A couple months ago, we discussed the uproar in New York over people posting smiling selfies at the site of the deadly East Village fire. Many people were appalled by the insensitivity and part of the backlash was directed at Christina Freundlich, who worked at the Iowa Democratic Party. While some would suggest that a penchant for disaster scenes is not exactly a good omen for the upcoming elections, Freundlich has now been hired to be the face of the Democratic National Committee. As DNC spokespersons, we will be commenting on Republican excesses and mistakes.
The last the public saw of Freundlich was her smiling and given the peace sign in front of a scene where two people died and over two dozen people were injured. Her first press release as “DNC spokesperson” blasted Jeb Bush for a posting on President Obama’s economic policies.
We have been discussing how social media postings are haunting people who are seeking new jobs. This is an interesting situation where the posting showed incredibly poor taste and judgment on social media but was not a barrier for someone who will be working in social media in a high-visibility position. However, after the hoopla, Freundlich apologized profusely and said that she was “deeply sorry for my careless and distasteful post” and “What happened last week in the East Village is not to be taken lightly and I regret my course of action.”
Many have said that that is not enough and that Freundlich should not be put into a position as a spokesperson. Yet, it was two stupid acts (taking the selfie and then posting it) down presumably in an impulsive and thoughtless moment. Should a person be barred for life from a political position due to one incident of this kind? She was not celebrating the deaths. Selfies have become an addiction for some people. They go on autopilot in rushing every image to social media. This seems to be such a case.
What do you think?
I’m not surprised. Her sick sense of humor is over the edge, yet the DNC evidently likes these types of rebels. Remember, when the DNC hired Sandra Fluke to speak during the last election convention for women’s rights–she’s another sick puppy and will be appointed to an important position in the party, if she hasn’t been already. These people are the new face of the Democratic party. Sick indeed..
LOL!
BFM, Some of us don’t ever remember our youthful indiscretions, even the next day.
@Nick: “Some of us don’t ever remember our youthful indiscretions, even the next day.”
Some of us have seen it all, we have done it all, we just can’t remember it all.
BFM, I could agree with you if these idiots are captured doing their stupid stunts. The difference is they do the stupid stunt and then post it themselves. Sure I did stupid stuff, but I sure as hell didn’t publicize it afterwords for fear that it would get back to me. It’s just a new level of dumbed down Americans.
We were lucky enough not to have our more thoughtless moments preserved, seemingly forever, for all to see.
Well, this is true. I have memories that make me cringe.
It does seem though that those stages that we all went through, us older generations, we grew out of at a much earlier age. These are people who are in their 30’s and who by now should have gotten over their navel gazing narcissism:one that is the common state of teenagers practically everywhere.
Great comment BFM. I second that.
“Self absorbed, narcissistic, unaware of her surroundings, superficial thoughts, superficial emotions. Shallow childish adults who have not grown up or have accepted any real responsibilities. Unable to take the consequences of their own actions. Unable to connect the dots between what they do and what happens. Living ONLY in the moment, unable to see into the future. ”
OK, close enough. I am just not sure the current generation are much different than many of us several decades ago.
We were lucky enough not to have our more thoughtless moments preserved, seemingly forever, for all to see.
Is there anyone reading this who does not have a few moments that they are grateful not to have on SSM.
We were lucky enough to grow up at a time that our worst moments were likely forgotten in a few days at most.
“The people who have hijacked the name “liberal” — the étatists — always win when social questions are decided by the state rather than in private life, because the expansion of the state, and the consequent diminution of private life, is their principal objective. The self-styled progressive sets himself in rhetorical opposition to Big Business, but the corporate manager often suffers from the same fatal conceit as the economic étatist — an unthinking, inhumane preference for uniformity, consistency, regimentation, and conformity.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416307/war-private-mind-kevin-d-williamson
Speaking of Hillary, let’s compare and contrast how the media addressed her wrongdoing with the Duggars.
She knew that her husband had sexually harassed his victims, yet she aggressively went after the victims. She called them liars and looney tunes, threatened, and intimidated them, and then lied to the press about it. She also volunteered to defend a pedophile, got him off, and then is on tape laughing about him fooling a lie detector test. This was a child rapist. The press rightfully pilloried her for her war on women . . . oh, wait, they did absolutely nothing and love her, even though she is on a complete media blackout during a presidential run.
The Duggars informed their daughters about how their repressed teenage son had touched them while they were sleeping, got him counseling, and marched him to the police station. Then they made him apologize to the victims after removing him from the home. This was one child improperly touching another, and not a pedophile. How many parents would take their own kid to the police station? (Of course, I believe that their overly repressive rules, such as no hand holding until engaged, were in error as too extreme, and may have contributed to this boy becoming so desperate as to touch his own sisters). When grilled by a tough interview, they didn’t lie about what happened, but admitted it, and explained their reasoning. It was naive to go on TV expecting this wouldn’t get out and affect their daughters, who were victims. The media attacked the family, and re-victimized the daughters, who were told by the police that they could tell them everything and their statements would be sealed.
Did Hillary march Bill to the police station, get him counseling, or make him apologize to the victims, nope. And yet compare how she is treated to how the Duggars are.
What a double standard the media has, and yet few call them on it . . .
And NOTE! I don’t ascribe political parties to these malformed adult children.
However, it does seem that they do congregate more on the side of the leftist progressives or are at least more apparent..
She is, unfortunately, what society has produced and we are stuck with it….for now.
Self absorbed, narcissistic, unaware of her surroundings, superficial thoughts, superficial emotions. Shallow childish adults who have not grown up or have accepted any real responsibilities. Unable to take the consequences of their own actions. Unable to connect the dots between what they do and what happens. Living ONLY in the moment, unable to see into the future.
So into themselves that they lack the ability to perceive how others will see their actions….or care evidently. Unable to connect to the emotions of anyone outside of themselves. Not even sociopathic enough to pretend to care or connect.
Unable to even accept that other people might have some different views about anything. So sure that they are right, correct and that everyone else is wrong that they will stop at nothing to enforce their “correctness” on everyone else.
It is bad enough that we have these malformed personalities wandering around in the world. It is horrific that they are in charge of politics and other institutions that affect our lives.
She’s a Democrat so no harm no foul. It would be nice if those on the right could take a joke.
Now if she were a Republican, she needs to have her life destroyed. See how easy this is?
Olly,
I think you give the libs too much credit and working to hard. I honestly don’t think they care. As Hill has said, what difference does it make and now her e-mail scandal is fun. The public is so dumbed down now that they really do not need to do damage control.
“What I find interesting is that this sort of thing can only be found on the liberal side.”
That’s just childish. Of course you will find this throughout the political spectrum but it is simply more significant when discovered among the most tightly controlled media machine existing today. When this sort of story breaks, the illusion that the progressive left has fabricated is momentarily broken. Damage control begins immediately and before long we’ll be told it was Photoshopped by a Republican operative and everything will be back to ‘normal’.
Do Liberals take selfies?
Isaac – there is hardly a dearth of criticism when anyone other than a Liberal behaves badly. It’s not like they can have a complete media blackout while running for president, like Hillary Clinton. In fact, anyone other than a Liberal receives an extra dose of outrage when they do wrong, because all those other parties tend to have platforms of responsibility.