Richard Dawkins assination YouTube video banned at RD.net
Offline http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-5HdyKqzxw&feature
I posted this YouTube video on the RichardDawkins.net Forum on May 5th. It was removed that evening by Admin with the following PM sent to me.
"The video you posted was removed?" (The question mark is the senders who signed the email; RDF)
I found the video on the http://tinyfrog.wordpress.com/ website and, like our friends at Tiny Frog, thought it was appalling. I said as much on my short post on the RD.net.
I thought the folks at http://www.richarddawkins.net/ should see the video. But at least one person with some clout at his website disagreed.
So, I was wondering what you thought about this?
As for me... It is sad enough that Rupert Murdoch has removed/banned all atheist organizations on YouTube and yet leaves the above video (and many more of its ilk) online. But when we, who call ourselves rational people, start arbitrarily censoring content without explanation, then what makes us different from Rupert?
Does anyone here have any insight as to why the RD.net admin would act in this manner? What am I missing? I would appreciate any input.
Thank you,
Bleed
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I don't know why but some clarifications:
1. Rupert Murdoch/FAUX News runs MySpace, not YouTube. Google in fact owns and runs YouTube
2. Looking at this video and others, and reading the guys profile it seems he is parodying fundies
3. Did you ask them why?
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
I dunno. Looks like a parody to me. This is the Rational Response Squad, not RD.net. Why don't you ask them why they removed it? Maybe they don't like videos insinuating that RD should be shot, whether they're parody or not. Seems perfectly reasonable.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I think it is because atheists actually do have emotions and they are not the cold heartless intellectually understanding logic machines deemed by many.
What would your reaction be if this video portrayed your friend and/or admired colleague?
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
I must be a terrible, terrible person. This had me in a laughing fit for almost five minutes.
Is this a parody or an actual fundy video?
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Hmm... curiously, when I saw a cat with a gun, I immediately thought, "parody." I wonder if there's any significance to that...
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Thank you Matt for the clarification. You are correct, it is MySpace. A good and wise friend of mine, and others here and elsewhere seem to think it is a parody, so I will go with that. And yes I did ask the RD.net admin twice why the video was removed and received no response.
If the video is in fact a parody, then one would think it would not be offensive.
Thank you all for your comments.
Maybe Ham did it...
I've met Dawkins. He was charming and funny and very engaging. I'm looking forward to seeing if his literary output increases after he steps down from the university chair. I would hardly want anything to happen to him.
Whether it's a parody or serious, I don't like any video that encourages violence. I'm sorry you're not having any luck talking to RD.net. Any time you have a question about something here, feel free to post it, and I'll do my best to answer it. I'm sorry that I don't have anything to do with RD and don't know the answer to your question. None of the core members do. Sorry.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I think the reason it was banned, was because it portrays an assasination attempt at a real person. Eventhough it is a cat shooting, him and it is a parody, when videos portray the intentional murder of someone, there is probably a TOS violation involved, which would make sense for its removal. I thought it was funny, but I don't think GOOGLE wants to be held liable, if for some reason, they hosted a video on their site of a depiction of murder of a public individual and that individual eventually was murdered. Its kind of like how free speech ends the minute you say things like "the president should be shot."
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EDIT - fixed wonky HTML. Jeffrick, please, if you are having trouble with the editor, post and ask questions. Extra unnecessary carriage returns (a carriage return is when you press enter) within quote tags and weird spacing make the editor freak out and add extra html tags that shouldn't be there. dead_again
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
It's still on YouTube.
I don't know - I thought it was terrible. It's an awful thing to put someone in the crosshairs like that, with the cross and the sword and the rest. They probably just don't want to give it publicity.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
I understand you all. I think I just ran into someone at RE.net that didn't like it and then didn't like me for posting it. They decided not to answer me when I asked why it was removed.
If the video is a parody, it is in very poor taste. I had hoped RD could, with his considerable resources, track it, or kill it, or use it to show the world the sick character some fundamentalist people have adopted. Not unlike jihad.
Anyway, I want to thank all of you for responding. After all you are the rational responders and you did respond rationally. More so than RD.net.
Thanks again.
We do our best. Feel free to hang around if you like our brand of rational responses. (We certainly have some venom of our own, but we really do try to keep it rational venom!)
Thanks for stopping by.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I'm not going anywhere. Thanks for the thanks.