Says on Cult of Mac that these rambling inbred hate-mongers are planning two protests — one at Cupertino High School and another at the mothership. One is tempted to ask why, but with these people what would be the point? “Because we’re crazy and nasty, and we believe in some ridiculous ancient superstitions but in fact don’t even correctly understand the meaning of the superstitions we supposedly believe in and have built our lives around,” would be the honest answer, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting to hear it.
Praise the Lord and pass the mescaline, as Shawn Colvin Willis Alan Ramsey once said.
It’s a shakedown for cash, pure and simple.
I think the more honest answer would be “Because we’re the real-world equivalent of Internet trolls”.
I doubt anyone at Westboro thinks they’re converting a single person with their protests. That’s not the goal. The goal is merely to validate their own existence by having people notice them. They just show up wherever they think they’re going to get the most attention, and where they think there may be the slim possibility of suing somebody for violating their freedom to be dickheads in public, getting even more attention.
Which parallels what Teresa Nielsen Hayden once said about blog comment trolls:
“[Trolls’] own online activity tends to be dull and disruptive, but they think they’re entitled to the kind of large audience for their behavior you can only get by being interesting. This is why they don’t actually want free speech. All that would give them is the freedom to call the shots on their own websites. What they really want is someone else’s audience.”
I’m with Dan here. Ironically they hate Jews because they think Jews killed Jesus (a Jew), in a nation under military occupation by the Roman Empire, using a Roman torture & execution device (the criss-cross) which many wear as a symbol of their peaceful religion. And yet their fag hating etc religion is that of the 12 tribes of ancient Israel, including the 2 Jewish tribes. While Christianity & I suspect modern Judaism & Islam have developed from that faith, they are fixated on it & yet call themselves Christians. This inspires them to protest at the funeral of a partly Arabic man who’s best known company was formerly accused of discriminating against homosexuals. (I vaguely recall).
Anyone asked a biblical literalist how much time took place between Jesus overturning tables in the temple & his arrest & execution? 1 gospel writes a week from protest to arrest & 1 week from arrest to crucifixion. Another describes the protest, then his long tour about the Sea of Galilea. No problem for scholars who say they were written long after by fallible humans. BIG problem for anyone who thinks they are the infallible word of a perfect ominescent omnipresent deity who also created Adam & Eve and then later regretted it.
do what kevin smith did when the threatened to picket “red state” at the sundance film fest — have your own, hilarious signs for a smirking counter protest, and then invite them in to watch the film! (and yes, love the delicious irony that westboro is tweeting/facebooking/blogging all this using iOS devices and macs. ha.)