If there's one thing I will never tire of, it's the knee-jerk reactions of the entitled and stupid. From an emotional standpoint, yes, it's absolutely exhausting, but as the foundation for mockery? Perfection.

Consider, if you will, the latest PSA put together by the Disney Channel. I know, not exactly the final bastion of good taste, but at least they have Gravity Falls. Have you ever seen Gravity Falls? Amazing, amazing show. Anyway, Disney created a public service announcement featuring Ben, a teenaged anti-bullying filmmaker. Via The Advocate:

In the spot, a 14-year-old named Ben introduces viewers to his world, which includes “my moms,” with a brief clip of two women, then goes on to tell how he made a film denouncing bullying.

See? That's sweet! Here's a kid who's actually creating art and doing things and trying to make a difference. We have scads of teenagers trying to be reality-TV stars and "Instagram celebrities" (I'm not joking: this is a real thing kids aspire to be), and here's a kid who's, amazingly, creating new things. Good for him.

Except NO! Not good for him! The rightwing Media Research Center knows this is just a ruse so that Disney can lead the charge against traditional families or something. I don't know, I don't speak crazy; I had to run that through a translator.

In a post on the center’s NewsBusters blog, director of media analysis Tim Graham notes a gay blogger’s praise for the spot and asserts that “activists want Disney to lead the way toward ‘LGBT’ acceptance among the grade-school set.”

Mediaite blogger Andrew Kirell takes Graham to task for being so upset about this “teeny tiny snippet of information at 12 seconds into the video.” 

Seriously, the PSA gives Ben's lesbian parents a passing mention. That's it. Other than that, it's just a kid who wants to make movies and not bully people. How can you possibly be against something like that? That's like calling a toddler a pussy because they cried when Bambi's mom died. You're the worst.

First things first, let me just get this right out of the way: BAHAHAHAHAHA! 

Okay, schadenfreudian laughter is out in the open. Let's move on. The Westboro Baptist Church, the famewhorin'est church ever to receive tax-exempt status, decided to protest the funerals of the victims of the Newtown massacre. No, we're not really sure why either. Do you really want to dive into that kind of logic?

Well, in response to that amazing display of man's inhumanity to man, hacktivist group Anonymous decided to out the lot of them by hacking the WBC's personal information and posting it on the internet. Ah hell, one more round of schadenfreudian laughter. All together now: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Anonymous - Message to the Westboro Baptist Church from @kyanonymous on Vimeo.

Has anyone else noticed that the athletes who support equal rights and are totally embracing of their gay fans are usually the ones who are just, like, crazy hot? Someone needs to do a study or something to determine whether this is correlation or causation, because this is the kind of shit we need to look into.

Anyway, rugby star Ben Cohen is releasing a new calendar to benefit StandUp, his anti-bullying foundation and . . . something. Sorry, I was just watching this video of him taking off his clothes and working out, and now I can't remember what I was saying. Something about rugby or football or some shit? I don't know, I just want to see his tuchus.

 

There's a difference between being opinionated and being intelligent. I have no idea why, but there's an unfortunately large segment of people who can't seem to discern this fine difference. It's easy to feel strongly about a pet issue, but intelligence requires you to carefully examine the opposite of what you believe in and use that difference of opinion to fill in the gaps of your own argument.

This opinion letter from Intelligencer made its way into my inbox today, which I'd attribute to the fact that it seems to consider a government reminder about tolerance to be tyranny. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't really consider it tyranny until massive government opression. But that's just me.

Bill C13, The Accepting Schools Act, is an exercise of raw governmental power, the kind of legislative action that befits a bully with access to the coercive power of the state. Bullies such as these are immensely more dangerous than those found in school corridors. For that reason they are better known, not as bullies, but tyrants.

Here's the thing: he almost makes a point. Almost. I'm not going to say that he necessarily has a valid, cohesive point here, but at least what he has is just logical enough for it to be debatable, but also completely backwards enough that you can mock it relentlessly.

Does Bill C13 go against religious beliefs? Some of them, yes, but not all of them. And that's the one major hole in this whole argument: homophobia is not a cornerstone of any real religion. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a religion based entirely on homophobia. It's not a religious tenet; it's a personal opinion. And you can't use freedom of religion as a means of validating your own personal likes and dislikes.

The key to freedom is compromise. We can't have a society where everyone can do whatever they want free of consequences. Part of living together as a community is that our rights infringe on one another's from time to time. Laws are set in place as a means of ensuring that fairness is maintained for everyone, and yes, that means that there are some things you can't do. You can't shoot another human being in the head, you can't steal from their homes, you can't discriminate against them, and you can't claim victimization or persecution because you're being given the same shake as everyone else. 

 

 

 

Good-ish news, everyone? After the Motion Picture Association of America decided that Bully's frank and realistic look at the lives of real teenagers was too mature for real teenagers (feel free to try and follow that train of unlogic; see where it takes you) the filmmakers have decided to just bypass the MPAA and release the film unrated. So what does that mean? To put it bluntly, it means that hypothetically, your kid has a 50-50 chance of being allowed or not being allowed to see the movie. Here's the press release from Movieline, condensed for the sake of space:

March 26, 2012 – New York, NY – After a recent plea to the MPAA by BULLY teen Alex Libby and The Weinstein Company (TWC) Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein failed – by one vote – to get the film its deserved PG-13 rating, TWC is choosing to move forward with releasing the film unrated by the MPAA on March 30. 

[...]

Said BULLY Director Lee Hirsch, “The small amount of language in the film that’s responsible for the R rating is there because it’s real. It’s what the children who are victims of bullying face on most days. All of our supporters see that, and we’re grateful for the support we’ve received across the board. I know the kids will come, so it’s up to the theaters to let them in.”

“The kids and families in this film are true heroes, and we believe theater owners everywhere will step up and do what’s right for the benefit of all of the children out there who have been bullied or may have otherwise become bullies themselves. We’re working to do everything we can to make this film available to as many parents, teachers and students across the country,” said TWC President of Marketing Stephen Bruno.

For parents or teachers who are looking for more information or who may have concerns about showing children a movie unrated by the MPAA, please read Common Sense Media's rating details of the film here: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/bully. [...]

You can read the full press release by following the link, but the basic gist here is that the makers of Bully barely missed out on a PG-13 rating, and because of this, they're going to take a gamble by releasing the movie unrated. Theatres will then be forced to make the judgment call of whether or not they feel the movie is appropriate for teenagers to see. And for the record, asking whether Bully is appropriate for teenagers is like looking at a can of cat food and wondering if it's okay to feed to your cat. YES. For God's sake, it was specifically made for them. This really shouldn't be that hard to figure out.