Let me preface this by saying that I don't support drinking and driving, and I don't think abuse of any substance is more than a minor mitigating circumstance when it comes to a person's behavior. Mel Gibson's behavior was inappropriate and his DUI was certainly criminal, but I still support him and will enjoy his work, and here's why:1. This is not a pattern of behavior.
Regardless of the way the media is portraying it, Mel Gibson has never said or done an anti-Semitic thing in his life until this comment. If you seriously think "The Passion of the Christ" is an anti-Semitic film, you're a fucking idiot. That was a ridiculous accusation by Jewish extremists, who are just as bad as Christian fundamentalists, Muslim fundamentalists, and the far left Democratic whackjobs.
2. Nobody should be condemned by the actions of their family.
Mel Gibson's father might very well be a huge anti-Semite who doesn't believe the Holocaust happened and hates Jews. If so, he's a huge piece of shit. That does not mean that Mel Gibson is the same way. If I were judged by the beliefs and actions of my parents and elder relatives, I'd automatically be categorized as an ultra-conservative pro-life, anti-gay zealot. And I'm certainly not any of those things.
As we grow, we develop our own belief systems. Initially, they may be based on how our parents feel and think, but anyone with half a brain develops their own worldview, which may even conflict on every point!
Mel Gibson is an adult who has his own family. He moved away from the influence of his father and I'm sure he's developed tolerances that his father did not have. If you think that he's an anti-Semite because his father is, you're a stupid jackass.
3. Context is important.
Who knows what an intoxicated person is thinking when they make a statement? Let's say that someone was having a discussion about the recent Israeli aggression, and his comment was an overblown pronouncement of that. Would that make him an anti-Semite? No. (And if you don't know, his exact words were: "Fucking Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.")
Was his statement irresponsible and stupid? Yes. Does this statement, by itself, with no other supporting acts, make him an anti-Semite? No.
Mel didn't use any racial slurs. He didn't go into a tirade. He made a stupid, drunken statement, for which he subsequently apologized.
Let's change the race and see if this makes a difference:
a. Fucking Muslims. The Muslims are responsible for all the wars in the world.
This is still slightly inflammatory, yes. But I bet a lot of the idiots out there would agree with this statement!
b. Fucking women. The women are responsible for all the wars in the world.
Is he misogynistic purely based on this statement? No.
c. Fucking Italians. The Italians are responsible for all the wars in the world.
Does this mean he's disparaging Italians? Would anyone seriously believe that he was?
d. Fucking midgets. The midgets are responsible for all the wars in the world.
This would just sound like a drunk guy spouting gibberish, right?
e. Fucking blacks. The blacks are responsible for all the wars in the world.
While this one might give you pause, it's so ludicrous as to invalidate any feelings of true racism.
4. Among the Hollywood crowd, this is pretty tame.
This is one of the tamest comments to have sparked outrage in the media. Let's look at other people, and examine what they've said and done, but they're perfectly accepted. Some of these aren't actors - they're politicians or spokespeople whose opinions should actually matter!
a. Jesse Jackson:
Rev. Jesse Jackson referred to Jews as "Hymies" and to New York City as "Hymietown" in January 1984 during a conversation with a black Washington Post reporter, Milton Coleman. Jackson had assumed the references would not be printed because of his racial bond with Coleman, but several weeks later Coleman permitted the slurs to be included far down in an article by another Post reporter on Jackson's rocky relations with American Jews.
A storm of protest erupted, and Jackson at first denied the remarks, then accused Jews of conspiring to defeat him.
b. Roman Polanski:
In 1977 Polański, 43, became embroiled in a scandal involving 13-year-old girl Samantha Geimer; it eventuated with Polański's guilty plea to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.[1] According to Geimer, Polanski asked Geimer's mother if he could photograph the 13-year-old girl for a French magazine, and her mother allowed a private photo shoot. Soon after her meeting with Polanski, Geimer began to feel uncomfortable around the director. In a 2003 interview, Geimer recalled, "Everything was going fine; then he asked me to change, well, in front of him," she says. "It didn't feel right, and I didn't want to go back to the second shoot." Not feeling confident enough to cancel the second shoot, Greimer went ahead, hoping it would further her acting career. "We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer says. "Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." Polanski sexually assaulted her after giving her a combination of champagne and quaaludes.
3. Rob Lowe:
Lowe gained notoriety in 1988 after a video of him having sex with two women, one of whom was underage, became public. He had met the women at a bar, Club Rio, while in Atlanta attending the 1988 Democratic National Convention, and later claimed that he didn't know one of them was underage, and that it was reasonable to assume that someone in a bar was of legal age.
4. Robert Downey, Jr.
On June 23, 1996, Robert Downey, Jr. was arrested for driving drunk and being in possession of Mexican Black Tar heroin, crack, cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum revolver.
On November 6, Malibu Municipal Judge Lawrence Mira sentenced Downey to three years probation for weapons and drugs charges. However, just over one year later on December 8, 1997, Judge Mira sentenced Downey to six months in jail for violating parole. Eighteen months later, Downey returned to Corcoran State Prison to serve a three-year sentence for a parole violation again on July 16, 1999.
A California state appellate court ordered Downey released from his term in state prison due to a sentencing error made by his trial judge in August 1999. An appeals court panel ordered his immediate release. The appeals court said Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira did not take into account time Downey had spent in court-ordered rehab and ruled that the actor ended up serving more than enough time to fulfill his sentence.
Downey was arrested again in a Palm Springs, California hotel for cocaine and Valium possession and being under the influence of a controlled substance on November 25, 2000.
On April 24, 2001, he was arrested in Los Angeles for being under the influence of a controlled substance after he was found wandering in an alley. He was not charged.
These are just a few examples of people that I think have done much worse, but are still considered to be valuable members of society. I just can't condemn Mel Gibson for being an idiot and making a stupid statement while drunk. It doesn't make him a racist. It doesn't make him an anti-Semite. It doesn't make him any different than he was the day before.
Fucking get over it, people.
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