Westboro Baptist Church - Protesting Oklahoman churches

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Marksman
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Yes sir, I see what you're saying, but I don't think your're getting my point. Probably my lack of vocabulary skills. I'm new to this forum stuff and not used to having to watch every little word I say because its permanent, there are rules, and without hearing inflection things can be misinterpreted.
 

AC37

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quoted from AC37

"You know the ironic part about WBC and all the attention they get?

If people just ignored them, they'd would go away."

I would like to think that is true, but these people seem to be batsh*t nuts about their "cause". I don't know that they would go away. Where do they get their money from? Cut off the money.....


Like many things, there is a cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy occurring with WBC.

The best publicity the WBC gets are from the ones who scream the loudest how much they hate them. IOW - who's really generating all the media attention for WBC - WBC by themselves, or the ones that claim to hate them so much? No one man - or small group - can terrorize an entire nation unless we are all their accomplices. Are we _really_ that threatened by the WBC's beliefs that we believe they require lots of national attention to deal with? Do we believe they are that much of a threat to our country we must organize national efforts to stamp them out post-haste? Heck, the entire church manages only an entire congregation of 71 members in a state capital with over 120,000 individuals. There are far greater problems this country faces than 71 disgruntled, deluded individuals whose efforts to propagate their views and recruit new members consists solely of holding up signs with unpopular viewpoints - and who, for all of their efforts, still haven't managed to attract any significant numbers of new members. The fact they aren't attracting anything in way of new membership probably speaks the loudest.

Money? How much $ is a small church of 71 members really going to be able to put together? How much money does their small peanuts organization really require to maintain?

Like many organizations, WBC is full of attention whores. They don't do their protests in empty fields with no cameras or people, any more than an empty restaurant will draw a huge crowd. Empty restaurants don't stay in business long - neither do small groups of protesters with unpopular viewpoints that get no air time for tons of exerted effort. If WBC doesn't get the results they're after - no coverage or outrage, they have no motivation to continue exerting effort for no result for very long.

IOW: if enough people shut off the spotlight, find something better to do with their time, let WBC continue jumping through the hoops they do to attract attention, only to waste their time getting none at all - they're going to stop, sooner or later. Media thrives on ratings; the WBC gives them that because people watch them. No ratings, no media coverage of WBC. The media moves on, the WBC moves on. That simple.

I don't know about you, but I have much more entertaining things to do with my limited free time like shooting, typing, reading, playing, or a few other non-PC activities I could name. :)
 

Nraman

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The problem with suppressing 1A rights because some use them unintelligently is for all the problems free expression brings, when free expression and exchange ideas is stopped, sooner or later people are going to start exchanging violence. Numerous historical examples of this playing out could be cited here. The 1A for all of its imperfections is a big part of the reason we live, as a country, in much better overall conditions than much of the rest of the world.

The beauty of the 1st is just like the WBC is free to protest, others are free to counter-protest WBC in turn, such as the Patriot Guard Riders.

A fundamental part of believing in the 1A is accepting that while many will use it for good purposes, others will do not-so-intelligent things with it. You have to take the good with the bad; remember that whatever viewpoints you believe correct (religion, sex, etc.), many others believe you're wrong - vehemently so. IOW; if you accept suppression of the beliefs you find incorrect, sooner or later you're going to find your own viewpoints being suppressed by those who didn't agree with yours and also thought wrong viewpoints shouldn't be protected by the 1A.

Bottom line: you can't force wrong people to be right. You can only find peace in your dealings with them through mutual respect for individual freedom - and maybe in time those others will eventually come to see the error of their ways.

I agree with you.
Having said that, consider that you don't have the right to yell fire in a theater ( I disagree with that, I see it as a door to more restrictions). There are limits to free speech. You cannot be a Chrishna harassing people at the airport and when you work for a company you are bound by their rules, no free speech there.
The way I see it, a funeral is a private matter and an expression of their 1A rights to worship and say what they want. These morons interfere with their right to assemble and have a private funeral.
"Congress shall make no law..., or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech"
Congress shall make no law, companies and individuals are not included.
 

DaveTec

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Actually, they plan on protesting McAlester again. You can check out their website if you want their "schedule" but they're planning on city hall and the Marines as well.

Wouldn't it be pure poetry if when protesting said marines, that the assembled crowd of civilians got out of hand and decided that a public lynching was in order and the marines had to step in and PROTECT and escort the idiots to safety. The ultimate in IRONING (irony lol)

It would sure make for good TV.
 

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