Last night, during ‘Game of Thrones,’ HBO advertised a show called ‘Confederate,’ which follows the fictional idea that the South won the Civil War and slavery still exists in modern day.
Several people FREAKED OUT and took to Twitter to pretend this was somehow some giant racist plot, starting a tag called #NoConfederate.
We present this epic tweetstorm from movie and comic book writer Geoff Thorne on the upcoming show and thought police (it is LONG but worth your time, we promise):
Listen. People. You can't let yourselves turn into thought police. A lot of folks have tried over the years to excise HULKBERRY FINN (1)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
from libraries and schools, even got so far as to create adaptations without the world Nigger in it. Yes. Nigger. I said it. i wrote it. (2)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
Nigger. These people are, at best, misguided. They think the word Nigger has enough corruptive value to undercut the message of the book.(3)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
He’s spot on.
Keep reading.
Those people are wrong. At WORST they are fools and the dangerous, book burning sort of fool at that. Huckleberry Finn is and will (4)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
likely remain one of if not THE greatest treatise AGAINST slavery and racial discrimination every written by a human being. But we (5)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
wouldn't have that book now, not even to debate its merits, if people had access to twitter at the time of Twain's writing and someone (6)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
SJWs would have thrown epic temper tantrums and shut Twain down. Absolutely.
had announced the book and its themes at the time. A segment of society would have destroyed its ability to be published and distributed (7)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
THAT segment would have been the racists, the ex-confedrates & worshippers of Jim Crow whose politics even now are a cancer in our Union.(8)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
The purpose of our system is not to ensure that the ideas we LIKE are promoted and enshrined but that those we HATE, even the most (9)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
loathsome are protected. The notion that an IDEA, in itself can hurt or harm anyone is specious, cancerous & anti-American. (10)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
So much BOOMAGE.
If we're about ANYTHING (and lately I'm not sure we are) it is that freedom, real freedom begins in the mind, in the ability of ANYONE (11)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
to think or say or create anything, I mean ANYTHING, that comes to them, so long as that thing does no physical harm. Art physicalizes (12)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
but simply to be allowed to express themselves, simply for the right to be SEEN as they wish to be seen. Fascism is the enemy of that (14)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
freedom and it is NOT the Right who ha sole ownership of the Fascist impulse. Far from it. Any one who believes their cause simply to be(15)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
RIGHT, ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY RIGHT, is millimeters away from becoming a fascist. It's that close and that easy. If we are to be right (16)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
that is morally upstanding, occupying the ethical high ground, we must be consistent in our expression of the principles of freedom. (17)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
Freedom of Expression requires that the expression be MADE. Once it's out there, that same freedom to express allows us to decry, deride(18)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
and in any legal we like undercut a notion or expression we don't like. I HATED the entire concept and execution of GODS OF EGYPT, GIRLS(19)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
and a host of other artistic creations (many of which are loved by millions, btw) but at no time did it EVER cross my mind that the (20)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
people who made them should not be ALLOWED to do so. Should not be ALLOWED to think or express the things they wished. (21)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
Keyword here is ALLOWED. SJWs think they have the right to tell people what should and shouldn’t be allowed.
And that’s fascism.
Not because I'm an artist myself & I'm terrified of the current trend of squadding up to attack a given creator (I am, and I'm not) but (22)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
because I'm an AMERICAN. I hold certain truths to be self-evident. One is that we get to say what we want, when we want, (23)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
Ok, we may be crying just a little bit at this point … dude is so SPOT ON.
in any way we want to whoever we damned well please. And when ANYONE doesn't like that, we point them to the door. (24)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
I don't know if Confederate will be any good. Nor do I give a damn. I'll give them the same chance I give most artwork– ONE SHOT. (25)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
How novel.
We don't know what they'll do. We don't know what they plan. We don't know what position the show will take. But, EVEN IF WE DID (26)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
even if the creators laid out in detail every aspect of the series they're about to make, it would still be their right to make it (27)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 30, 2017
as THEY and not WE, see fit. If you don't understand that basic fact. If you don't want to take a bullet to support that fact, I submit (28)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 31, 2017
you are not living in the right country. Get in your Wayback Machine and travel to 1950s America or 1930s Germany. Those are your people(29)
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 31, 2017
Not us. We don't need that here and certainly not now. Thought Cops are Anti-American in every single way. Left or Right. Stop it./Rant Ends
— Thorne Identity ? (@GeoffThorne) July 31, 2017
So. Damn. EPIC.
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