Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
You're right they are entitled to say whatever they want. I find it insulting that some entertainer who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars starts spouting socialist nonsense or is pretending to be some working class hero, but no one is forcing me to buy a ticket. Of course, no one was forcing people to watch Rush on ESPN, but somehow that was different.
But if these deep thinkers like the Dixie Chicks and Sean Penn want to insult the vast majority of the country, they should be prepared to accept the consequences. Instead they go on TV and whine that their rights have somehow been abridged.
"I find it insulting that some entertainer who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars starts spouting socialist nonsense or is pretending to be some working class hero..."
Nearly as insulting as Rush's comments about drug abusers, eh?
If people don't like what the Dixie Chicks say, or what Sean Penn says, or Tim Robbins, etc., they can simply not buy their records or go to their movies. If you really want to hurt someone, the pocketbook is the best choice.
That said, people from the extreme left, or extreme right should not be necessarily labeled as unAmerican just because their point of view differs from others.
Let's leave the unAmerican, traitor, etc. labels for those who truly deserve them.
As long as Penn, the Dixie Chicks, etc. are paying a shitload of taxes, don't you think they have the right to criticize their government as harshly as they wish?
As far as them going on TV an whining in an attempt to bring people's attention to their situation, that too is as much their right as it is yours to complain in this forum about what you don't like.