Mad Monday!

[P-man 13,367]

What option does Roos have after it goes public? Honestly?

"Oh yeah, it was a great laugh eh?"

This is what happens when stuff like this surfaces. It snowballs.

Not being offended to the core by a player dressing up as Rolf Harris is not the same as condoning the actions of which he has been convicted.

[Arrow 1,257]

Jeez, can't Roosy see that it was just a hilarious joke? Come on Roosy, don't be so PC.

Every now and again a thread on Demonland makes me feel sick. This is one of those occasions. I wasn't even that angry at the actions of the players - it was one of those "oh you bloody idiots" moments, but the response on here has me completely incensed. If I'm being brutally honest, it makes me question whether I belong as a member of this community or not.

Blasphemy! You'd never leave us Nash!

But seriously, it's a contentious topic. In the thread, not one person would advocate the acts that Harris made, and not one poster wouldn't feel terrible for the victims of his selfish and disgusting crimes. The debate is raging whether the public outcry is justified for boys on their private Mad day out (yes, I realise he posted the photo and made it public but you get my point). I follow Dean and there were 100 likes and 10 comments, he made no mention of what he dressed as, it was an in joke between him and his friends, tasteless yes, but a crime no. It was the media outlets who bought up the names behind the costumes and had they kept their thoughts to themselves, noone would be the wiser and noone would be hurt.

There is a lot of good that media does, but times like this, I'm often glad I have no sporting or acting ability and able to live my life completely free of cameras.

[nutbean 8,838]

The stupidity is the lack of foresight.

Once they put on those costumes and stupidly posted pictures on instagram - it was never going to have a happy ending.

The lack of smarts displayed by footballers never ceases to amaze me.

[Little Goffy 14,811]

Ok. Some quick points.

- It's not satire. It's banal 'humour' on the level of giggling about [censored] and bums and Billy Brownless wearing a tutu. Put a line through that pathetic distraction.

This, this here, is satire;

http://static.squarespace.com/static/51823e8fe4b0cb6af951b0f8/530da11ae4b0b6000571887f/530da905e4b04afdaa6ed542/1393422573858/2012-11-15-Inviolable.jpg?format=300w

- There has, as usual, not being an explosion of 'mass moral outrage'. What there has been is various people rolling their eyes and saying 'come on, put some thought into it, try not to be an 4rse'. Once again, apparently without being aware of irony, the "It's political correctness gone mad" police are now well established as the moral panic mongers.

- Making out that child rape is something to have a laugh about at the pub is not harmless. I don't believe in valorising trauma, but expecting people to not be upset, to 'make it easier on us all', is not helping to expose pedophiles. It is influencing victims to stay quiet. It directly contributes to victims concluding that they wont be taken seriously, and in turn directly contributes to perpetrators getting away with it, both legally and in their own conscience.

Speaking of satire, maybe this will help some people grasp the idea; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snNZkpAgNw4

[nutbean 8,838]

I dont find it particularly amusing but even the most staunchest posters screaming about Political correctness gone mad would have to concede that some people are going to be offended.

I think Roos summed it well when he said The education is 'think about your actions before you actually do them, not after you do them, think about what other people are going to think about what you do'."

[Dr John Dee 1,057]

Great post chook

the PC brigade make me sick. They are worse than anyone dressing up in a Rolf Harris costume

Love to know what you think ‘the PC brigade’ actually is and who belongs to it.

Accusing people of political correctness is itself an attempt to be politically correct. It just engages a different kind of political position and different notion of correctness. Your use of ‘worse’, implying some sort of moral scale that you’re entitled to rely on and impose on others, says exactly that.

[P-man 13,367]

Blasphemy! You'd never leave us Nash!

But seriously, it's a contentious topic. In the thread, not one person would advocate the acts that Harris made, and not one poster wouldn't feel terrible for the victims of his selfish and disgusting crimes. The debate is raging whether the public outcry is justified for boys on their private Mad day out (yes, I realise he posted the photo and made it public but you get my point). I follow Dean and there were 100 likes and 10 comments, he made no mention of what he dressed as, it was an in joke between him and his friends, tasteless yes, but a crime no. It was the media outlets who bought up the names behind the costumes and had they kept their thoughts to themselves, noone would be the wiser and noone would be hurt.

There is a lot of good that media does, but times like this, I'm often glad I have no sporting or acting ability and able to live my life completely free of cameras.

Well articulated.

[binman 44,735]

Love to know what you think ‘the PC brigade’ actually is and who belongs to it.

Accusing people of political correctness is itself an attempt to be politically correct. It just engages a different kind of political position and different notion of correctness. Your use of ‘worse’, implying some sort of moral scale that you’re entitled to rely on and impose on others, says exactly that.

Spot on Dr. And this thread is a perfect example of the attempts of some to impose a view. Look at the powerful group think here - from the get go the subtle tone from the majority of posts is along the lines of - 'don't post your PC rubbish here, don't impose your values and if you do you will be shouted down as a wowser and told to keep you thoughts to yourself'.

As i posted earlier. Ironic

[beelzebub 23,390]

The lady (media) doth protest too much, methinks.

[Fork 'em 7,052]

Yawn. When do finals start?

After watching what I did this year.

Not for a long, long time.

[sue 9,240]

I consider myself very politically correct but am not convinced this is a case for much concern (though I can understand why Roos has to take the position he has). While PC is used as a term to mock what conservatives perceive as leftist cant, to me it simply means treating all people with respect. Not a very difficult concept and I'm always suspicious of people who label things they don't like as PC to put them down.

In the current case I don't really feel it is at all serious since it was Harris being mocked, not his victims. However I can see that some victims may have felt annoyed/hurt and the media loves to mount a high horse. (On the other hand I can readily imagine some victims would have enjoyed someone mocking Harris this way - perhaps more than would be offended.) On a scale of 1 to 100 this rates about 5 to me. However in the current climate, Roos is right to say a moment's thought would lead any sensible person to avoid the topic.

[iv'a worn smith 1,979]

It stopped being 'private' when the players themselves posted photos on social media.

Very True and something I should have acknowledged in my post. Social media may eventually damn all of us. That is why I don't subscribe to twitter or Facebook. As for Instagram, I have no idea what that is.

[iv'a worn smith 1,979]

Love to know what you think ‘the PC brigade’ actually is and who belongs to it.

Accusing people of political correctness is itself an attempt to be politically correct. It just engages a different kind of political position and different notion of correctness. Your use of ‘worse’, implying some sort of moral scale that you’re entitled to rely on and impose on others, says exactly that.

Such a good post Doc. Those that coin the phrase PC are in fact PC themselves. Anything that challenges accepted norms is labelled as PC, simply because, in the absence of rational debate, people resort to the use of epithet and derision. As I keep saying, people in grass houses shouldn't get stoned.

[WhyAlwaysMe 237]

its a picture, can be viewed in many ways, i see Harris being ridiculed for what he is & a poor little girl as she is, a victim, she's not dressed to kill, i think the boys got it rite, Why shouldn't the scum be exposed & ridiculed in public, after all thats why victims relive there torture and come forth, she would be proud, there's no shame on her here, only him.

[felixdacat 459]

I like brownys one here.

Love the son with a lego bucket on his head and the daughter not impressed with having to be in the photo classic

[spirit of norm smith 16,656]

it was a poor choice of decision making... Terlich & Georgiou needed to be kicked.

[dazzledavey36 55,995]

Oh dear, posters on Demonland complaining about poor taste, can't have been on here for long

Maybe Terlich made a mistake, but he didn't kill anyone, move on, worse than the media some of the self righteousness being displayed here

If we had a female team and one of the players went dressed in very little, most of the male posters on here would be cheering from the sidelines

As for Harris himself, unfortunately these days,you can't be the dirty old uncle with the wandering hands after a bit to drink

WTF?

You really are a creep.

[Deecisive 1,709]

Its fancy dress for goodness sake, people love to complain about anything, people should be able to go as anything, i.e. Captain James Cook, Adam/Eve, Nero, George Bush, suicide bomber, hitler, rolf, harpooned whale, or any of 1500 different types of tasteless Halloween monsters or variety of hacked dead. The only reason this is raised to such ridiculous heights is because the media went and posted the picture describing outrage that few would have known anything about until the picture was published. If the papers had not published then this would have passed harmlessly by the world. It is not is if these are two well known stars dressing up, people are just too damn sensitive these days and everyone with any sort of grievance or whinge does so. including me.

[Uncle Fester 2,848]

I laughed when I saw the picture.

Wasn't that the point?

[Je Roos Salem 661]

I just saw it as risque humour, found it funny, and wasn't surprised by the media attention given it's 2014 and newspapers feed off these mass overreactions. I don't believe you can simply dress up as something (something very relevant, I commend them on the clever idea) and be condoning abuse and being insensitive to victims. But I guess that people draw these massive lines from one thing to another, usually condemning someone of any notoriety in the process is just a reflection of the modern-day instant and mass connected world we live in

[Deestroy All 14,266]

As for Harris himself, unfortunately these days,you can't be the dirty old uncle with the wandering hands after a bit to drink

Now this, is poor [censored] taste.

[Little Goffy 14,811]

Its fancy dress for goodness sake, people love to complain about anything, people should be able to go as anything, i.e. Captain James Cook, Adam/Eve, Nero, George Bush, suicide bomber, hitler, rolf, harpooned whale, or any of 1500 different types of tasteless Halloween monsters or variety of hacked dead. The only reason this is raised to such ridiculous heights is because the media went and posted the picture describing outrage that few would have known anything about until the picture was published. If the papers had not published then this would have passed harmlessly by the world. It is not is if these are two well known stars dressing up, people are just too damn sensitive these days and everyone with any sort of grievance or whinge does so. including me.

A [censored] can do whatever a [censored] wants to do, but it doesn't mean everyone else has to sit quietly and not call them out for being a [censored].

Edit: originally this post included some examples of appalling costumes based on recent Melbourne Football Club tragedies, but I just couldn't put my name next to it.

[Guest]

As for Harris himself, unfortunately these days,you can't be the dirty old uncle with the wandering hands after a bit to drink

And you wonder why I hang s*** on you ....

[Dr John Dee 1,057]

I just saw it as risque humour, found it funny, and wasn't surprised by the media attention given it's 2014 and newspapers feed off these mass overreactions. I don't believe you can simply dress up as something (something very relevant, I commend them on the clever idea) and be condoning abuse and being insensitive to victims. But I guess that people draw these massive lines from one thing to another, usually condemning someone of any notoriety in the process is just a reflection of the modern-day instant and mass connected world we live in

Who said anything about this being an issue in objections to/concerns about the players' costuming? Talk about drawing 'massive lines'.

[nutbean 8,838]

I laughed when I saw the picture.

Wasn't that the point?

Many will laugh and then again some who have had some experience with sexual abuse won't ?

Isn't the point that before you go and put yourself out into the public spotlight you may want to consider how a broad range of people will react to your attempts at humor ?

I understand black humor or humor that pushes the boundaries but your select your audience. Dressing up as they did, posting it on instagram was never going end happily Even with the constant education these players get, the message that are given to think about their actions, it is obvious that these two did not "think" at all.