Are We A Society of *****es?

[Turd Ferguson]

I wanted to throw something after I read this article this morning:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4676383

I'm just going to summarize it.

The broadcast team for the LA Clippers got to talking about Hamed Haddadi, who is the first Iranian to play in the NBA. They made some off-the-cuff comments about him being on the court, nothing really THAT offensive, and nothing anyone should have been offended by. Well, ONE PERSON was offended, and therefore, they got suspended for one game.

Baron Davis (showing another reason why he's one of my favorite players) stuck up for them, saying:

"Ralph and Mike are very classy guys, and they didn't do it to hurt anyone.

A lot of times when you're commenting on games, it's a source of entertainment. And a lot of times, people may take offense. But the viewers need to understand that it's entertainment, and people are entitled to their opinion. I stand by Ralph and Mike because they're great guys and they only want to support and help everybody in the league."

What the one viewer was offended by was how they pronounced "Iranian". Apparently pronouncing it wrong, and having one person complain is enough to get you suspended for one game now. Here's what they said:

Smith: "Look who's in."

Lawler: "Hamed Haddadi. Where's he from?"

Smith: "He's the first Iranian to play in the NBA." (Smith pronounced Iranian as "Eye-ranian," a pronunciation that offended the viewer who complained.)

Lawler: "There aren't any Iranian players in the NBA," repeating Smith's mispronunciation.

Smith: "He's the only one."

Lawler: "He's from Iran?"

Smith: "I guess so."

Lawler: "That Iran?"

Smith: "Yes."

Lawler: "The real Iran?"

Smith: "Yes."

Lawler: "Wow. Haddadi that's H-A-D-D-A-D-I."

Smith: "You're sure it's not Borat's older brother?"

Smith: "If they ever make a movie about Haddadi, I'm going to get Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part."

Lawler: "Here's Haddadi. Nice little back-door pass. I guess those Iranians can pass the ball."

Smith: "Especially the post players.

Lawler: "I don't know about their guards."

There's NOTHING bad about that at all. At worst, they should have just had whoever they answer to just kind of have a heart to heart with them, saying they got a complaint and to watch it. To suspend them a game is ridiculous. This is the society we live in, where if you say or do something that is the tiniest bit racy, someone is going to whine over it.

This is what happens when we let political correctness take over, nobody has the right to not be offended, and it's awful that society has gotten to this point.

 

[X]

For the most part I agree Guy, but the comment about being Borat's brother was a bit distasteful, you have to admit that. If it were a black player on the court and they started cracking jokes about him being Kunta Kinte's brother, that would offend a hell of a lot of people, and rightfully so.

The one game suspension seems a bit steep, but honestly I can understand why it was handed down.

As for are we a society of *****es? No, just a PC society, and we have been for a long time. It's America's way of making up for the decades of racism and bigotry our country was embroiled.

 

[FromTheSouth]

This is stupid. I can't believe that you can't say anything at all anymore without someone being offended.

Actually, I can believe that someone might be offended, I can't believe that anyone cares. In all honesty, Baron Davis is right, the broadcasters are entertainers. They are paid to comment on the game, and an Iranian player is definitely something comment worthy.

I think the real travesty is that the broadcasters thing Borat is Iranian.

 

[gd]

Ya, I can see how people would be offended by that; it's a little bit offensive. Personally, I don't care about it at all and I doubt that Haddai is offended by it either. If he was, I can sorta understand the suspension. But if some random far is upset about it, especially for the pronuciation of Iranian (I thougth that was how it was pronounced), then that's just silly. However, this is the way society is nowadays with political correctness and the such. It'll probably blow over in a few days though, no biggie

 

[BladeRunner]

Political correctness hurts more than it helps. It makes people afraid to talk to each other, and it makes people police each other. It makes people hate and despise each other for small things, it makes small things into bigger things. It twists people's words into hate speech even if they didn't mean it. It gives professional racemongers ways to make money off some poor unfortunate schmuck who happened to have said the wrong thing at the wrong time thus giving the real racists ammo to which they can call anyone a racist if you disagree with their demands.

It changes all the time so you never know what's right and wrong. This is because it's not based on real morality, but merely what's fashionable at the time. It turns cool people into assholes. But the worst of it is, it will inevitably clamp down on freedom of speech if given enough power to do so. The real cure to hate is tolerance of difference and speaking freely, not sweeping difference under the rug and never mentioning anything for fear of it not being PC enough.

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

Political Correctness is out of control in my opinion. hell I'm jewish and I can take a few Jew jokes however.. you can't say "war on terror" anymore...... or say anything that DOESN'T offend someone. I remember the days where you can say he's a black man and get away with it.... now you can't even say that you gotta say... he's an "African American"....... it just irritates me to the max.. I grew up in a mostly traditional family that didn't really care what you said. hell you can't even give your kid a spanking anymore....... *shakes head*

 

[Tastycles]

No we aren't a society of *****es, we are a society that is more culturally aware of other people. Comparing someone Iranian to Borat is ridiculing someone for the way they look and the race they are from for absolutely no reason whatsoever. It's xenophobic at best and racist at worse. If you made a historic contribution to something but instead of being noted about that, they instead decided to note your resemblance to Dennis Pennis or some other charicature of an American, you'd be offended. This guy made history, and all they could say is that he looks like a comedy character. If it was a the first black guy and they said he looked like a Minstrel, people would have rightly been irate about it. They should have been sacked, not suspended.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I hate Political Correctness for the most part, here my opinion lies in what they were suspended for. If it was the Borat comments, I could understand it. However, if it was honestly the mispronunciation of 'Iranian', I want to find the viewer who complained and hit their head against a wall. We're getting offended by the way people pronounce things now? There are so many things wrong with how stupid that is. People pronounce words differently all over the world. I doubt if someone pronounced America wrongly people would kick up a fuss. Just get over it.

 

[NYSandman]

Oh, please! Spare me, for the love of God. Jesus Christ!

You can't say anything anymore. Yes, to answer you, we have become a society of whiny, petty, punk ass, moaning, bitching, complaining, lawsuit filing, op ed piece writing *****es, with a capital P.

You can't say black man. It's, "Person of African decent residing in the United States." Everybody gets their panties twisted over everything.

We live in a world where hitting a dog gets more people bitching than raping a child.

Where you can't put up Christmas decorations because they offend people.

Where news anchors and celebrities get sued or fired for saying something totally harmless, except one person got pissed, as per your example.

Where our broadcast music and television is so watered down, that fucking Jaws would drown.

And, it's openly biased. For example. I'm a very, very tolerant white man. I have no racist feeling towards blacks, Hispanics or anyone for that matter. If you photographed my circle of friends, it would look like a fucking UN summit.

Here's the thing that pisses me off, though. There is a double standard with white people. Whites will instantly be persecuted for any racist remark made. You can't even get in a verbal altercation with a black person for fear of being charged with a hate crime.

But, it doesn't work both ways. You have pieces of human shit like Al Sharpton and Farrakhan, however you spell it, who can basically preach that it's okay to murder white babies, and no one says shit!

Three whites beating a black is a hate crime. Three blacks beating a white is a misunderstanding.

People need to stop getting so offended by bullshit. I'm a wop, uh, sorry, an American born Caucasian who's ancestry is deeply rooted in the art of pasta eating. I'm Italian. I didn't sue the Sopranos. I don't boycott Godfather movies.

Here's the end. People are miserable, bored, fed up, lazy, ignorant, intolerant, belligerent, selfish, nosy, obsessed and whiny. Yes, to quote the late, great George Carlin, the "*****fication" of the world has begun.

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

to add to this I realized something. in the NBA 2k10 game there's a song by Matisyahu called "One Day". the song is so watered down you can't even say WAR....... good god are we *****es!