Liam Neeson's dalliance with lynching

Maybe he's about to run for president.

Qikz wrote:I don't think Liam Neeson should be punished here for sadly reacting in a way that society of the time almost encouraged. There is systematic racism to the point that people view all people of a certain race or religion with the same brush. What he did was wrong, but he acted in anger and later realised hey wait a second this is strawberry floating stupid. It's not like he went out to do it and kept doing it, he admitted he was wrong and apologised which is a lot more than many people will ever do. He changed his ways when he realised how bad it was what he was thinking of doing and vowed to never make that mistake again.

The media of the time and even the media of today help spread these kinds of biggoted views and something needs to be done to stop it and people like Neeson admitting what many people refuse to even acknowledge in themselves is a step towards making the world a better place for everyone.

Again we are not talking about the 1880s, we are talking of a time in the 1980s. Wandering around with a cosh hoping to kill a black man was not “encouraged” by people at that time.

I agree that he’s probably changed and I don’t think he should be punished, but I do think he’s a strawberry floating idiot.

Such a weird thing to disclose. And the way it was disclosed was bizarre.

He didn't do anything, and he realises the error in his thinking. I have no reason to assume he is still a racist. But strawberry float me, this is career ending stupidity.

It's going to be really tough to watch the phantom menace after this.

Moggy wrote:
Qikz wrote:I don't think Liam Neeson should be punished here for sadly reacting in a way that society of the time almost encouraged. There is systematic racism to the point that people view all people of a certain race or religion with the same brush. What he did was wrong, but he acted in anger and later realised hey wait a second this is strawberry floating stupid. It's not like he went out to do it and kept doing it, he admitted he was wrong and apologised which is a lot more than many people will ever do. He changed his ways when he realised how bad it was what he was thinking of doing and vowed to never make that mistake again.

The media of the time and even the media of today help spread these kinds of biggoted views and something needs to be done to stop it and people like Neeson admitting what many people refuse to even acknowledge in themselves is a step towards making the world a better place for everyone.

Again we are not talking about the 1880s, we are talking of a time in the 1980s. Wandering around with a cosh hoping to kill a black man was not “encouraged” by people at that time.

I agree that he’s probably changed and I don’t think he should be punished, but I do think he’s a strawberry floating idiot.

Agreed, and again I feel that the fact he thought this story was appropriate to mention whilst promoting a movie is sort of being glossed over.

Moggy wrote:
captain red dog wrote:There is a lot to unpack here. It happened 40 years ago and he admits his behaviour was disgusting and that he got help and moved past it. Surely the message to take from that is that racists can actually change?

He highlighted the issue that racism can hide in all of us, which I tend to agree with. However we can't then castigate someone for being open and honest about their racist or violent past, when all the evidence is that they never acted on those issues and have lived a life that suggests they have changed.

I will say that bringing this up in the way he did to promote a movie was incredibly crass and dumb. I'd like to think he did that to raise the issue of racism being a part of everyone, but suspect this was more of an attempt to bring legitimacy to his performance or something stupid like that.

Has he lived a life that suggests he’s changed?

His story was that he was going to murder an innocent person just because they shared a skin colour with somebody else. He then said he’s realised that revenge isn’t a good thing. He didn’t say anything about being a racist twat.

He may well not be racist now and that’s great, have a big pat on the back Liam! But it’s an odd story to bring up in the way he did.

Well since he hasn't actually murdered anyone, got help for it and admits it, I would suggest he has probably changed. Until now I don't think I had heard any claims of racism against him.

I agree with you on the rest of that.

captain red dog wrote:
Moggy wrote:
captain red dog wrote:There is a lot to unpack here. It happened 40 years ago and he admits his behaviour was disgusting and that he got help and moved past it. Surely the message to take from that is that racists can actually change?

He highlighted the issue that racism can hide in all of us, which I tend to agree with. However we can't then castigate someone for being open and honest about their racist or violent past, when all the evidence is that they never acted on those issues and have lived a life that suggests they have changed.

I will say that bringing this up in the way he did to promote a movie was incredibly crass and dumb. I'd like to think he did that to raise the issue of racism being a part of everyone, but suspect this was more of an attempt to bring legitimacy to his performance or something stupid like that.

Has he lived a life that suggests he’s changed?

His story was that he was going to murder an innocent person just because they shared a skin colour with somebody else. He then said he’s realised that revenge isn’t a good thing. He didn’t say anything about being a racist twat.

He may well not be racist now and that’s great, have a big pat on the back Liam! But it’s an odd story to bring up in the way he did.

Well since he hasn't actually murdered anyone, got help for it and admits it, I would suggest he has probably changed. Until now I don't think I had heard any claims of racism against him.

I agree with you on the rest of that.

He got help? He’s probably changed? What are you basing that on?

In order to promote a movie he’s used a revenge fantasy of murdering innocent black people just because they share a skin colour with another guy. And after the storm he said he isn’t racist, he got over it by power walking and then carried on promoting his movie.

I don’t think he should be “punished” but he’s definitely a tone deaf dickhead.

Last edited by Poncho on Wed Feb 06, 2019 7:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

He did get help. Didn't you hear? He powerwalked for two weeks to get over his rage. What a guy. I'm still not convinced he was even appalled by the racism as he told that story. The rape of his friend/relative seemed to turn him into a violent person for a short while and that I can sort of understand. Sometimes traumatic events can cause a person to act hatefully and irrationally before they snap out of it, perhaps totally out of step with their normal character. But it didn't make him temporarily racist because he was clearly already a racist.

He also called the #metoo movement a witch hunt. It's possible he might just be a dickhead.

No possibles about it. He's a dickhead.

He did get help, he said he spoke to his priest and took confession, and I'd say that worked for him (even though I despise religion) as I'm not aware that he has actually acted violently or even in a discriminatory manner to anyone since.

I don't think you can hold his feelings 40 years ago to judge his character today. On all the available evidence he doesn't appear to have hurt anyone physically or otherwise in those years.

Totally agree about the way he brought this up though which I have already said was crass and dumb and would add cynical at this point.

I can't be arsed listening to the initial interview, but going by what I heard on the radio about it it didn't seem planned out because the interview moved on and he brought the conversation back to it. To me that sounds like he's thought about how it's come off and wanted to rectify it, whereas if it was planned he'd have that gooseberry fool down pat. Still a dickhead, mind.

captain red dog wrote:He did get help, he said he spoke to his priest and took confession, and I'd say that worked for him (even though I despise religion) as I'm not aware that he has actually acted violently or even in a discriminatory manner to anyone since.

I don't think you can hold his feelings 40 years ago to judge his character today. On all the available evidence he doesn't appear to have hurt anyone physically or otherwise in those years.

Totally agree about the way he brought this up though which I have already said was crass and dumb and would add cynical at this point.

“You can’t judge him on his feelings from 40 years ago!”

“What he says was crass, dumb and cynical”

Yeah, I think we can judge him.

And his “help” was talking to a priest and power walking? He’s not Matt Murdock training to avenge the innocent, he’s a dickhead that wanted to carry out a racist murder and who now thinks it’s a great story to promote his shitty movie.

John Barnes has a good take on this. He’s done a number of interviews about it now.

Saint of Killers wrote:
Preezy wrote:Turns out his very particular set of skills were whacking black fellas over the head with a conch.

I knew when I typed that out that it didn't look right. I also tried "gonk" but that looked like a racial epithet so stuck with conch. Some words just evade me, cosh being one of them :lol:

YouTube

Don't have heroes etc, I know I know...but Liam being disappointing is tough to stomach

Ad7 wrote:It's going to be really tough to watch the phantom menace after this.

The worst thing about this is, I have a feeling he made it all up to promote a movie. :fp:

suzzopher wrote:

Ad7 wrote:Woman: My boyfriend isn't home. He's in next door's garden.

Liam: I don't care

Woman: he's black

Liam:

Pretty much the only black guys in Northern Ireland forty years ago were English soldiers.

He should have joined the RA.

Liam Neeson's dalliance with lynching

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