The great thing about the freedoms bestowed upon us as American citizens is that we are all allowed to like or not like different things. We should also be able to like things without being judged, but that’s not going to happen because those American freedoms also give others the right to mock us for taking pleasure in certain activities, movies, or other interests.
Take for instance, Fox News, which has every right to poke fun at “space nerds” or introduce a discussion of the new Star Wars trailer on their show Red Eye w/ Tom Shillue in a stereotypical, reductive way that pits “nerdy fanboys” against “the jocks that beat them up in high school.” National Review writer and Fox News contributor Katherine Timpf even has the freedom to cruelly dismiss those who might enjoy Star Wars, as she did during that segment.
“I have never had any interest in watching space nerds poke each other with their little space nerd sticks, and I’m not going to start now. You people are crazy. You Star Wars people are crazy. Yesterday, I tweeted something, and all I said was that I wasn’t familiar with Star Wars because I’ve been too busy liking cool things and being attractive — people threatened my life.”
Okay, well, that’s a crappy, dismissive way to describe Star Wars, but it’s no excuse to threaten her life. However, radical Star Wars fans — who are not representative in any way of the attitudes of the overwhelming majority of Star Wars fans — have spent the last couple of weeks tweeting rape and death threats at Timpf, which is not okay.
Nice that he at least gives an exact time! pic.twitter.com/K8DlC0C42R
— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) November 25, 2015
Some of the comments directed at @KatTimpf for joking about @starwars fans pic.twitter.com/Gdj7iHKZgU
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) November 25, 2015
In the comments people are saying I "need to be force choked," die, kill myself, etc. #RedEye is a satire show lol https://t.co/h7PSGK2lFL
— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) November 23, 2015
Okay, that is insane, and though I vehemently disagree with her position on Star Wars, I appreciate that she has more of a sense of humor about death threats than I would.
If I die bc I made a Star Wars joke that would be the funniest way to go https://t.co/MD1ZgoLCBF
— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) November 25, 2015
Careful Dad or our whole family will be murdered https://t.co/lp4xd0o18w
— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) November 25, 2015
Feel free to say that at my funeral https://t.co/sdxZAqyzNp
— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) November 25, 2015
Here’s the original segment.
via THR