Twitter Battle: Ebert vs. Tea Party Supporters

[John Kerry VonErich]

Source: Comcast News

By Chelsea-Badeau
Mon, 10 May 2010 16:38:45 GMT

Last week, I wrote about five California high school students who got into trouble for wearing American flag T-shirts and bandanas on Cinco de Mayo. This incident apparently didn’t sit well with film critic and cancer survivor Roger Ebert, who took to Twitter to voice his dissent:

@ebertchicago Kids who wear American Flag t-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July.

In turn, Ebert’s tweet apparently didn’t sit well with some proclaimed Tea Party supporters who took to blogs and Twitter to mock Ebert's opinions and appearance. Ebert lost part of his jaw during his battle against cancer.

Gawker.com published some of the tweets, including these two posted by Caleb Howe who blogs for Redstate.com, I mean honestly. How many pieces need to fall off @ebertchicago before he gets the hint to shut the (expletive) up and You know, @ebertchicago, I’m not as expert on flag etiquette as you. Tell me, which do I fly when you die of cancer?





Read more: http://www.comcast.net/news/badeaupov/2615/twitterbattleebertvsteapartysupporters/

[abelenkpe]

1. Wow.

True to expectations teabaggers are behaving like low life pond scum.

Someone should clue the teabaggers in:

People don't like them, or their ideas because they are assholes.

[Tempest]

2. They don't have a coherent argument

So they resort to personal insults.

That's been the M.O. of the rightwingers for years.

[frylock]

3. stay classy, san diego

[southernyankeebelle]

4. Shameful. I'm sure his momma is very proud of him. These are suppose to be

christains.

[mrbarber]

5. I disagree with Eberts stance-but the teabaggers are just being nasty.

As usual.

[onehandle]

6. So kids in a school environment should be allowed to harass other kids based on race?

Nice.

[mrbarber]

8. Unless you have proof that the "harrasement" was more than just wearing American flag T-shirts....

I stand by my statement.

Wearing an American flag shirt on Cinco De Mayo is no more offensive than wearing a Mexican flag shirt on the 4th of July.

[rantormusing]

11. When do kids where the flag?

I think there's more than a bit of "How dare you celebrate something that is based or taken from another country."

[Lagomorph]

12. I agree....

It's like saying that British citizens, who wear the Union Jack in Britain, on the 4th of July are insensitive to Americans.

[ShamelessHussy]

14. Link to Ebert's article to follow up his tweet that elaborates on his tweet - for the knee jerkers

I invite you to perform four easy thought experiments:

1. You and four friends are in Boston and attend the St. Patrick's Day parade wearing matching Union Jack t-shirts, which of course you have every right to do.

2. You and your pals are in Chicago on Pulaski Day, and wear a t-shirt with a photograph of Joseph Stalin, which is your right.

3. In San Francisco's Chinatown for the parade, your crowd wears t-shirts saying "My granddad was at the Rape of Nanking and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

4. In Chicago for the Bud Billiken Parade, you and your crowd, back in shape after three hospitalizations, turn up with matching t-shirts sporting the Confederate flag.

The question is obviously not whether Americans, or anyone else, has the right to wear our flag on their t-shirts. But empathetic people realize much depends on context. If, on Cinco de Mayo, you turn up at your school with a large Mexican-American student population wearing such shirts, are you (1) joining in the spirit of the holiday, or (2) looking for trouble?

more...
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100509/OPINION/100509974

[Lagomorph]

15. Perhaps neither...

...they're kids, after all. They may have not given it a thought beyond, "it was none of their business", and went about their normal activities. I don't know if they were deliberately taunting the Hispanics or just doing their own thing.

Ebert's examples are all examples of people being deliberately inflammatory. There is an "assumption of guilt" that I'm not comfortable with.

"Common sense" isn't all that common.

[ShamelessHussy]

16. i'll go with the adults who were there, and made the call

FYI: 'common sense' is common, hence the name, and with an ounce of it, the intent of the students seems pretty plain.

[Lagomorph]

17. The adults who made the call...

...have said it was a mistake, a bad call.

[ShamelessHussy]

18. after being inundated with tea-bagg'n hate, anyone with common sense

would do the same.

However, my take, they were looking for trouble, hasn't changed.


the hate out there is so thick, i doubt anything can stop it at this point.

[Lagomorph]

19. There is a definate split.

We've reached the point where people are standing up for their core values. The values that define them. This is certainly not a time when rainbows and butterfly's will rule the day.

[ShamelessHussy]

13. apparently the folks on the ground did, and common sense would seem to support that as well

looking at it otherwise reminds me of the M$M cunning use of 'fair-n-balanced' as a way of simply muddying the waters and promoting the corporate agenda.

now if they were wearing a t-shirt with both a mexican and american flag I would see your point, however that isn't what went down and seeing as the admin felt the only way to deal with these clowns was to expel them tells me that they were tea-bagg'n haters just looking for a fight.

[Bigmack]

7. I taught High School...

I sure didn't want groups of kids with mutually hostile t-shirts roaming the halls. Actually happened a few times, and we all survived, tho.

It's a "Free speech vs. yelling fire in a crowded theater" situation.

A high school is one big-ass crowded theater with a whole bunch of high-revving, hormone addled folks in it.

[fascisthunter]

9. extremism needs to be pointed out....

glad he did.

[rantormusing]

10. HOw low

I believe those students wore those shirts as an insult or a mine's bigger mentality, but I'm sick of people who fervently try to silence others no matter the issue. I'm sure Ebert is more than able to verbal dress down anyone who posts or takes such sites as RedState seriously.

[Kurska]

20. I'm sorry, there is never A SECOND, where it isn't right to fly the American flag in the USA.

That said, the teabaggers are being assholes as usual, frankly Ebert seems like he has been trolling lately. I mean he kicks up the whole "Video games aren't art thing" a few weeks ago and now he is starting fights with teabaggers. It Seems like he wants attention.

[Toucano]

21. These brats' ancestors CONVICTED Abbie Hoffman of defiling the flag

by wearing it on a shirt.

So, according to the federal government, there are plenty of seconds where it isn't right to fly the American flag - there's a code, whether it is routinely enforced or not.

Using your flag to harass another person qualifies as defiling the flag, I would argue.

As for Roger Ebert, I have no doubt that he is sincere and is not simply looking for "attention".

[truthisfreedom]

22. Well, logically there's something amiss with the flag if it causes so much trouble in its own

country. Seriously. Our culture is sorta f-ed up right now.