mlk

[Jack]

[Belle Hibiki]

Took me a while to remember that it was MLK day because all the news channels were talking about was ObamaObamaObama.

You might as well just call this BO Day.

[Jack]

BO? Blacks only?

Obama's day is tomorrow, wtf. This is Martin Luther King Jr's day, assholes, play dem classicz.

[Jonathan Meer]

I <3 plagiarizers

[Rem-13]

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/mlking.asp

also plagiarism or not, you cant deny he was a dynamic piece in the civil rights movement in action and an essential figure head and martyr for the cause

[Jonathan Meer]

Essential figurehead, sure. Someone has to be in our modern age, whether or not they really provide the impetus or drive. I'm not going to make a value judgment on MLK's contribution to civil rights, but I do know that it was far more than just the work of one individual, no matter how famous. He's an icon. Still, a Nobel Peace Prize is nothing to scoff at.

At any rate, he certainly wasn't a martyr. Martyrdom implies self-sacrifice. King's death did not result from a willful action of King (who was shot by a rifle while standing upon a balcony). He was a man who believed something strongly, was well-known for it, and was killed for it. This a martyr does not make.

EDIT: For the record, I'm not trying to be one of those dicks that shoves around demeaning information for the fun of it. I'm emphasizing his humanity.

[Belle Hibiki]

Martyrdom is not only just a choice on the part of the individual. It means "One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.

Ex., people don't like to "make a martyr" out of important counter-culture icons, because doing so tends to galvanize the base. It's not solely a choice of the individual being persecuted.

[Waffuru]

You don't even need to be killed to become a Martyr for your cause.

[Jonathan Meer]

*shrug*

Language is relative enough to make anything of it.

Maybe I'll be a martyr someday.

[Waffuru]

ex Martin Luther's excommunication for the Protestant Reformation. Not dead, still a martyr.

[Jonathan Meer]

Strictly speaking, that's still tricky. Luther basically gave the pope the middle finger after the first papal bull, which spoke of tentative excommunication. The real excommunication followed. While there was a ton of suffering in Luther's life, I'm not sure it stemmed from the pope's excommunication.

[Rem-13]

I think the point being pushed is martydom has more to do with the person's influence than his intentions.

[Jonathan Meer]

Which is an entirely untraditional application of the term, that requires a huge amount of semantic license.

[Jack]

Lighten up.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hbQN_r2rKyw

[Jesper]

...why does that not offend you?

[Jack]

Why would it?

[Shun]

=\

[Jack]

Oh, wtf. Seriously? Of all the things that have been posted here, THAT evokes a negative response? <.<

Did you all SEE the Hitler rap?

[Shun]

Hitler Rap?

[Rem-13]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpRqvCps_MQ

I've never seen it here but I assume this is what he's talking about