# Lynch in effigy white Repub woman? A-OK in W Hollywood!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [October 27, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715 "2008-10-27T02:37:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/1 "2008-10-27T02:37:04Z")

</div>

[http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews?ch=4226713&cl=10392332&lang=en](http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ynews?ch=4226713&cl=10392332&lang=en)

“It’s art!”

I guess we’re just lucky it wasn’t funded by an NEA grant.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/2 "2008-10-27T02:44:12Z")

</div>

All I get at that link is a Metamucil commercial. I would indeed like to lynch the producers, whoever they are.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/3 "2008-10-27T02:48:18Z")

</div>

Link works fine for me.

As to who set this up, the fact that it was two smirking West Hollywood men was… not a suprprise.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/4 "2008-10-27T02:48:51Z")

</div>

I’m okay with anything people want to do to a doll, even if I might look at them strangely for doing it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/5 "2008-10-27T02:52:23Z")

</div>

Now, if it was a bear instead of a mannequin…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/6 "2008-10-27T02:59:01Z")

</div>

> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> All I get at that link is a Metamucil commercial. I would indeed like to lynch the producers, whoever they are.

Me, too. I can’t think of Metamucil as “succulent”.  
No video for me. No Metamucil, either.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/7 "2008-10-27T03:02:45Z")

</div>

While I recognize that this is properly-protected political pageantry (ok, I was just going for the alliteration on that last P), I find it pretty sick.

However, it is a little hypocritical of you, **FriarTed** , to denounce mock violence against one’s political opponents. I recall a few weeks ago you described a scene from a movie in which a judge kills ACLU lawyers as “pretty cute.”

What makes that different from this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/8 "2008-10-27T03:30:10Z")

</div>

> [@Richard\_Parker](#):
>
> While I recognize that this is properly-protected political pageantry (ok, I was just going for the alliteration on that last P), I find it pretty sick.
> 
> However, it is a little hypocritical of you, **FriarTed** , to denounce mock violence against one’s political opponents. I recall a few weeks ago you described a scene from a movie in which a judge kills ACLU lawyers as “pretty cute.”
> 
> What makes that different from this?

The movie showed Judge Dennis Hopper blasting away at zombie ACLU lawyers rampaging his courtroom. When the ACLU actually has zombie lawyers, then it will become equivalent to this.

I would however be just as denunciatory if it were a black male mannikin resembling Obama.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/9 "2008-10-27T03:31:43Z")

</div>

> [@astro](#):
>
> Link works fine for me.
> 
> As to who set this up, the fact that it was two smirking West Hollywood men was… not a suprprise.

Props to the one W Hol resident who did appear on camera to object.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/10 "2008-10-27T03:32:24Z")

</div>

> [@FriarTed](#):
>
> The movie showed Judge Dennis Hopper blasting away at zombie ACLU lawyers rampaging his courtroom. When the ACLU actually has zombie lawyers, then it will become equivalent to this.
> 
> I would however be just as denunciatory if it were a black male mannikin resembling Obama.

I haven’t seen the movie, but that seems like a pretty facile distinction. You’d be OK with this if the guys labeled it “Sarah Palin Zombie?” And are you trying to tell me that the point of the movie scene was about killing zombies, not killing ACLU lawyers? C’mon.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/11 "2008-10-27T03:32:47Z")

</div>

I’m getting a Febreze commercial here.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/12 "2008-10-27T03:35:27Z")

</div>

You have to wait through the ad. Then the video starts.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/13 "2008-10-27T03:47:37Z")

</div>

One vote for bad taste. Eaten by a polar bear? That would be funny. Run over by a snow machine? I’ve heard razor sharp boomarangs come “right back to ya”. Lynching? Not only not funny, but just not very creative.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/14 "2008-10-27T03:49:42Z")

</div>

From the thread title I was expecting some sinister torchlight scene involving Danny Glover and Barbra Streisand. :eek:

Yup, bad taste, even if **Friar Ted** ’s standards of outrage are a bit, shall we say, flexible.

> [@Friar Ted](#):
>
> I would however be just as denunciatory if it were a black male mannikin resembling Obama.

Do you really believe a mock lynching scene involving a black Obama-esque mannequin should inspire an equivalent reaction?

Personally, I think it would have been more tasteful to have displayed a Sarah Palin mannequin confronting a grizzly bear, followed the next day by the disappearance of the Palin mannequin, while the grizzly is modeling the mannequin’s $2500 Saks Fifth Avenue suit.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/15 "2008-10-27T03:50:05Z")

</div>

Lest we forget there are tactless nitwits on the left…

Distasteful, but it’s a Halloween thing and that’s a little different from an actual death threat. You see a lot of people and things get hanged as Halloween decorations.

If you do it with an Obama mannequin it looks more like an joke about lynching, which puts it close to offensive than this, which is more in the ‘just stupid’ category.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/16 "2008-10-27T03:50:06Z")

</div>

> [@Richard\_Parker](#):
>
> I haven’t seen the movie, but that seems like a pretty facile distinction. You’d be OK with this if the guys labeled it “Sarah Palin Zombie?” And are you trying to tell me that the point of the movie scene was about killing zombies, not killing ACLU lawyers? C’mon.

A movie with a narrative is one thing. If a liberal political parody film had a judge shooting a zombie Sarah Palin, I might be personally offended (or I might not) but wouldn’t think it’s a big deal. It’s one scene in the context of an entire parody. I’m not raising hell about the Larry Flynt porn film “Nailin’ Palin”. (No, I DON’T plan to see it. _L_)

However, the effigy-lynching of a candidate for public office is out-and-out hate speech. There is no larger context or narrative. It’s just a sign of hatred. I’m not saying it should be illegal. I am saying that it should be disdained by anyone with a sense of decency.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/17 "2008-10-27T03:54:35Z")

</div>

> [@NurseCarmen](#):
>
> One vote for bad taste. Eaten by a polar bear? That would be funny. Run over by a snow machine? I’ve heard razor sharp boomarangs come “right back to ya”. Lynching? Not only not funny, but just not very creative.

OK- polar bears (or grizzly bears), snow machines, or moose antlers as means of death WOULD be funny. I would not have a problem with that! Those would be obvious parody. Lynching isn’t.

I think if these fellows had done the same with an Obama-effigy, they’d be harrassed mercilessly by their neighbors.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/18 "2008-10-27T03:57:19Z")

</div>

> [@FriarTed](#):
>
> When the ACLU actually has zombie lawyers, then it will become equivalent to this.

So Governor Palin **is** a mannequin?

😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/19 "2008-10-27T04:03:22Z")

</div>

> [@FriarTed](#):
>
> I think if these fellows had done the same with an Obama-effigy, they’d be harrassed mercilessly by their neighbors.

Eh, there’s an obvious historical context that makes hanging a black politician in effigy far less sociably acceptable then hanging a white one, at least in the US. You might think its unfair, but its pretty unavoidable.

So if you want to deface an Obama mannequin, you need to burn it, or impale it, or whatever. Hanging it just carries to obvious a message of racism, even if you don’t mean it to.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715/20 "2008-10-27T04:10:02Z")

</div>

Its art. I get that.

A effigy on a noose is supposed to send a message. I get that.

This could actually mitigate the racial sting of empty nooses hung on trees.

No?

All I see here are a couple of idiots who managed to get their 15 minutes. If Palin knocked on their door they’d probably ask for her autograph.

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lynch-in-effigy-white-repub-woman-a-ok-in-w-hollywood/469715.md?page=2)
