Harbaugh & American Sniper
There is some controversy on campus about the University showing American Sniper. It was cancelled after some protest, but it has since been rescheduled. I know that politics aren't supposed to be talked about on the board, but it involves our beloved coach.
Harbaugh weighed in on the matter via twitter:
"Michigan Football will watch "American Sniper"! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!"
Apologies for not being sure how to embed twitter posts.
http://www.si.com/college-football/2015/04/08/michigan-football-jim-harbaugh-american-sniper-screening
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/04/08/after-university-canceled-american-sniper-showing-football-coach-harbaugh-made-this-announcement/
Harbaugh has stirred a bit of controversy on campus with this tweet- a minority of students have complained about this.
My personal opinion on this is that I like Harbaugh more because of it. He is not afraid to step on people's toes, and voice his opinion. He is unapologetic. That's exactly how a coach should be.
As far as the film goes, I would prefer the University show it. Although I am not a big fan of Chris Kyle, I can understand why people would be. There are a lot of inspirational things about him, but also some negatives. I think the film addresses the negatives of war adequately, and makes a nuanced argument- Kyle is a controversial figure.
[ED-Seth: Aaaaand we're locked. Handed out one ban. Leaving because it's news that Harbaugh waded into it. This is why we don't talk about politics. But see Comment 14 for a good example of why I wish we could sometimes.]
That would never pick up a gun or strap a bomb to their chest or child to be used as a homicide bomber but they 100% sympathize and agree with those that do.
There are also Muslims who disagree with and are upset with what is happening to their religion but have no control over it. Any Muslim that tries to defy the evil doers who are trying to implement their twisted notion of Islam is sentenced to death.
This is just pathetic. Your ignorance is embarassing.
Might want to do a bit more research before having a knee jerk reaction to my comment.
Muslim on earth agrees and sympathize with terrorism. You realize how stupid this sounds right. Probably not though since you are incredibly ignorant.
I said a whole lot, not every single one. Again, your ignorance is shining like a beacon.
You just said "100% agree." Your own fucking words. But yeah, I'm the ignorant one. Fucking moron, I'm done with pieces of shit like you.
Hey fucktard. He said "a whole lot of Muslims" aka many of them maybe more than 50% "sympathize 100%" meaning they support the radical cause 100% outside of carrying out violent acts themselves. He is saying that A LOT of them NOT ALL agree with the cause. He also said many don't. holy shit.
It goes to show you that some are so filled with hate and ignorance that they can't quite comprehend an argument and use the tactic of name calling to deflect their ignorance.
I found it funny Moe conveniently forgot to notice your post about many Muslims disagreeing with the acts.
Characters like Moe react to facts like how Superman reacts to kryptonite. Thent hey resort into name calling to try and silence others. Not unlike what many groups on campus do to those they want to silence.
I re-read it from that standpoint, and see what he meant. Still a really stupid thing to say, but I get that he's saying not every single Muslim agrees with this...just 'A whole lot" which is equally disturbing. My bad for not understanding the full post.
Takes guts to admit an error, especially an anonymous one. You're ok in my book Moe (not that you care about that at all). Respect.
From time to time, but always man enough to admit when I'm wrong.
You truly are one angry hatefilled person. Not unlike a terrorist.
I understand what you meant by your post. I apologize for getting pissed off at you. Really thought you meant all muslims believe in terriorism. You just believe "A whole lot do" which is still very wrong. Every religion has extremest, including Catholic, Jew, Muslim, everything. Don't let the few warp your viewpoint of the many.
For more clarification of what wrote watch this when you have the time, especially starting at the 4:10 mark
The fact that there are some oversensitive people who didn't want the university to show American Sniper tells me everything I need to know about why the stadium is the quietest 110,000 people anywhere in America on most Saturdays.
No offense, but 250 people signed the petition to stop the movie... and eventually failed to stop it at all. Not sure how that says anything about the behavior of 110,000 people at a football game. Further, I would be willing to bet a very small % of those 250 even attend games.
FWIW, the most important issue in this whole damn thing is censorship is bad. period.
1. Haven't seen the movie and have kind of purposefully avoided the whole issue. Mostly because there are just so damn many controversies to keep up with these days that I can't follow them all. Therefore, I have no idea what I would think of the story or the guy. Except that I'm grateful to him for serving our country and risking his life.
2. I've loved Harbaugh's twitter work, the Judge Judy stuff, #EUTM, etc.
3. And he's an American, with the right to speak his mind, so I can't fault him for that at this level.
4. However, I worry about what might come next. Will he be tweeting on same sex marriage, abortion, immigration, etc.? I hope not. Our fan base has been so divided for so many years now that one of my primary hopes is that we become united again (which clearly has happened so far, under Harbaugh). I worry that this kind of tweeting could start to divide us again, which I would hate to see.
5. So I guess in the end I wish he wouldn't do this. It's not the end of the world, of course. And it is his right. But his job is football coach, and I hope he stays focused on that. I hope he can walk the fine line between awesome tweets that the twitterverse retweets with previsously unknown enthusiasm, and the kind of tweets that are more likely to stoke the flames of controversy.
although as a presumed way older graduate than most of you, I had to look up UMix, which did not exist in my day.
Their charter looks like it is about fun and entertainment - "Build a Bear, Bingo, Karaoke, Inflatable Laser Tag?" - vice exposing students to the world around them.
On that basis American Sniper probably just showed up as yet another contemporary release rather than any object lesson about the military or our national involvement in faraway places. Then the fun started.
For those who have commented on Kyle - I'd recommend reading his book in addition to watching the movie. May help you sort out your thoughts on him.
It is long past time to fight back against the "heckler's veto" that is such a threat to freedom of expression, especially on college campuses. How sad that the mere announcement that someone wants to give a lecture or speak at a commencement engenders the response of ,"we must not let them speak." How about this for a strategy: if you don't like the speech of someone, try to come up with better speech yourself. But don't attempt to silence them. Recommended reading on this: "Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee," by Nat Hentoff.
What the University and protesters should have done is watched the movie and then had meaningful dialogue/ a debate on the film (I haven't seen it and likely won't, but that's because I don't watch many movies).
Chris Kyle wasn't really a hero to me. This is a person who had no capacity for nuance or ambiguity. He also comes across as a bit of a sociopath. I guess I would want him on my side in a battle though. Some of the quotes from his book:
“I don’t shoot people with Korans,” “I’d like to, but I don’t.”
“I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the Iraqis.” “I hate the damn savages,”
He also thought killing was "fun" and "loved" to do it.
If I'm being honest, the Harbaugh tweet comes off as a "'MURICA! NO APOLOGIES!" type of message, and I don't really love it. On the other hand, its not too big of a deal because I don't require that everyone in the world agree with me on every issue.
I firmly believe, however, that University culture needs to toughen up and stop censoring thought.
I see you are taking some of the salacious quotes from the book but did you actually read the book? If you did, you'd understand why he said what he did in full context.
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Pretty good article from the New York Times from a few weeks ago talking about the feeling some college kids have that they shouldn't be exposed to ideas that are "scary" to them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html?_r=0
Just the college kids, huh?
The bottom line for me is the Constitution. Mob rule or a vocal minority means nothing to me by-in-large. We are a Republic not a Democracy. The Constitution has the final say. In this case it's a freedom of speech issue. Watch it if you want or don't if it offends. I understand that not everything is this black and white. But this instance seems clear cut to me. I agree with JH. Maybe not his reasoning but certainly his determination.
Well no reason to log onto the Huffington Post or Fox News today.
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So his tweet is stupid because you disagree with it? How open minded of you!
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People can debate whether or not Chris is a hero or the veracity of some of his stories but he surely did save a lot of Americans with his ability to fight the enemy and take them out. If you read his book, you'd know. So that begs the question, how many of you ACTUALLY read his book? Seeing the movie doesn't count. I have read it. Btw, Chris didn't see himself as a hero. He saw himself just doing his job.
Ya'll might want to read this for more perspective.
http://www.military.com/special-operations/two-chris-kyle-stories-you-w…
yeah because nobody has ever lied about themselves in a book. Also, I'm a french model
Jesse Ventura even won a libel case against him. Yep, proven in court. He even claimed at one point to have shot people from the roof of the Superdome during the post-Katrina chaos. I think the bigger issue is that the guy wasn't the guy portrayed in the movie as having moral qualms about killing people. His book and interviews indicated the opposite: he enjoyed killing people and had no qualms about it whatsoever. It might have been a better movie by relying on a fictional character representing soldiers at large rather than a fantasy about an actual person that bore no resemblance to his real-life persona.