Although we love to view the world in absolutes, things are seldom black and white. Heroes have skeletons in their closets, and assholes secretly donate money to the ASPCA commercials with Sarah McLachlan. Okay, maybe not.
But the point is that the world is a complex place, full of moral ambiguity, double standards and mixed feelings. We’d like things to be a bit more simple sometimes.
So we have taken it upon ourselves to bring back the epic binary of good versus bad, right versus wrong and virtuous versus evil.
We humbly present you: Asshole and Hero of the Week.
Asshole: Guy threatening a massacre at Utah State University; Utah State University
Via: LA Times
This week’s top prize of “Asshole” goes to none other than an anonymous emailer who threatened to perform a “Montreal Massacre style attack” at a presentation that was to be made by one of the gaming industry’s leading feminist critics, Anita Sarkeesian.
Sarkeesian was supposed to give a presentation at Utah State University about her video series called “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games,” but she had to cancel due to the threat made by an unknown individual.
First off, emailing in your threat to murder a bunch of people just because you don’t agree with the presenter’s speech seems a bit drastic, in my opinion. Why not just, I don’t know, not go to the event? That seems like a valid alternative to me. Instead you decide you’ll kill innocent people just because you don’t agree with what one person has to say? That sounds like a good plan… To a complete psychopath.
Secondly, we’re also throwing this prize to the wonderful folks at Utah State University because the school itself should have taken precautions to prevent an attack from happening in the first place. If they had, perhaps Ms. Sarkeesian wouldn’t have had to cancel at all. Sure, their PR guy Tim Vitale said that they took enough precautions to “ensure a safe environment,” but if that were the case, then why was Sarkeesian still uneasy about speaking?
Because of the concealed weapons laws in Utah, of course.
Sure, they can protect a place from bombs and drones and shit, but ask them to get a couple of metal detectors in place to ensure that some idiot doesn’t rage through the building with a machine gun, and it’s too much for them.
In doing this, both the person making threats and the university silenced yet another woman trying to speak out against the misogyny.
Kudos.
Hero: C.J. Chivers
Via: Esquire
All hail the New York Times journalist who exposed one hell of a secret being kept by the U.S. military about leftover chemical weapons in Iraq.
His story, “The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons,” beautifully, albeit wordily, illustrates the struggles being faced by the soldiers who have found these old, dilapidated chemical weapons containing mustard gas as well as nerve gas.
Apparently, George W. Bush wasn’t entirely in the wrong when he sent us into Iraq back in 2003 looking for chemical weapons. He just didn’t think to look at the ones that looked dirty and outdated. Those are the most dangerous.
Since then, it seems that these chemical weapons have been used in local attacks on U.S. soldiers as well as others, but the military has kept the whole thing a secret.
The secrecy has gone as far as denying soldiers proper treatment of the injuries they have received because of the chemical weapons. Doctors are not told the truth about the injuries, and if they are, they cite some other problem to explain them.
One soldier even got his purple heart stripped of him. The army claims that they gave him the award “erroneously.”
It seems a purple heart is easier to take away than a Heisman, so I’m glad C.J. Chivers has called the military out on their shit. He’s my hero of the week, and he should be yours, too.
Featured photo courtesy of: Feminist Frequency
