What would you do about the WBC?

[lizabeth19]

If I had absolute power? Make sure members of WBC couldn't travel to any funerals. Toll gates would suddenly ask to search their cars for drugs. Airports would detain them for fear that they are going to commit terrorist actions. Bus companies would suddenly have no more seats on their coach.

If I had the ability to alter reality? Make every single WBC member gay and/or bisexual without wiping out any of the events they had experienced before.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Nothing. They're unimportant.

 

[ThisIsSnake]

Wouldn't have to do much. Watch Louis Theroux's follow up documentary on them, they're crumbling from within already.

 

[GraveeKing]

I believe in freedom of speach and all but really these guys go a little too far sometimes.
I'd simply have some restrictions on freedom of speach, it's getting crazy now - things that are clearly wrong need to be put to a stop - they're more likely to cause damage and violence than anything.

There are some things people need to - put quite politely. Need to shut the hell up about. I don't care what your views on gays/jews or whatever i see a damn protest or forum post of theirs is about, we're obviously not going to care - keep it to yourself and believe what you damn like quietly.

 

[Saelune]

You have the right to believe and say whatever you want in this country. You are not allowed to chant hateful slogans with the intent of mentally assaulting people, especially those who are grieving.

You're contradicting yourself. freedom of speech doesn't portect the speech you like. It protects the speech you don't like, Otherwise there would be no reason to protect it.


As for what I would do given supreme power, make a government funded cyborg initiative. You know try to make willing volunteers into robots. Assholes will never stop annoying you but if you were a robot you could... like... shut off your ears I guess. I just wanna be a cyborg real bad is all.

You cant yell fire in a crowded place without there being fire or trouble. You cant tell a Cop to go fuck themselves without arrest or fine. I cant tell someone I am going to kill them. So either these monsters should be arrested, or I should be allowed to do all the stuff I said.

And in all seriousness, if you believe in it, there is no worse threat than "you're going to hell" since from my understanding, its a horrific place.

 

[Charli]

A ray gun that projects gay porn right into their brains.

With any luck they'll all spontaneously self combust.

 

[Queen Michael]

One word: Batman.

 

[armadillo122]

Now as people of the internet we are inevitably subject to something we geneally either dont understand or hate.

One of the most unaminous of theese things so far has been the Westboro Baptist Church.

So, given a position of total authority to do anything you want, what would you do about them?

Me:
I would make sure none of thier members can earn a decent living. Enough to survive, and continue protests if theyre that committed to it, but much, much worse off than if they were not a part of the group.

That was me, now, what about you?

They may feed off of attention but that doesnt mean that you have to be direct about it.

Seriously, isn't criticizing WBC a bit cliché? Seems like everyones doing it just for the heck of it.It's an easy target, yes but they are hardly influential politically in anyway so it just seems STUPID to me that we have to have one thread about WBC on this website, every week.

 

[mysecondlife]

If budget is no concern...

hire extremists at the opposite end like gay-rights extremist groups to follow, literally stalk WBC and have them protest wherever they protest to make situation really uncomfortable.

 

[Defenestra]

Surrealistic counter-trolling.

You've seen the pictures. People are doing it already. Forming counterprotests with signs that make slightly more sense than the WBC ones.

"I was promised donuts"
"Where's Waldo?"
"Build prisons on the moon"
"I'm tired"

Why? Because it means that news reports of their activities are even more likely to make them a laughingstock. And mockery is the only real way to respond to that kind of insanity.

Especially if it's obvious that you're having more fun than they are.

 

[thevillageidiot13]

I'd rather be somebody WITHOUT complete authoritarian power over everything. Then I could graffiti street art all over their houses (a la Banksy), hack their websites and post clever messages (a la Anonymous), and blow up their buildings (a la The Weather Underground), and, in the end, reinforce my position in history as an urban myth/folk hero.

If I were an all-powerful being in charge of everything, and I waged war against them, that would just be censorship and bullying.

Basically, if I do it from a position of semi-power rather than omnipotence, it's closer to Civil Disobedience (which I'm a huge fan of) and further from oppression (which I don't condone).

 

[thevillageidiot13]

If I *HAD* to pick, I'd hire a witch doctor to resurrect Jesus so that he can walk up to Fred Phelps, bitchslap the man, and be like "YOU ************, THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"

To me, that seems like a good way to shut them up without actually being oppressive.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I would do nothing. An extremest ought to be free to shout their message of hate and ignorance to the world because letting them do so robs them of power. If you try and suppress them, you simply lend credibility to their cause.

 

[The Gnome King]

Now as people of the internet we are inevitably subject to something we geneally either dont understand or hate.

One of the most unaminous of theese things so far has been the Westboro Baptist Church.

So, given a position of total authority to do anything you want, what would you do about them?

Me:
I would make sure none of thier members can earn a decent living. Enough to survive, and continue protests if theyre that committed to it, but much, much worse off than if they were not a part of the group.

That was me, now, what about you?

They may feed off of attention but that doesnt mean that you have to be direct about it.

I wouldn't want them to suffer because I don't really want to see anyone suffer, but I would like to find out if they a) really believe in God and/or Christianity and if they do; b) is this *really* how they feel their time on Earth is best spent relieving human suffering and misery and spreading the word of God?

I've met too many people who don't want to understand anything other than their own limited point of view in this lifetime, but I still try and reserve hope even for the worst of the worst. If they really believe what they're doing is helpful... wow. More power to them, I guess.

If I couldn't get through to them, simply ignoring them would suffice for me. Being ignored and irrelevant is probably the worst thing you can wish upon some people/groups. I think of it like this - hate groups like the KKK and neo-nazi groups used to have a lot of power in the US but as time goes on they become more and more obscure, ridiculed, associated with a lack of education and poverty and just... irrelevant.

So too will go the way of the WBC.

 

[BonsaiK]

Now as people of the internet we are inevitably subject to something we geneally either dont understand or hate.

One of the most unaminous of theese things so far has been the Westboro Baptist Church.

So, given a position of total authority to do anything you want, what would you do about them?

Me:
I would make sure none of thier members can earn a decent living. Enough to survive, and continue protests if theyre that committed to it, but much, much worse off than if they were not a part of the group.

That was me, now, what about you?

They may feed off of attention but that doesnt mean that you have to be direct about it.

Nothing. I wouldn't lock them up, I wouldn't kill them, I wouldn't ship them somewhere else and I certainly wouldn't start threads about them. I also wouldn't try and do anything by 'stealth', that'd just give them a reason to feel persecuted and make them even more vigilant. They want attention. Don't give it. Simple as that.

 

[Meestor Pickle]

Ignore them. Like any troll they feed on attention. The thing is, there's no report button for non-violently but obnoxiously exercising free speech IRL, so instead of "Report and move on", just move on.

A troll can not be fed if it is dead.

Yes deciding between death and asylum...id have each one flip a coin

 

[gigastar]

Now as people of the internet we are inevitably subject to something we geneally either dont understand or hate.

One of the most unaminous of theese things so far has been the Westboro Baptist Church.

So, given a position of total authority to do anything you want, what would you do about them?

Me:
I would make sure none of thier members can earn a decent living. Enough to survive, and continue protests if theyre that committed to it, but much, much worse off than if they were not a part of the group.

That was me, now, what about you?

They may feed off of attention but that doesnt mean that you have to be direct about it.

Make them live in an all black neighborhood. Why? Not because I think black people are bad, but because those racist sumbitches will probably all die of heart attacks in less than a month.

Actually, against all odds, the WBC isnt racist like that.

Check thier wikipeida article. All thier views can be found there.

 

[BlackStar42]

For every hit on their website, they get a kick in the balls/punch in the tits(delete as appropriate)

Every time they want to picket a funeral, send in the riot police. With tear gas. And tasers. Lots of tasers.

 

[Xan Holbrook]

I'd hire lots of gay black jewish people to start fornicating right in front of them.