# Cancelling the Obamas? WTF **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 2, 2021, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193 "2021-04-02T00:16:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/81 "2021-04-03T00:44:08Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > It would also be nice if this board wasn’t overrun with group think where posters can slander 10s of millions of other fellow citizens as racists, bigots, Nazis, etc merely because of party affiliation. Doesn’t happen. We oppose racists because of their racism. We oppose bigots because of their bigotry. We oppose Nazis because of their Nazism. And we oppose the Republican Party because it panders to racists, bigots, and Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/82 "2021-04-03T00:58:40Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > By your ‘logic’ the ACLU is the 2nd coming of the 3rd Reich.[ACLU History | American Civil Liberties Union](https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-taking-stand-free-speech-skokie) - Free _speech_, not free _action_. Anyone is allowed to say what they want as long as they don’t advocate for such things\* as the violent overthrow of the government or the running down and killing of counter-protestors. Things that you approved of and defended. \*Not limited to these two specific examples just to stop your inevitable yelping. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/83 "2021-04-03T01:00:20Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > By your ‘logic’ the ACLU is the 2nd coming of the 3rd Reich.[ACLU History: Taking a Stand for Free Speech in Skokie | American Civil Liberties Unio](https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-taking-stand-free-speech-skokie) No, that analogy would only appear valid to people who don’t understand the difference between “making excuses for” something loathsome and “defending the right to do” something loathsome. Nice try, though. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/84 "2021-04-03T01:33:04Z")
I can’t tell exactly why, but I suddenly believe I’ll re-up my ACLU membership this weekend. I’ve been putting it off for money scratching reasons, but it has taken a strange urgency. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/85 "2021-04-03T01:58:27Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > By your ‘logic’ the ACLU is the 2nd coming of the 3rd Reich.[ACLU History | American Civil Liberties Union](https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-taking-stand-free-speech-skokie) A number of good responses have already been provided, including about your apparent inability to understand “the difference between ‘making excuses for’ something loathsome and ‘defending the right to do’ something loathsome.” But I will go further than some other posters. I’m a strong believer in civil liberties, but I’m also opposed to the uniquely American concept of free speech absolutism, and I do favour carefully limited hate speech laws. Some of the travesties that have been perpetrated by the likes of the Westboro Baptist “church”, racist white-hooded cross-burners, and neo-Nazis marching through neighbourhoods with special sensitivities to the Holocaust are totally unacceptable in any civilized society, in my view. A liberal doesn’t always have to agree with the ACLU. I completely reject the idea that we have to tolerate hate speech because otherwise who knows what kind of speech some future government may choose to prohibit. This is the worst kind of “slippery slope” argument that simply says "I don’t trust government’. Which, by extension, means you don’t trust the democratic process. If the democratic process is broken then you’re totally fucked anyway, and some words written on a piece of parchment aren’t going to protect you. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/86 "2021-04-03T03:17:20Z")
The ACLU defends everyone’s rights, not only those of the “woke”. They’ve certainly defended conservatives and religious people in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/87 "2021-04-03T03:19:58Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I completely reject the idea that we have to tolerate hate speech because otherwise who knows what kind of speech some future government may choose to prohibit. This is the worst kind of “slippery slope” argument that simply says "I don’t trust government’. The government has, at a minimum, been a staunch maintainer of the unequal status quo and at worst actively oppressed women and people of color, among other minorities. I have no reason to trust the government to limit speech. The government has always been an instrument wielded by the majority against those with the least amount of power. Giving the government power over free expression will inevitably be used against us. We may be benevolent in our intent but what happens when the arbiters of that law have evil intent? I get that slippery slope arguments are not good debate form but look how easily norms eroded under Trump. So many things were done because that’s the way that we always did them, not because they were codified, and I am not interested in giving Republicans another norm to obliterate. One lesson we must draw from the last four years is that we have to consider any law not based on its intent but based on how it could be abused in the hands of those who mean to hurt others. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/88 "2021-04-03T03:58:36Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > That said, your analysis of it not being a cancellation is actually true and your logic was sound. So… you agree that the OP is not what it claims to be (an example of the Obamas being “canceled”)? Then why did you claim that the OP was an example of the “lunacy of the lunatic left”? How is the story in the OP an example of lunacy? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/89 "2021-04-03T04:03:01Z")
You’re asking Octopus to apply rational thought to his belief system? That’s hitting him pretty low. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/90 "2021-04-03T13:21:39Z")
Nice one! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/91 "2022-02-09T14:34:29Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Pointing out the ridiculous and hypocritical nature of the woke left is not doomsquawking. Can latinos be “woke”? Shouldn’t they be “desperté” or something? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/92 "2022-02-09T14:45:07Z")
That was a long time for that response. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/93 "2022-02-09T14:48:09Z")
Sorry. Threads pop up in my “suggested” list, and I don’t always notice how old they are. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/94 "2022-02-09T14:55:56Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The Obamas are not being cancelled because some people are arguing that their school shouldn’t be renamed after them. By that logic, they’d be cancelling you by not naming the school the Octopus School for Crustacean Americans. I can’t believe I’m reading this. Octopus are not crustaceans, they are molluscs. Geez. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/95 "2022-02-10T01:45:30Z")
> [@FigNorton](#): > > What’s the deal with wanting to name it after them as a couple? Don’t think I’ve ever seen a school named like that. [Do tell.](https://www.wm.edu) ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193/96 "2022-02-10T01:57:42Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I can’t believe I’m reading this. Octopus are not crustaceans, they are molluscs. Geez. See, people would say no good could ever come of a thread like this - let alone the re-opening of a thread like this 10 months later - but now I’ve learned something. I knew octopus weren’t crustaceans but never knew they were molluscs. So something has been achieved. Thanks @eenerms! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cancelling-the-obamas-wtf/939193.md?page=4)