According to the article, families typically save up and pay for their car with cash. They do not go into debt to buy their cars. Then they go to an amusement park at the factory while they wait for their appointment to pick up their car. It’s an auto-themed park, and a fun milestone for the family every time they get a car. They typically hold onto their cars far longer than we do, because they have to save up to buy them. Instead of making car payments and paying for interest, that money gets set aside every month to save up. The journalist asked the auto rep what happened if a family was late or missed their appointment to pick up their car. Being German, she was completely taken aback by that question. A German, late for an appointment? It had never happened during her tenure. After taking a while to think about it, she said she supposed if there was some sort of accident or other rare emergency, they would reschedule.

    1. Karen – it is not just Greece, there are three other countries that have been loaned money that are on the edge of disaster. So, do you forgive the loan to Greece, thereby doing the same for the others and let them all work their way to heights of socialism, or do you make an example of Greece and scare the crap out of the other three.

  16. Here’s my question. Did banks lend to Greece based on the same “cooked books” that convinced the EU to let them join, or did they know they would never repay the debt?

    How interesting that Goldman Sachs used derivatives to help Greece hide its debt, when derivatives were also one of the cogs in the wheel of destruction of subprime loans, among many other variables. Will GS take the hit when Greece defaults?

    1. Karen – Greece already defaulted. Now they are fighting over what to do next.

  17. Karen,
    Thanks for the links. I understand your frustration. Don´t forget, though, that private creditors (International Investment Banks) got the bailout money, not the Greek people. And those banks made the loans knowing full well that they would be bailed out by the European Union when the Greek government couldn´t pay (which they knew was going to happen). What a great business model!!!!! Why don´t you and I start a bank together and lend money to Greece that we know they´ll never pay back so we can ultimately get bail-out money from Germany!!! 😉

    1. Riesling – even though the guarantor had the money when you signed the loan does not mean they have it when the loan goes bad. For the creditor there is a lot of work figuring out who is going to pay and when.

  20. Riesling – thanks for the link. I had read that Greece could not keep up its debt payments, and that the recent 2010 plan was to help pay off its creditors. Just wiping out debt of that magnitude could break some banks, but, of course, “that will teach them to be more careful next time.”

    That is the problem that both individuals, corporations, and even countries can get themselves into. If they get so addicted to spending that they get into crushing debt, they just get on a hamster wheel, trying to keep up with the payments and never getting anywhere.

    That is what makes me so frustrated when people believe a few Liberal economists who proclaim that our debt can keep skyrocketing and it won’t matter.

    I found these articles interesting:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/7646320/Greece-why-did-its-economy-fall-so-hard.html

    “Ben May, Greek economist at think tank Capital Economics, said: “Their mistake was to go out, borrow money and use it to fund huge wage growth, rather than pay down its already substantial debts.”

    Greece went on a spending spree, allowing public sector workers’ wages to nearly double over the last decade, while it continued to fund one of the most generous pension systems in the world. Workers when they come to retire usually receive a pension equating to 92 per cent of their pre-retirement salary. As Greece has one of the fastest ageing populations in Europe, the bill to fund these pensions kept on mounting.”

    That article also indicated that Greece has defaulted on its debts for 200 years, which I did not know. That certainly calls into question any decision to loan them money without having some control over their spending, whether it’s a private bank or a government.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8580720/Timeline-of-a-crisis-how-Greeces-tragedy-unfolded.html

    I want us to learn from Greece, Cypress, and other imploding countries, but I feel like the ant talking to the grasshopper in Aesop’s fables.

Comments are closed.