Sigh. People keep saying this, but it’s not true. The WBC is that “one in a million” type of group that doesn’t go away. Once folks get innured to a certain level of their rhetoric, why, they just ratchet it up.
I know about these people. Back in the 90’s, when they were getting started, I used to do a lot of counter-picketing against them. But that died out when it became apparent it made no difference to them.
As for ignoring them, you can’t. They can be dangerous. Back in 1997, when they picketed at the church I was then a member of, they physically attacked our minister. Claimed he threw a hammer at them(he was pounding in a yard sign) and surged off the sidewalk to “take him down” as they put it. Four of their guys sat on him, then when the cops showed up the WBC charged him with assault.
As a side note, I wonder if they celebrate holidays? They picketed the church I am now a member of on Christmas Eve just this year.
I actually think its kind of a good thing. It gets people to come out and support the families. I ride with the Patriot Guard…a biker group that was formed to deal with scum like Phelps. Before that idiocy coming from a single inbred batshit crazy clan, nobody came out in force to support the families.
and as to Der what’s his name. he’s always been polite and helpful to me.
Yes, my world does have rainbows and flying unicorns. I’ve learned that my world is what I make it.
Just because you don’t like liberals and you don’t like Fred Phelps doesn’t mean it’s difficult to tell the difference between the two. Unless you aren’t paying attention.
That’s actually what I want. Not too far as to actually hurt anyone, but I want them to ratchet up until they do something illegal, so the law can do something about them.
And the reason I care is simple: I don’t think trolls should be rewarded for being trolls. I want to live in a society where trolls are punished. That’s why I practically live at this message board.
And, if I want said society, I have to do something to create it. I’m not one of these people who just sits around and complains about how bad everything is.
As for why I want to get rid of trolls: they do the crap that Baker mentioned. These guys are not the non-violent protesters the media has rewarded them by claiming they are.
Frankly, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t associate Westboro with either side of the political spectrum anymore. I definitely don’t blame them on the Republicans, or the right-wing, or even right-wing, fundamentalist Christianity. Their (so-called) Christianity is kind of incidental to the throbbing mass of black, pustulent hatred that they nurture so lovingly in their compound.
It helps if you start to view them for what they are: a combination of batshit insanity and grifting opportunism. Remember that their primary source of income is lawsuits against everyone and everything.
Foix News likes to characterize them as “war protesters” to try to give the superficila impression that they’re hippies or something. The fact that they aren’t protesting any wars doesn’t nmatter to them, I guess.
This video shows exactly why they do these whacky protests:
The church is Fred Phelps and his children and grandchildren. They’re picketing some soldier’s funeral, and some guy throws a bottle at the protesters and hits one of the kids on the head. And this is exactly the purpose of the pickets. They aren’t intended for the rest of us, the audience is the group itself. It’s to demonstrate to the kids in the cult that the rest of the world hates them, to cut them off from every other potential human contact. This is why they switched from picketing gay funerals to picketing soldier’s funerals. Because picketing the gays wasn’t hateful enough.
So it’s not like ignoring them will make them go away. They aren’t doing this to get attention. They’re doing this to isolate the cult members even from other fundamentalist churches. If little Timmy can make friends with people from the Bible-waving fag-hating fundamentalist church across town, then Timmy might be able to leave the group. But if the only thing Timmy knows about the world is that everyone in the world hates him, and the only people in the world who show any kindness to him are members of the church, then Timmy is never going to be able to leave.
You have to give them some credit though, just when you think they can’t go any lower they do! They’re going to picket the funeral of a nine year old child tragically shot by some whackjob. It’s going to be hard for them to top that one.
