"In his Who Do You Think You Are episode, Stephen Fry was livid when someone suggested to him that if Jewish people had so many connections, it seemed suspicious that they didn’t leave Germany when things were getting bad for them during the second world war. He announced that it offended him and said that he didn’t bother to correct or address the statement when it was made. Yet he still marched back to a camera to whine about it.
I understand his anger, I agree with it, but it’s a moment that directly contradicts what he’s said above. By his own rules, he needs to have a better reason than simple “offense,” and he should probably address it to the person who said it to have a proper discussion about the remarks. But in Fry’s mind, the fact that anti-semitism is offensive is a given.
So when someone tells him homophobia is a moral evil, or that Jews all have “connections,” why doesn’t he shrug and say, “So fucking what?” And why shouldn’t we say “So fucking what?” when he complains about it?
Because in that moment, when it’s about something that affects him, that bigotry is important. It’s rude and hateful and harmful. He has serious problems with anti-semitism and homophobia — since they directly affect him — and often gets incredibly angry and outraged and, yes, offended when he encounters it.
And even though I do love Stephen Fry — God do I — he needs to cut this double standard shit out. If you can feel offended by anti-semitism or homophobia, Catholics can feel offended when you mock them for being “simple” and Muslims can feel offended when you accuse them of belonging to a violent and backward religion.
But Fry so believes that religion is silly that he doesn’t recognize the same objection being made from the other side.
Getting back to the original problem, however, people really need to stop passing this statement around as a flippant response to other people’s objections. The truth is that many people do — like in the case of Martin Freeman’s rape joke comments — qualify what it is they’re offended about. They don’t simply say “That’s offensive — you can’t say it,” they explain that it’s a comment that adds to rape culture, for instance. So the “so fucking what” has indeed been satisfied by the original statement and you can’t argue that because Stephen Fry once made a flippant remark about political correctness that it should shut up and invalidate all perfectly acceptable objections."
https://tealeavesdogears.wordpress....ephen-frys-offensive-quote-is-total-bullshit/
I understand his anger, I agree with it, but it’s a moment that directly contradicts what he’s said above. By his own rules, he needs to have a better reason than simple “offense,” and he should probably address it to the person who said it to have a proper discussion about the remarks. But in Fry’s mind, the fact that anti-semitism is offensive is a given.
So when someone tells him homophobia is a moral evil, or that Jews all have “connections,” why doesn’t he shrug and say, “So fucking what?” And why shouldn’t we say “So fucking what?” when he complains about it?
Because in that moment, when it’s about something that affects him, that bigotry is important. It’s rude and hateful and harmful. He has serious problems with anti-semitism and homophobia — since they directly affect him — and often gets incredibly angry and outraged and, yes, offended when he encounters it.
And even though I do love Stephen Fry — God do I — he needs to cut this double standard shit out. If you can feel offended by anti-semitism or homophobia, Catholics can feel offended when you mock them for being “simple” and Muslims can feel offended when you accuse them of belonging to a violent and backward religion.
But Fry so believes that religion is silly that he doesn’t recognize the same objection being made from the other side.
Getting back to the original problem, however, people really need to stop passing this statement around as a flippant response to other people’s objections. The truth is that many people do — like in the case of Martin Freeman’s rape joke comments — qualify what it is they’re offended about. They don’t simply say “That’s offensive — you can’t say it,” they explain that it’s a comment that adds to rape culture, for instance. So the “so fucking what” has indeed been satisfied by the original statement and you can’t argue that because Stephen Fry once made a flippant remark about political correctness that it should shut up and invalidate all perfectly acceptable objections."
https://tealeavesdogears.wordpress....ephen-frys-offensive-quote-is-total-bullshit/