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filkertomFeeling conflicted here. It's entirely possible, perhaps even reasonable, to look upon this as a victory for free speech -- the old thing about "I hate what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it". This applies even to Phelps; no matter how much I rail about his hateful, evil message, I would not shut it down, even if I could. The notion of "acceptable" speech is about as bad as Fred's hate speech.
The problem is the chosen venue: funerals. The funerals of people whose families likely never imagined someone would protest them, especially for the ridiculous, bigoted, fatuous and self-serving reasons Phelps gives.
Phelps is an attention-seeking, scam-artist jerk. His "church" basically consists of his family, many of whom are lawyers. They go to the funerals of people who he loosely associates with his pet causes, they get a lot of publicity, they get money out of some of them by turning the anger of people who despise what they're doing into civil lawsuits and, eventually, the income that keeps WBC going.
It's a living.
Fred has taken it upon himself to condemn himself and his descendants to being among the most hated people in the country. He's not going to change anybody's mind, and I think he knows that.
Which makes me curious: What is his actual goal? What does he envision his legacy to be? How did he come to this path to get there? Why this, why now? Does he really believe any of this stuff, or is it all just noise and misdirection?
And, the one question I'm sure he'd ask: What if he's right?
The problem is the chosen venue: funerals. The funerals of people whose families likely never imagined someone would protest them, especially for the ridiculous, bigoted, fatuous and self-serving reasons Phelps gives.
Phelps is an attention-seeking, scam-artist jerk. His "church" basically consists of his family, many of whom are lawyers. They go to the funerals of people who he loosely associates with his pet causes, they get a lot of publicity, they get money out of some of them by turning the anger of people who despise what they're doing into civil lawsuits and, eventually, the income that keeps WBC going.
It's a living.
Fred has taken it upon himself to condemn himself and his descendants to being among the most hated people in the country. He's not going to change anybody's mind, and I think he knows that.
Which makes me curious: What is his actual goal? What does he envision his legacy to be? How did he come to this path to get there? Why this, why now? Does he really believe any of this stuff, or is it all just noise and misdirection?
And, the one question I'm sure he'd ask: What if he's right?
