Now she's encouraging people to spy on her behalf, to stalk her critics so she can threaten and browbeat them IRL, then she wonders why she can't get a paid gig anymore!
Keep it up, world.
#LoveWon (as it always will)
Monday, March 24, 2014
What a difference a year makes...
Now she's encouraging people to spy on her behalf, to stalk her critics so she can threaten and browbeat them IRL, then she wonders why she can't get a paid gig anymore!
Keep it up, world.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Michelle Shocked is Karen Michelle Johnston again
A year to the day since Michelle Shocked spoke out against homosexuality in San Francisco. A month to the day since her Twitter account (@mshocked) was suspended. She devoted the last year to defending her freedom of speech, never realizing that if you can publicly complain on social media about not being about to publicly complain, your freedoms are intact. She devoted the last year to rallying about artist's rights, never realizing that hate speech is not artistic. She devoted the last year to ascribing blame to anyone and everyone except the face she saw when she gazed into a looking glass, never realizing the buck stops with her.
What Michelle really didn't realize is that freedom of speech has to include the freedom of people to speak against hatred and intolerance, especially when proudly displayed on a stage or on social media. If she had bothered to question what inside herself moved her to lash out at everyone, this might have been the best year of her life.
Countless people spoke out, petitioned, boycotted, and protested -- those are the heroes of this saga. Club owners made lemons into lemonade by using Shocked's canceled tour dates as days to promote peace and love for all. Other celebrities took to social media to oppose the bullying of gays by the born again religious right. Journalists put ink to paper to report on the scourge of religious zealots who try to deny the freedoms of others, then absurdly complain their rights are being denied. Ordinary men and women, gay and straight, championed love over hate. Those are the good guys. Those are the people worthy of praise and respect.
The persona embodied in the stage name Michelle Shocked is over. She's just plain ol' Karen Michelle Johnston again. Private figures such as Ms. Johnston have every right to their inner hatreds, provided they don't try to stand on a stage and bully others into agreeing with them. But if she tries to con another venue owner or club manager into booking a hatemonger instead of a musician, I will speak out in opposition to her. What she thinks and feels in private is between her and whatever god she pretends to believe in. Nobody else should ever be subjected to her bullying, online, on stage, or on the street.
I'd like to conclude by signing my real name, but I cannot. As the evidence contained on this blog indicates, there are other bullies and trolls out there who will threaten and harass opponents of hate and intolerance. That is perhaps Michelle's only victory in this, that she has created a legacy for herself of openly hateful thugs and bigots who verbally attack and even threaten physical violence against those who stand up for love. That seems, to me, a hollow and empty victory. In every other respect, Michelle is a loser.
Michelle Shocked lost, and this blog stands as a reminder of why she lost and what she lost.
What Michelle really didn't realize is that freedom of speech has to include the freedom of people to speak against hatred and intolerance, especially when proudly displayed on a stage or on social media. If she had bothered to question what inside herself moved her to lash out at everyone, this might have been the best year of her life.
Countless people spoke out, petitioned, boycotted, and protested -- those are the heroes of this saga. Club owners made lemons into lemonade by using Shocked's canceled tour dates as days to promote peace and love for all. Other celebrities took to social media to oppose the bullying of gays by the born again religious right. Journalists put ink to paper to report on the scourge of religious zealots who try to deny the freedoms of others, then absurdly complain their rights are being denied. Ordinary men and women, gay and straight, championed love over hate. Those are the good guys. Those are the people worthy of praise and respect.
The persona embodied in the stage name Michelle Shocked is over. She's just plain ol' Karen Michelle Johnston again. Private figures such as Ms. Johnston have every right to their inner hatreds, provided they don't try to stand on a stage and bully others into agreeing with them. But if she tries to con another venue owner or club manager into booking a hatemonger instead of a musician, I will speak out in opposition to her. What she thinks and feels in private is between her and whatever god she pretends to believe in. Nobody else should ever be subjected to her bullying, online, on stage, or on the street.
I'd like to conclude by signing my real name, but I cannot. As the evidence contained on this blog indicates, there are other bullies and trolls out there who will threaten and harass opponents of hate and intolerance. That is perhaps Michelle's only victory in this, that she has created a legacy for herself of openly hateful thugs and bigots who verbally attack and even threaten physical violence against those who stand up for love. That seems, to me, a hollow and empty victory. In every other respect, Michelle is a loser.
Michelle Shocked lost, and this blog stands as a reminder of why she lost and what she lost.
#LoveWon
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