GreatClips's Blogs

 Hi friends at GBT. I wanted to post this because this member (I have redacted his name) is not the only one that feels this way. I feel very strongly about my answer to him. My answer was too long and rambling and maybe confusing, but it is what it is. I would welcome any comments or opposing views, especially in light of the fucked up world lately with ISIS and White Supremacists. I could be way off base in declaring these films harmless. At the bottom is a short clip which is typical from these group of films. After the short one is the clip I think he is referring to. I am sorry in advance for the spelling and grammar issues. I had not even a minute this morning to proofread even for major errors.

------------ original message -----------------

The boys are ubercute but the scene is disturbing. I wonder if it is appropriate to post considering the violence rife in the United States. This clip will send the wrong message to viewers who are "ting-tong" (a thai colloquial expression meaning slightly crazy)

----------------------------------------------------

Response: This is prolly the first message I have ever answered here. Not because i am rude - actually I usually am over fixated in replying to all my emails and messages on social sites, even if it is just a one liner. I have a couple of hundred messages that I never knew existed until very recently (few weeks ago) because for some reason my Chrome browser did not show the messages. It said I have XXX messages but when I clicked on that there was nothing there. It was probably something I fucked up with my java settings. Then when I saw all the messages I felt bad for not responding so only actually read a few before just deciding to not even try catching up. I vowed to read current stuff. 

I will probably reconsider that policy because I always feel like I should respond because I am a nice kid in general, but I don't have time really and when I did find a minute here I ended up getting carried away. ugggg I think I will try and figure out how to simply turn them OFF LOL

To start, I just wanted to say that I agree with you about societal issues as of late being horrific. However, I could not disagree more about "filtering" things for society sake. We are lucky to be in the US and our entire society was based on freedom of expression and speech. To me, and I know there are many who will disagree, a country that filters or stifles free art and expression is not really free. 

Also, there is so much more violent and gory content in video games and movies, all available 24-7 to any child with an internet connection. There also has never been a single study that shows violent content leads to violent behavior.

 The few times that it comes up is when a mass shooter is said to have played X video game around the clock. This defense gas NEVER, EVER been successful and the psychiatric community has always contended that these individuals had psychotic tendencies that were in place long before their crime.

Considering a billion people play video games or listen to extreme musicians without ever acting on it is proof that the violent entertainment has no effect on "normal" people. If you look at the entire population of mass murderers I think you will find that a large percentage had problems with their father or some other authority figure yet we don't blame shitty parenting because for every murderer that had daddy problems there are a couple of billion others that also had daddy problems but did not act on it.

Interestingly, I will bet a small percentage of violent offenders also hate pistachio mint ice cream. I apologize for the hyperbole but it illustrates that with every subset of people (killers, molesters, firemen, teachers, priests etc etc), there is going to be a percentage of them that hate pistachio ice cream.

Thus, there is a percentage of killers that watch horror films too. However, like the ice cream example, all this shows is that x-percent of every population subsets will have a weird quirk or tastes, but that is irrelevant to propensity to commit crime.

Lastly, I actually HATE horror films, however, these clips are sooooo fucking cheesy and poorly acted that i find them comedic. If these CAMPY films send any message at all, it is that we have a great sense of humor in the gay community, not that we are promoting violence.

You know, Digital video is free. i.e. unlike old 35mm films that cost a ton of money, there is none of that cost these days. What I am saying is this - Don't you agree that the producers and directors could EASILY have coached these guys to act better? Like "stop smiling, please don't move you are supposed to be dead, try not lo actually LOL etc" - OR - at least say TAKE TWO, try harder.

No, they did not do that because these films are not serious and not meant to be taken seriously. I think you are short changing American intelligence and the maturity of Gay Men by you taking it as serious as you are. This is satire and comedy on a level that may make you personally squirm. However, if we as gay men in the freest nation in the world find this content so offensive to the point that the parody, comedy and satire is missed, then I would argue that we are moving backward.

Gay marriage is a great step forward, but it appears we may actually be a community of judgmental and oppressive, immature people that probably don't deserve the new rights we have won if shit like this gets censored from communities like this. We would in reality be portraying the  polar opposite mindset of the Utopian society we supposedly are in search of and always chasing.

I'll go ahead and be a drama queen here and say that if this content is considered to be "removable:, then I am fucking disgusted and ashamed.

In fact, I would be so outta here because the utter hypocrisy of all of this would infuriate me every time I logged in. I certainly know this would not even be noticed nor would anyone care. But a bell can never be unrung and I would no longer enjoy myself here. We all know there are hundreds of other sites and none of this content is exclusive. Most of it is reposts and anything new would eventually make it to ALL the sites, probably within an hour.

I hope I did not come off as an asshole here but I also know that I likely did. That's just me. A young homo with a huge mouth that can come off as abrasive would be a perfect description of me! For that, I apologize.   jmho

peace love respect

I'm going to re-post this on a blog, but of course won't identify you. I welcome you to chime in on the post if you wish