Nerds Face Down Westboro Baptist Church Loonies

[praxis1966]

I'm sure by now most of you have heard of the Westboro Baptist Church, a group of untidy little hatemongers from Topeka, Kansas who have the charming little habit of showing up at the funerals of American soldiers and high schools (qua?!?) with signs like these...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/WBC_20051202_sacco-topeka5.jpg http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/jaelmarjorie/0_21_phelps350.jpg

This week, the target of their wrath was Comic-Con 2010 (yes, you read that right). They claimed the attendees of the expo were idolaters and staged a protest. Generally, I would not have taken the kind of person who goes to Comic-Con as your typical activist (although I did wear a Star Wars shirt to an IWW meeting last week and received several compliments on it). However, like the Sunnis and the Shi'ites of Iraq faced with American aggression, Wookie and Stormtrooper, Trekker and Trekkie similarly united to face down their extrinsic persecutors.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/picture.php?albumid=608&pictureid=6216

Full Story (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hottopics/detail?blogid=211&entry_id=68540)

[Terminator X]

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Jedis FTW!

[Stand Your Ground]

Nice lol. Good to see even non-political events they show up at give them resistance.

[Sasha]

more pics: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/22/comic-con-vs-westboro-baptist-church/

[Sasha]

video:http://www.airlockalpha.com/node/7630/comic-con-fans-out-phelps-fred-phelps.html

[bcbm]

man some of their placards would make pretty great t shirts.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

pretty lulzy.

[NGNM85]

Comic-Con? WTF?! How do these people plan their social calendar, do they just throw darts at news clippings? I would think there would be some greater hotbed of sin and vulgarity crying out to be cleansed by the most righteous.(?)

[Adil3tr]

They come to my high school and they'll receive a lawsuit and an ass kicking

[Leonid Brozhnev]

Surely the WBC know what its like to be sucked in by a fairytale...

[praxis1966]

I think it's worth mentioning here that while comrades from other countries may be saying to themselves, "What the fuck is wrong with you people?" that the Westboro Baptist Church really isn't much of a church at all. Fred Phelps's entire "congregation" consists of blood relatives and their spouses, so it's not like this is actually some kind of movement. Rather, it's one fucked up clan who gets an inordinate amount of media attention because of their ridiculous message. Although, if I were a betting man (having actually been in Southern Baptist churches and Sunday school classes; not that I ever was one but the 16 year old me did just about anything he could to get laid) I'd wager that there are so-called religious people all across the South secretly cheering them.

EDIT: As an aside, if anyone's interested in learning more about Westboro Baptist Church, there was actually a great documentary on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-xx6bqq8_E

[NGNM85]

It's an interesting documentary. I'm fascinated by the psychology of the group. The daughters were very clearly struggling, young girls aren't naturally inclined for that. The eldest daughter, particularly, seemed to be under substantial emotional strain. It's interesting but the things you think would break them in some ways drive them in deeper. I was reading about a smal apocalyptic cult a few decades ago, the date of the predicted apocalypse that these people had been waiting for came and passed but instead of disbanding the group grew tighter and more fanatical, as a response to the stress from the internal conflict they retreated further into the cult. It's also important that most of these people have been raised in this environment, and have been indoctrinated from birth. I feel bad for the children, I really do. Especially the little boy.

As an aside, I'm thoroughly unimpressed by the family patriarch. For a man who proclaims himself to be on a higher plane, and to posess spiritual insight beyond us mere mortals, his sermons seem deeply wanting. It seems like it's always an endles refrain of "X is a sodomite/heretic/whatever and is going to burn in hell! Y is also a....etc." He doesn't even seem to discuss theology in any kind of serious way. Of course this is no different from most who make such claims of having access to some preternatural wisdom.

[praxis1966]

Comic-Con? WTF?! How do these people plan their social calendar, do they just throw darts at news clippings? I would think there would be some greater hotbed of sin and vulgarity crying out to be cleansed by the most righteous.(?)

You mean like the entire city of Las Vegas, which they had to travel right past to get from Topeka to San Diego?

[NGNM85]

You mean like the entire city of Las Vegas, which they had to travel right past to get from Topeka to San Diego?

I know , right? WTF?! The probably passed dozens of strip joints, adult bookstores, casinos, brothels, etc., but no, apparently the real threat is an overweight D&D enthusiast in an "I Grok Spock" t-shirt.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I have mixed feelings about WBC. On the one hand, they are a bunch of assholes. But, on the other hand, if there was no WBC there would be no great videos like this:

veNQwzW8ays

[Pretty Flaco]

This is appropriate.
http://cdn.thefrisky.com/images/uploads/cord_skirts_sin_m.jpg

And I'm glad that the nerds are fighting back!

[Revy]

http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads//2010/07/220720101195-225x300.jpg

haha....:lol:

[IllicitPopsicle]

They came to my city to protest the Lady Gaga concert last Tuesday. a few of my punk rock friends went down there with a blowup doll that had "god <3 fags" written on it. I lol'd.

[NGNM85]

I have mixed feelings about WBC. On the one hand, they are a bunch of assholes. But, on the other hand, if there was no WBC there would be no great videos like this:

veNQwzW8ays

I gotta actually give them some points for effort. They put some serious work into that, misguided as it may be.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I LOVED reading about this. One of the articles I read said that people were chanting "What do we want? Gay sex! When do we want it? Now!".

While the Fredites are a small publicity-whoring cult (which is the reason they targeted Comic-con, not because they are worried about comics, but because they knew they'd get hella press) and easy to oppose, I think it's telling that a group in society whose defining characteristic is the desire to ESCAPE from reality made what looks like a pretty spontaneous counter-protest. In fact, despite their costumes, home-made latex Klingon foreheads, and multi-sided dice, they are more in touch with reality than liberals who say "just ignore the bigots".

I'd say the times are changing when "apolitical" people on vacation, choose not to go to a talk by so-and-so celebrity showing elusive clips of their hotly anticipated movie, and instead go to parking lot in hot-ass San Diego to stand up for solidarity and liberation instead.

It would be awesome if there was a radical nerd group ("the Rebel Alliance" maybe) who agitated around radical politics while using examples from pop-culture to explain capitalism, imperialism, and so on.

[Pretty Flaco]

It would be awesome if there was a radical nerd group ("the Rebel Alliance"

See, communism is all about just getting in touch with the force! The rebel alliance is all about permanent revolution. Even after liberating the outer rim systems, they still take the battle to the inner rims! TAKIN' DOWN THAT GALACTIC CAPITALIST EMPIRE ONE PLANET AT A TIME, BABY!

[praxis1966]

There actually was a group who took RevLeft waaaaaayyyy too seriously years ago who called themselves the Rebel Alliance. They actually thought they were some kind of legitimate "dissident" group. Nevermind that their "movement" didn't actually mean anything outside of this site.