Topic awaiting preservation: American History X

I just got done watching that movie, American History X, and aside from an awesome performance by (that Fight Club guy), the movie speaks volumes.

Anyways, I'm seeing a lot of Neo-Nazi, Fascist and Anti-Semetic around the Columbia Gorge area (where I live), and It's kind of disturbing to see it in such magnitude. Whats it like where you live?

Love that movie.

In the dallas area there a bunch of Sharps, which are the exact opposite of skinheads, yet they are pretty much the same. It's just that instead of beating up blacks, they beat up people who beat up blacks. It's all pretty stupid in my opionin, since they will actually try and beat up anyone who is not one of their friends. I think they are just people who like to fight.


.quotes.

well, no, they're not the opposite of skinheads...they're 'skin heads against racial prejudice'.

Which basically means, like you said, that they're just as stupid but less selective

Hmm..I don't see much neonazi's where I live but I don't move in places or among people where I'm likely to meet them.
I've always been slightly anti-israel but not anti-semitic, and only because it's part of my anti-I've got the right to take your land because of no apparent reason-feelings.

One time I was at this family-birthday and an old man started going on about "those filthy foreigners" (we have a lot of antillian, turkish and maroccan immigrants in the Netherlands) I was so angry! Because this was a man who'd already been a young adult during the time of the 2nd world war. He should know better. And this is the legacy of the older generation ... if you're not bright enough to think things through, you'll accept what the older people tell you as your truth. And if the old people always do that, and it wasn't only that birthday, and not only that old man, they sow seeds of separation and of mistrust, instead of tolerance and multiculturality.

This answer your question?

edit: I believe that was Edward Norton in Fight Club you mean



[This message has been edited by Fey (edited 06-12-2003).]

As conservative as this area of the country is, violence around here really knows no color... Certainly there are people here who are prejudice against blacks, or are anti-semite, or even anti-Muslim, but no overwhelming majority.

There are about 5 liberal arts colleges in Greensboro, and we attract a large number of international students, as well as a high gay/lesbian population... there's such a variety of people to hate - why settle for just one race/creed?

People, IMHO, are people, regardless of their color or creed. If you're a bad person, you're a bad person whether or not your black/white or any other color for that matter. And vice-versa. I wasn't brought up to hate people based on those things - thank goodness! Everyone's got at least one chance with me.

Bodhi - Cell 617

We've always been prone to any kind of activity/group that is looked down upon in the Columbia Gorge. Large, unpatrolled wooded areas with steep cliffs and fairly large hills (5+miles). It's like a Satanist, Nazi, Fascist, Communist haven. Seriously. Portland, OR, I don't see much of that, and I'm guessing that in Europe it's outlawed. I've seen several people (not stereotypical skinheads) give the "Zieg heil (ish)" salute in downtown Vancouver, though.

cfb: Its illegal in Germany but legal (within reason) elsewhere. Here in the UK you aren't allowed to incite racial hatred but that leaves a lot of wiggle room. I had a bit of a hairy time in my late teens when we went to court to get a member of Combat 18 locked up for assaulting a friend (he eventually pleaded guilty to glassing open the throat of a assistant pub manager and trying to crush his head with a pedestal while he was bleeding on the floor but I had to go to court and it could have got unpleasant). There are also chapters (?) of the KKK here in the UK - usually connected with the NF/Combat 18 people.

Good film by the way - no one forgets the pavement biting scene. I did think that plotwise it unravelled slightly towards the end.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

why can't we just hate everybody?

norm: Too much effort

People really have to pick sides if only just to have a break sometimes.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Too much effort? Nah...it seems the other way around for me.

I don't want to have to nitpick as to *why* I'm hating someone....and remembering all those damn sterotypes and insulting names...sheesh.

Much simpler to just hate everyone.

There's plenty of hate to go around! Hate on the house everyone! Woohoo.

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Good film by the way - no one forgets the pavement biting scene. I did think that plotwise it unravelled slightly towards the end.

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Yup, me too. I think that the ending was a little bit "hollywood-y," and a bit preachy, but it was still a great film. One of those that really should be mandatory viewing, like Schindler's List, Natural Born Killers and Glory. Actually, the pavement biting scene didn't bother me as much/stick with me as much as the women in the conveneince store, or

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Danny getting shot in the bathroom
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(/SPOILER WARNING).


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On the subject of hate, there is a really good book called The Problem of Evil in the Western Traditions: From the Book of Job to Modern Genetics that adresses the history of evil (hate being a form of it) and evil in the modern world. (I'm about half-way through it...Not exactly a "gripping" page turner, but it's still worthwhile, I think. The library should have it, that's where I got mine).


[This message has been edited by counterfeitbacon (edited 06-13-2003).]

I read the description and I think it's true that many of "our" views of what is sin are rooted in culture and are not necessarily applicable to all cultures for all time. I think this is where so much of the confusion comes in... how can we believe in a absolute right and wrong when we complicate matters with culture? My view is that like anything else in this life, things are not usually easy. The goal is to know what actions are hurtful and which are not as we encounter them.

Well, I live in Alabama, and generally, when you tell people you are from Alabama, they apologize.

Because they think, "wow, you seem kinda smart, and you have to live with all of those idiots."

But it's really not that bad, depending on where you are. I live in Birmingham, which has a nasty history from the Civil Rights movement, but is a pretty modern city now. Out in the country areas you get people who are racists, but they moved out to the country because they are too afraid of black people to live in the city. I don't really see that many skinheads, but I understand that there's some nutty skinhead organization living out in the country.

My own situation is kind of unique, too, because I am a lesbian. And I'd always been told that black people are really unaccepting of gays, which made me nervous when I moved, because most of my neighbors at my apartment are black. But it's been a really cool experience, because my neighbors are great. It has really opened my mind, so that I realized that I had prejudices, and I learned that they were incorrect, and was able to move on. And I think that's important, admitting that you were wrong.

Which is a lot of what American History X is about, admitting that you were wrong. That is a great movie, and I was re-watching it myself recently. This is a really cool topic.