The Anti-Bully Speaker is a Bully

[Deleted]

radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/anti-bullying-speaker-curses-mocks-christian-teens.html
As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after an anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible and reportedly called those who refused to listen to his rant “pansy assed.”

Savage was supposed to be delivering a speech about anti-bullying at the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. But it turned into an episode of Christian-bashing.

Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California, was among several thousand people in the audience. He said they thought the speech was one thing – but it turned into something else.

“I thought this would be about anti-bullying,” Tuttle told Fox news. “It turned into a pointed attack on Christian beliefs.”

Such a role model for tolerance and respect. lol.

[cereb]

Unfortunate that when someone points out that people have and will continue to use the Bible as an excuse to attack folks who are gay, suddenly they are Christian bashers and bullies.


Truth sucks sometimes.

[weltschmerz]

The guy is a sex-advice columnist and gay activist. What on earth were they expecting when they booked him?
There were more than a thousand people in the audience. "As many as 100 walked out" means that a great many stayed.

[djAdvocate]

bully seems to be a popular term in the conservative vocabulary these days, used to describe anyone with an opinion, pretty much.

[weltschmerz]

Apr 28, 2012 19:32:16 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

bully seems to be a popular term in the conservative vocabulary these days, used to describe anyone with an opinion, pretty much.

Well, some people are too "pansy-assed" to see it.

[Tennesseer]

“You can tell the Bible guys in the hall they can come back now because I’m done beating up the Bible,” Savage said as other students hollered and cheered. “It’s funny as someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible how pansy-assed people react when you push back.”

Touché.

Five percent of the audience found his words offensive. Probably the same type of folks who in private and in public club gay kids over the head with their biblical quotes of how they're going to hell.

Funny how the 'Sticks and stone may break my bones, but names will never hurt me' folks suddenly are hurt and offended when it happens to them.

Meh.

ETA: " Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California, was among several thousand people in the audience."

[zibazinski]

What an ass.

[djAdvocate]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

[Tennesseer]

<<<Chuckle>>>

[djAdvocate]

seriously, dude. i went through a period of a year or two where i half expected DHS to come knocking and haul me off to Guantanimo or New Mazanar or something. sheesh. this is NOTHING. harsh words don't even compare to being beaten and corralled by the government. the right has lost all perspective.

[skweet]

100 kids that willingly went to a speech about anti-bullying given by a known activist, walked out. They walked out, some protest. Is it possible that these kids weren't the ones typically bullying gays, due to the fact that they walked in? Yet instead of hearing a speech that would help heal the divide between bullies and those being bullied, they heard a rant against their religion, an escalation of rhetoric, and simply walked out. They didn't yell and curse back, or picket or demand that he be muzzled, but just walked out.

If I am in an auditorium hearing a speech billed as one thing, and find out it is something different, I would walk out, my time is simply too valuable to me. It is not necessarily a political statement, just saying that I have better things to do. The fact that this anti-bullying speech led to how good his partner looked in a Speedo would be enough for me, and I am by no means anti-gay. I enjoy some good religion bashing, now and again, and I am not a Christian, but I don't see the fire on this topic. So now, every time I walk out of a speech or movie, turn the radio/TV off, ignore my wife's rant, or otherwise allow myself to not experience someone else's right to free speech, of which I don't find valuable, am I doing something wrong?

They just walked out, don't read too much into it.

[vandalshandle]

I get it. free speech =bullying.

Now, just where did I put that copy of the Constitution that I keep around here....

[Deleted]

The problem with "bullying" type laws is that the so-called victims can engage in bully behavior as well. I think we would be much, much farther ahead to teach our kids that some people just aren't very nice, to learn to deal with and ignore bullies and to teach kids how to be reslilient and that there life isn't over because someone calls you Fatty Four Eyes or whatever. I don't want to see kids bullied either but i am seeing kids who then adopt the victim role and never get out of it. That doesn't help anyone lead a better life.

[zibazinski]

You're going to get flamed for that one.

[Deleted]

I know but am i not supposed to give my opinion? For awhile, i was a bit too soft on my daughter. She got teased a bit and i tried to protect her. Then, i realized too much pity was only making her less resilient and strong. So, i had to back off, tell her that she is a strong girl and person and that she can handle someone calling her names and so forth. In MY opinion, that was much more productive for her than continual pity. Now, i am not saying that we shouldn't deal with kids who are bullying. If they are name calling, harrassing and so forth, then of course, we need to report that and hold the bully accountable. But, we also need to teach our children that they are stronger than any bully.

[Tennesseer]

Which is one of the goals of the 'It Gets Better' project.

[zibazinski]

But, whine, you are blaming the victim.

[Don Perignon]

The problem with "anti-bullying" laws is that they make the bullies into the victims.
Bullies don't like being victimized, nor can they tolerate having their potential victims protected from their assaults. It is contrary to everything they hold dear and sacred. An insult to "the natural order of things"!

[Virgil Showlion]

I came for an anti-bullying lecture, not an activist's opinion of my religion.

So thank you, Tenn, Weltz, DJ, Cereb. I show up in good faith to a school lecture, listen to a gay activist attack my God and my religion, and elect to leave. The presenter mocks me as a coward. Your reaction is, "Virgil, you deserve it." followed by "<<chuckle>>".

Better a coward than a hypocrite, I suppose.

[weltschmerz]

Virgil, a gay activist will surely bring up the Biblical opposition to homosexuality. It's the root cause for much of the gay-bashing in schools and elsewhere.

[weltschmerz]

"God invented Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve! It's an abomination! The Bible says so!"
I've heard this thousands of times.

[cereb]

Apr 29, 2012 15:28:19 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

I came for an anti-bullying lecture, not an activist's opinion of my religion.

So thank you, Tenn, Weltz, DJ, Cereb. I show up in good faith to a school lecture, listen to a gay activist attack my God and my religion, and elect to leave. The presenter mocks me as a coward. Your reaction is, "Virgil, you deserve it." followed by "<<chuckle>>".

Better a coward than a hypocrite, I suppose.

Since your religion has been the basis, the excuse if you will for a culture of hatred against homosexuals, I'm thinking you are just going to have to take that one on the chin. If you are expecting sympathy, I am afraid you are not going to get it.

If you can't bring yourself to question that position and stand up against it, well, then "coward" just might be applicable.

[mmhmm]

Frankly, it sounds like everyone did what they felt they needed to do. I don't see a major issue. If the speaker felt the need to turn his speech toward bashing Christians, that was his choice. Those who hired him to speak have the choice not to pay him for his time, if that's THEIR choice. The students who were upset by the speech left. That's exactly what I would have done, and what I feel they should have done. I'm afraid I don't see this as a big deal. Nastiness toward others happens all the time, everywhere, for all sorts of reasons, unfortunately.

[Virgil Showlion]

Apr 29, 2012 15:37:31 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Virgil, a gay activist will surely bring up the Biblical opposition to homosexuality. It's the root cause for much of the gay-bashing in schools and elsewhere.

Fine. Let him preach his doctrine in a lecture titled "The Homophobic Christian Scourge" delivered in a paid venue to an audience he's attracted through advertising. Not in a school lecture about preventing bullying.

I've held that homosexuality is immoral since grade school. Not once have I bullied somebody about it. My parents, my grandparents, my sister hold that homosexuality is immoral. Not once have they ever bullied somebody about it.

And if a gay man quietly walks out on a church sermon where the minister is condemning homosexuality, you're going to call him a coward? He deserves it if the minister mocks him as he leaves?

It's bald-faced hypocrisy. I can't believe you and Tenn are smiling and clucking your tongues. You in particular seem to be making the argument that it's all good since the majority of the audience didn't join in the exodus.

Popular support justifies cursing and deriding biblical teachings during an anti-bullying lecture? That's your position?

Tenn: I've never once thought of you as a hypocrite until now. But it's obvious you don't give a damn about bullying as long as it's the "right people" being bullied. Shame on you.

And I've wasted enough of my afternoon.

[weltschmerz]

I've held that homosexuality is immoral since grade school. Not once have I bullied somebody about it. My parents, my grandparents, my sister hold that homosexuality is immoral. Not once have they ever bullied somebody about it.
---------------------
Immoral on what grounds? I'm guessing biblical......

[djAdvocate]

Apr 29, 2012 14:14:44 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

You're going to get flamed for that one.

why?

[djAdvocate]

Apr 29, 2012 15:28:19 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

I came for an anti-bullying lecture, not an activist's opinion of my religion.

So thank you, Tenn, Weltz, DJ, Cereb. I show up in good faith to a school lecture, listen to a gay activist attack my God and my religion, and elect to leave. The presenter mocks me as a coward. Your reaction is, "Virgil, you deserve it." followed by "<<chuckle>>".

Better a coward than a hypocrite, I suppose.

Virgil- quick question: how much do you enjoy having words put into your mouth? not much, i am guessing. then why do you do it to me?

i never said anything of the sort. what i said is that a lecture is free speech. if he says "f*(K" repeatedly for 2 hours, that is his prerogative. if everyone walks out on him, that is theirs. if the audience BOOS for 2 hours, that is also free speech. there is no "right" to get your money's worth. if you don't like what the speaker does, DON'T PAY TO LISTEN.

[mmhmm]

Apr 29, 2012 16:49:54 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Apr 29, 2012 14:14:44 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

You're going to get flamed for that one.

why?

She didn't. I didn't expect her to.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I probably would've walked out, too.

[vandalshandle]

I am relieved that Virgil and his family do not bully "immoral" gays!