We have seen various countries carry out censorship functions for various governments, including social media countries. Now the Simpsons have been “disappeared” in an episode that acknowledged the Tiananmen Square massacre. China blocks any mention of the massacre so Disney willingly became an extension of its massive censorship bureaucracy.
I recently discussed the decision of the W.H.O. to skip the letter “xi” in naming its new COVID-19 variant, which it dubbed the “omicron” variant. While the organization insisted that it was only avoiding “causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups,” it was an effort to avoid embarrassment to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi has been accused of covering up the outbreak in Wuhan and also ordering the cover-up of evidence related to the emergence of the virus (including the possible release from a government lab). W.H.O. took the action after global criticism for its fawning treatment of China in the investigation of the virus.
The decision by Disney made a mockery of the words of its founder, Walt Disney: “Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.”
The missing episode in the 16th season was noticed by people in China. The season jumps from episode 11 to 13. Episode 12? It was a 2005 episode where Homer takes his family to China, where they visit Tiananmen Square and come across a placard that reads: “On this site, in 1989, nothing happened.”
Disney may now adopt the same approach and, when you download Episode 12, it will simply say, “In this episode, nothing happened.”
Just watched the episode. It is rather funny, and the Tian an men joke is by no means the only jab at the CCP. The entire show is one jab after another against communism, the CCP bureaucracy and other Chinese *memes*.
Wang says:
“NBA jigaboos….”
Darren, wake the Hell up! This racist slur can’t but violate Turley’s civility rule! Does one have to say the n-word to cross the line?
Don’t make me have to email Turley to inform him that you are not keeping his blog civil. Do your damn job!
Jeff Silberman wrote:
“Darren, wake the Hell up! This racist slur can’t but violate Turley’s civility rule! Does one have to say the n-word to cross the line?
Don’t make me have to email Turley to inform him that you are not keeping his blog civil. Do your damn job!”
~+~
Jeff Silberman,
You will not address me in this manner if you expect me to act upon your request. I am not under any obligation to you to perform at your behest nor do I devote every minute of my day to watching this blog. If that situation is not to your satisfaction then you will just have to accept it. Most of us here have occupations and responsibilities that we must attend to in addition to any work we volunteer to Professor Turley. I was away on business and when I returend here the first comment I saw was your insult.
Either you accord me a sincere apology for the disrespect you have expressed or else every future request you make to me will be ignored and not acted upon.
Darren,
I’m relieved that you are still on the job. This is not the first time I have pointed out a blatantly anti-Semitic and racist contribution in addition to a call for killing Antifa supporters. Here are the 2 recent contributions which should have been removed under the civility rule:
1. Bogeyman says:
“His [Kyle’s] only crime was not killing more antifa excrement.”
My reply:
“You are doing one heck of a job, Turley. It would seem you don’t care what kind of speech is contributed to your blog as long as it increases your hits.
Tell me, what good speech would you propose I make in response to this bad speech? Is it really necessary that I make an argument that it is immoral to murder Antifa followers?
Maybe you should instruct Darren that this kind of hatefulness is anything but civil. At least you concede that you don’t have to counter uncivil speech with good speech! Instead, you inform us that it will be censored on this blog.”
2. Coffee Long says:
“With blacks and Jews, you always lose.”
My reply:
“I’m guessing Coffee is a Trumpist.
Look, I’m NOT claiming that every Trumpist is a racist or anti-Semite. I’m ONLY claiming that every racist and anti-Semite voted for Trump. That’s all.”
——-
So, you will forgive me that my patience ran out when this third revolting racial slur occurred. None of which have yet to be removed.
If you were unaware of these 3 gross incidents, of course, I apologize profusely. Now that you ARE aware of them, if you do not consider them egregious, I take back my apology unless you can explain why they DON’T cross the line.
I readily confess that my reactions to such hateful comments are very caustic and sardonic, but I do not employ racial or ethnic slurs or advocate killing anyone (though I have surmised in reaction to those who have made veiled threats of “doing what needs to be done” against Leftists (or words to that effect) that they do not rule out killing). When I am treated with respect, however, I reciprocate in kind as several people here can attest. I don’t respect Trumpists who continue to *lie* to this very day that the election was stolen despite no evidence of massive fraud.
I have commented several times in the past that yours is a thankless job I would not wish on anyone. I am shocked to learn that you are volunteering your time! However, there IS a civility rule; and Turley is nothing if not a stickler on enforcing rules. I can’t believe that he would want this obviously hateful speech to tarnish his civil blog.
Jeff,
Your conditional apology is not accepted. You will no longer receive my assistance and requests from you will be ignored.
I hate it when you fight.
Darren,
You are so touchy! I’m not asking you for any favors or making any requests.
It’s YOUR responsibility to TURLEY, not ME, to enforce the civility rule. I am simply pointing out instances where you have neglected to do your job adequately.
It’s no skin off my back if Turley’s blog becomes a cesspool of hate more than it already has become sadly. Do yourself a favor and clean up the anti-Semitic and racist slurs. Turley’s counting on you; don’t let him down….
Good for you, Darren.
Deal with bullies strongly or not at all. You did both.
Darren, Jeff had a very valid point here. I get that you have other things to do, but even as a volunteer you CHOSE this position as “monitor” of civility. Therefore you certainly have a responsibility to maintain adherence to the rules.
Turley’s reputation may not hinge on blog comments, but it certainly puts his credibility in question when he criticizes other platforms. You once described being on this blog as being a guest in Turley’s house and people being here should act accordingly. You’re the minder letting guests know the proper decorum in Turley’s “house”. Here you have guests being disrespectful in Turley’s house who are blatantly breaking the rules and getting away with it thus making a mockery of Turley’s principles. You may be just a volunteer, but you still are responsible for maintaining the rules.
Svelaz,
Thanks for the moral support. Perhaps, you can explain this to me. It seems that certain cuss words automatically trigger the software to delay posting the comment until it can be reviewed. I presume the n-word is among them. I would think all racist slurs, e.g., “jigaboos” should be included in this prohibited list of words.
Darren should not have to read every post looking for such slurs. Increase the list of bad words, and Darren need only spend his time reviewing those comments which triggered the software. It is inhuman to ask anyone, much less an unpaid volunteer, to read through all these comments.
Maybe he relies upon us to bring violations to his attention. It would be nice if he would explain how he manages to keep this blog civil. More than likely, the civility rule is aspirational rather than a hard and fast rule. I would hope that anyone caught using a racial slur would be automatically banned.
Jeff S,
As former Marine, I will defend your 1stA rights.
That ends when you are abusive as you have been toward Darren.
As I have mentioned before, this site gets a lot of traffic. Darren cannot monitor the hundreds of hits each article gets in the comments sections, every minute. He needs bathroom breaks, lunch breaks and at some point he logs out for the day to spend time with his own family.
That said, have a nice day.
UpstateFarmer,
Thanks. Yes, I agree that I jumped the gun in accusing Darren being asleep at the wheel. I don’t know how timely he monitors this blog for remarks that violate the civility rule.
I did apologize, but I wanted him to acknowledge that these anti-Semitic and racist remarks WERE violations. This he would not do. Admittedly, he does not owe me this duty; he owes it to Turley. I never expected Darren would answer to me for anything I requested. I was simply criticizing his failure to enforce the rules.
Nor does he owe me an explanation, but it would have been helpful to all of us had he clarified this vague concept of “civility” by stating that these instances were obvious violations.
UpstateFarmer,
I neglected to thank you for your service. Thanks!
That you enjoy or approve of speech does not bear.
Decisions on speech in America were concluded in 1789.
To wit,
1st Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Woke the hell up!
Ben Marcus is as unnecessarily insolent, uncivil and adversarial a troll as has ever roamed the Internet.
Ben Marcus is rude and abrasive for rude and abrasive’s sake.
Ben Marcus is the living manifestation, the personification of narcissistic psychopathy.
Ben Marcus must be banned for life from the Turley blog.
Naw he’s smart and funny and intolerant of idiocy and enjoys shooting down right-wing nattering nabobs of negativism.
Y’all just don’t get it.
If you quantify in dollars the inconvenience that was caused to millions of people around the world by the China virus, it would be worth a nuclear decapitation strike on Beijing.
Germany and the United States were trading partners before World War II broke out.
Adolf had his Olympics, so it’s only fair that Xi can have his…
I can remember a time when they had a nativity scene at the shopping village in Lake Buena Vista in the early 80s.
I don’t think they do that anymore.
Taiwan is an independent country.
China is an evil country.
China is a one-party dictatorship.
Evil countries should not be calling the shots.
Evil countries should not have their own military.
Evil countries should not have nuclear weapons.
Evil countries should not be in the United Nations.
China should go the way of Germany and Japan, bombed into the Stone Age,
and never be a thorn in our side ever again.
They think that they can abort the child, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too. They are playing with a double-edged scalpel.
A market of 1.4 billion consumers?
Now, who’s gonna win that one?
Answer: The S&P 500, that’s who.
Disney did allow John, Paul, George and Ringo to say “Sod off!” and “knickers” and “bugger” and other vulgarities in The Beatles: Get Back.
Which is very much against Disney’s way of going about things.
Doesn’t detract from the document, which might be a masterpiece.
So a guy who shills for Fox is aiming flaming arrows at Disney for bending the truth/bending over because of business and money?
Shame on them.
Shame on all y’all.
Modern communist Disney (while they still make billions off of capitalism) can pretty much kiss my ***. Whatever. Glad it’s being reported on, but I boycotted this evil company ten years ago.
Give me a break. If anyone at this point imagines Disney as anything but a tool – pfft. If you want to make a difference, stop giving them your money and your eyeballs. Simple, and yet herculean for some bizarre reason for so many. The same with HBO and Sesame Street. You people act as though you have no personal agency whatsoever. That should rightly be the most concerning thing of all.
Typical of major entertainment corporations to censor “inconvenient” portions of programming. Apple presented the annual Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and deliberately removed the Thanksgiving prayer at the dinner table which mentions God and the beliefs of the Pilgrims. The purpose of the program was a failure.
Let us get full circle on this one small news item.
This is more than a Disney decision. Disney owns ABC and ESPN. News is treated just like entertainment. The goal is to have the largest exposure, consumers, as possible.
China has 1.4 Billion souls. Entertainment is crazy nuts to get into the huge China market. That means they will edit the entertainment to suit their masters. It also means the will edit the news to safeguard their China market. How did the Covid origin lab leak theory get so thoroughly debunked by all the news outlets? Because their entertainment bosses demanded they debunk the claim.
Also note how the NBA kneels before their Chinese masters. You would think the descendants of slaves would be loath to voluntarily climb back into the yokes of bondage, but not so much.
NBA ******** will have a seat at the CCP with & money, power & riches to enslave US white ********.
China Shmina.
Chuck Fina.
China is a grotesquely overpopulated country practicing state-sponsored capitalism, desperate to feed all those mouths every day.
United States and China are almost exactly the same size: 3,700,000 square miles.
Imagine America with 1.1 billion more people.
Would that work?
Nope.
China has its own problems, which is why they are forced to eat bats and start pandemics.
Why isn’t China being held financially responsible for Covid?
What do you think the sum total of damage to the world economy has been and continues to be?
Hundreds of trillions for sure, but into the quadrillions?
All China debtor nations – starting with Uncle Sam – should tell China to sod off – the debt they carry is now worthless.
And what about compensation for a couple million dead people?
What is the number now?
5,221,313 X $100,000 = $522,131,300,000
China would be bankrupt.
Chuck Fina.
China marks it’s 72nd National Day of China while US gobbles up turkey & yams
“The decision by Disney made a mockery of the words of its founder, Walt Disney: “Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.”
*******************************
Walt was a creepy old man who espoused globalism way ahead of his time. Then, as now, it was all about acquiring even more billions. Look at the legacy of woke subsidiaries spawned, with ESPN being the worst offender.
Disney was the living icon of the words ascribed by Shakespeare to Mark Anthony:
“The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.”
~ Act 3, Scene 2, Julius Caesar.
So what? Doesn’t make these particular words any less meaningful in the context of the blog entry.
https://youtu.be/bkYh3xC2Y30
Bart agrees.
mespo…….Thank you. Your words about the true nature of Walt D. are a comfort to me after all of these years!
Why? Because all of my friends at school were lucky enough to be able to watch “Wonderful World of Disney” every Sunday night. But my family was Baptist, so we had to go to church! I never saw ONE episode. The indignity of having to listen, on Monday mornings, to all of the glee-ridden non-Baptists talk about how great the show was…..well, it was just too much!
Oh the humanity!
China. China cabinet. China vase. China of Mao.
Not shocked. Capitalists (supposed) do all sorts of stupid things to keep a market. Their mistake is in thinking that it buys them good will for the long term
Good for China. I blame the Simpsons for the “Whatever” attitude developed by American kids and lack of respect for their parents . I would not allow my kids to watch!