Post something you learned today

Aye I didn’t go into detail, it was very frank and honest and * human. Filled with genuine remorse and how people in times of great stress, after terrible things happen, you don’t * think straight.

Very brave of him. Reading John Barnes’ comments on it today is spot on.

 

Personally I think he should be applauded for being open & honest about something that he now recognises was absolutely wrong. If anything it's anti-racist. The faux hysteria is embarrassing.

 

Barnes on LBC just now,fair comments.

 

100% this mate.

 

Just got a text from sky news about it, they’re not having my replies though

 

So basically they’ll either vilify him, or back him, based on the general consensus of the public?

 

The reason I was concerned about him sharing that was because of how such a massive issue could affect his state of mind. A mental health and race issue, I bet the internet is full of the absolute worst of humanity right now.

I don't see how that benefits anyone with mental health issues or anyone of colour because it must be statistically insignificant the amount of people who have one week breakdowns. Yet the response will be statistically out of all proportion and context.

That's really Sky texting folk surveys with questions like that? It's terrible reporting if so because they're going to highlight troll replies aren't they, they got the most clicks

* bless the man, I really hope he's relaxing somewhere beautiful with his family far away from any internet.

 

You're familiar with Sky News then?

 

Yeah, it is very brave of him. The reaction is a societal problem in that people don't listen and the media don't want us to.
'Liam Neeson is a racist' is a headline that sells more newspapers than ' how harrowing attack on someone near to Neeson briefly turned him into vile racist and how he has learned from it'. It should be the catalyst for a mature and intelligent debate about how people can change, but, as Kevin Hart has proved, people do not want to forgive celebrities for past mistakes, they want everything and everyone to be viewed as black and white.

Funnily enough, Neeson's comments on the 'metoo' movement were extremely damaging and didn't receive half the coverage.

As an aside, he is an awful actor. He seems to play himself, badly, in every film.

 

I thought he was awryt in Gangs of New York...Mon the Dead Rabbits!

 

Couldn't even finish that film, thought it was *.

I did meet him once, he came to my hometown to unveil the Michael Collins statue. My mother works for the Irish Tourist Board so got me an invite back to the hotel. He is a big lump, made me think twice about telling him the film was *!

 

No chance. Over 3 hours with Cameron Diaz oan the screen...worth watching for that alone.

 

Never saw the attraction myself. Anyway, if I want to watch something with someone attractive in it I lean towards *.

 

I always thought the difference was mayonnaise used more yolk and oil, salad cream less yolk, little oil and more vinegar. I have never made my own salad cream though. Insert Kenneth Williams picture here.

 

I don't believe he is any sort of deep-rooted racist bigot (though being from Ballymena...), but I do think it was so entirely needless for him to bring this up at all. It's not like somebody confronted him with it and he's now backed against a wall, he just blurted it out of nowhere. Black people get murdered (mainly in USA) every year for people having similar "impulses" to kill a black person, so I wouldn't really say he should be applauded for admitting to having it but not acting on it and then wising up. Extreme example, but if somebody with autism or a similar condition had attacked his friend, and he admitted to wanting to go out and "kill the first * * I saw", I don't think there would be this massive wave of "get over it!" we're seeing under all the social media articles discussing it.

 

Couldn't disagree more. He was asked a question about revenge and reflected on a situation that was 40 years ago. He brought it up to highlight part of the human psyche that lusts for revenge when we are angry, hurt, afraid. It's a common reaction when we feel like that, that we want to inflict it on someone else. Countless wars have been started like that.

Neeson is acknowledging how irrational it was that he acted and thought like that. It takes a lot of humility to realise the error of your ways, reflect on it so as not to repeat it and then admit to it on a public stage. He didn't do that to denigrate black people. He didn't do that to boast about wanting to hurt a random black guy. He did it to highlight how wrong that reaction was but also how powerful the * for revenge can be.

The irony is that someone reading that with a desire to get revenge on someone might actually have an epiphany that it's the wrong way of thinking.

The reaction is symptomatic of current society. A guy puts his hands up about a way he thought decades beforehand and acknowledges it was wrong, then everyone wants to crucify him and take potshots as if we are meant to be born virtuous and never make mistakes.

It was intended to be a lesson that instead of acting on impulse in the heat of the moment, it's better to take a step back and rationalise things. His reference to the Troubles is relevant as it became a perpetual cycle of violence. That cycle has now been broken because people have sat down, listened to the opposing side and (for the most part) abandoned their previous way of only wanting revenge.

That's far less salacious for the red tops to sensationalise though, so it's more beneficial for them to just tar Neeson as being a racist.

 

The actor who played Paolo in Friends receives around $2000 a year in royalties from re-runs/repeats.

He appeared in 4 episodes with total screen time probably only a couple of minutes.

 

Spot on.