Student Causes Stir With Hitler Costume

I never got the big fuss over the Prince Harry thing or now this. What better way to put Hitler in his place than making fun of him.

haha, so right...

Maybe a non-Jew turning up to a fancy-dress event known to be attended by a large number of Jews dressed as a Nazi would be provocative and equivalent to your your KKK example.

But just a regular, generic teenagers' Halloween party?

I stick by sensitive and precious. It's the PC thing that ties you up in knots and stifles any form of relaxation and self-expression. We have to go so far to avoid any hint of possibly offending someone else that our capacity for creativity atrophies and stultifies.

Let's get out there and raise hell ... a bit.

At a party I would be inclined to agree with you Dennis, different social situation. He went to school in this outfit. A place where you are not necessarily surrounded by like minded people.

In fact there is a video of a "most offensive costume" themed party on youtube which I find quite humorous. Again, the context here was completely different and the costume turned out to be a big hit.

I understand defending freedom of expression and agree with it whole heartedly. I would hope that people simply have more common sense when it comes to being part of a larger society.

Sometimes its fun to screw with the heads of people who take things more seriously than they should. This kid was probably laughing his balls off the whole day as everyone made a fuss over it. Whats wrong with a little irreverence every now and then? This town needs an enema!

ALL THOSE DRESSED AS CHURCHILL VIL BE SHOT!!!

Fr. Pat O'Phelia - I got your newsvine friend request last week, but I can't accept it because the ' in your name causes a javascript error on the friends page :P

"This is America, and if a man wants to be called Mohammed Ali, then we should respect that, and call the man Mohammed Ali!"

"His mamma called him "Clay, i gon' call him Clay."

I'm not sure what was the point of that. You mean to say that a person's product of freedom of expression should be imposed on somebody else? Or are you arguing otherwise?

I'm saying Jimmy, if a costume doesn't physically hurt someone, or infringe on his or her rights, or violate a law, they should be able wear whatever they want.

P.S. most of my rantings don't really have "points" per se. I just try to be a little irreverent and show people that the things that don't really matter don't deserve to be bothered complaining about. Either that, or i'm making a rational, astute arguement for a cause I deem important.

Fr. Pat

Well, my point also was what if I wore a shirt everyday that had a movie playing of planes crashing into twin towers accompanied by sights and screams of the victims?

No, I'm not saying that there should be a law against being callous and offensive. I'm saying that maybe a few guys ought to rough him up after school, or some girls ought to spread some STDs to him. I would have probably laughed if he was my classmate, but I can't speak on behalf of everybody. Everything is a slippery slope no matter which way you decide to look, but people ought to maintain decency, or they may end up with an indecent bout of herpes.

Yes, Jimmy, because when I hear "freedom of expression", I think "I can beat people up!". That's the point of it, right? If I believe in freedom, I should be willing to ruin the life of a boy who was trying to make fun of a dictator.

That's like me taking a guy in a devil costume, and saying that since he is in the devil costume, he really worships the devil, and so should be beaten up. If you are dressed up as a pirate, I think you must be advocating pirates, and urging more people to loot boats and kill people.

Some people are offended by Halloween itself, because it obviously condones the worship of Satan. Point is, many people are offended by many things.

However, I think that it is generally percieved that Halloween is a time for scary things. I can't think of many things scarier than Hitler. And the sooner Hitler is reduced to a stupid Halloween costume, I think, the better. That would mean that he just isn't taken seriously any longer.

My point is not that freedom of speech should be met with violence. I'm saying that freedom of speech with intent to hurt should be met with some form of opposition. I'm not saying that any guy wearing a hitler costume has the intention of causing hurt, but this guy may or may not be. shrug, I don't know the situation.

Also, why would you want to reduce hitler to a halloween costume? those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

also, if you want to think of things scarier than hitler, maybe you should dress up as genocider for halloween and have you friends dress up as massacred ethnic subgroups. oh man would that be HILARIOUS. wouldn't it be great to reduce genocide to a stupid halloween costume?

Next year i'm going as Pol Pot.

1. You are suggesting, Jimmy, that if the person shows up in an offensive costume, he should be beaten and infected with STDs. It's a completely useless action either way you look at it. If the person intended to cause harm, and thought that Hitler was right, beating him isn't going to make him feel less strongly about it. If the person didn't intend to cause harm, but rather wanted to make a statement, beating him will simply cause confusion. You would have just infected someone who wanted to ridicule a bad man with a possibly incurable disease. So, out of the whole action, you gained what? A bitter teenager? A confused teenager? That makes everything better.

2. If you don't know the situation, please read the article. His stepfather seems to think that he was not intending to cause harm.

3. Somehow, I don't think that Hitler as a Halloween costume would delete him from the history books, but of course, correct me if I'm wrong. And I don't think that the boy in the article simply dressed up as Hitler without having any idea who Hitler was.

4. Hitler practiced genocide. Your example about the "hilarious" costume is the same example, only instead of the people making fun of the person responsible for the killing, they are making fun of the victims. That makes all the difference in the world.

5. Last time I checked, scary was not hilarious. I thought that they were antonyms. So don't take my words, twist them, and tell me that that is what I mean, if you please.

I'm sure that you are an intelligent person, but it's fairly obvious here from the article that the boy in question isn't condoning Hitler's acts. You admit yourself that the boy may not have been intending to cause harm, and if it were the case, he should not be harmed. So why did you start off with a cry for violence in previous posts? It doesn't make sense.

ok theres some ambiguity here. 1) i did not start of with a cry for violence, but a question as to how people would react if there was violence
2)I'm not judging as to whether he intended to offend or not. I was posing the question as to whether freedom of expression includes the right to offend, and if so what means should people take to stand up against that offence.
3)Why I brought up history is because you said "That would mean that he just isn't taken seriously any longer."
4)Does it matter whether he dresses up as the killer or the victim? Under an all expression is protected ideology, both would be treated the same. Why would there be "all the difference in the world"?
5)I never implied that scary was hilarious. I was just mocking any potential benefits of dressing up as genocide victims. Also, you make the assumption that halloween is only for scary costumes.