Posted on 05/20/2016 3:24:43 AM PDT by grundle
In June 2014, the Obama administration revoked trademark protection for the Washington Redskins’ name because some people thought it was offensive.
This sets a horrible precedent.
Just about every R-rated movie includes content that someone would consider offensive, whether that content be violence, sex, profanity, etc. The same can be said for the content of many books, the lyrics of many songs, the content of many paintings, etc. If any copyright, patent, trademark, etc., can be revoked because someone finds it offensive, then I can’t even begin to imagine how much damage this would cause to the concept of intellectual property, as well as to the arts, sciences, music, literature, movies, etc.
There is no such thing as a right to not be offended. The whole point of protecting free speech in the first place is to protect speech that some people might find offensive. If we only protected speech that was dull, bland, and non-controversial, there wouldn’t be much point to having such protection in the first place.
And now, two years later, we get a new reason for why Obama was not justified to do what he did: a poll by the Washington Post shows that 90% of Native Americans are not offended by the Washington Redskins name.
So, most native Americans are not offended by being honored by having a team named after them.
But a loud minority of liberals throw hissy fits over it.
I wonder, have any of them ever thrown hissy fits over the team name “Vikings”? After all, a large number of people were also descended from Norwegians.
I can see Hitlery as President allowing movies like “Beverly Hills Cop” or “Trading Places” or “Animal House” being either heavily censored or basically banned over complaints of alleged sexism, racism, or homophobia in these and other 1970s and 1980s produced movies.
I didn't realize that the _resident was authorized to be in charge of, and make his own decisions about the Patent Office, supposedly above politics ?
The fact that 90% of Native Americans are not offended by the team name "Redskins" doesn't surprise either;
it's just the _resident listening to that still, small, voice in his brain called Valjar attempting to raise their illegitimate heir called chaos.
Did anyone poll the Indians two years ago?
We will remove his majesty’s Nose from all those things he has inserted it into starting in 2017. A real change for moving this country forward.
The real story - Native Americans not as easily manipulated as Blacks and illegal Latinos.....
The Hildebeast has a plan for the DC football team:
(1) Women must be allowed on the team.
(2) Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals must be in all key coaching and administrative jobs on the team
(3) The team will be eliminated since professional football is dangerous to children and other living things since it causes concussions and other traumatic injuries.
and—if you have any questions or would like to discuss Her Royal Highnesses Brilliant Plan the FEMA guard will be happy to spend a few minutes of quality time with you. :-(
Has the pResident revoked the trademark of the Chicago Blackhawks, Florida Seminoles, Cleveland Indians..etc....?
If not then he needs to STFU.
Congratulations! You wrote seven sentences and three of them ended in "etc."
I guess you figure your comment was too special to be posted along with the other FReeper opinions on the three existing threads posted within the past day.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3432016/posts
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3432050/posts
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3432141/posts
Nor could you be bothered to do the research and find that this trademark decision has been (in essence) reversed -
"Offensive trademarks are OK in US (Redskins relevant)" (FreeRepublic thread from December '15)
And you're a wee bit sensitive about your chosen name. Well, I guess I would be too, if I had chosen to name myself after a Gooch.
The last big scientific poll of Indians on this issue was Annenberg in 2014. Their results were nearly identical to the recent WaPo poll.
Amazing how the left is able to drive its agenda with no real substance on the ground. They create these furors over this or that social issue based on little or nothing. I can’t tell if the timing comes from the top or the middle levels of the left’s ideological pyramid. Definitely doesn’t come from below though.
The biggest fans of the Florida Seminoles happens to be the Seminole Tribe.
I have a small percentage of Indian heritage, and I am certainly not offended. I live by a reservation, never has any of them ever ever voiced concern over any sports team having a name associated with their race.
It’s a pure lefty thing about dividing America. If there is no racial hard feelings, then create them.
Even two 100% liberal pukes Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon were stepping back yesterday from their pure hatred of the nickname (rather recent development). May be because it’s a Post poll where they worked together forever.
I am a “native” American. Born here. Folks were both born here. Their folks were born here. All the way back to before the American Revolution.
I truly hate the hyphenation and utilization of “native” when the MSM wants to identify American Indians. They are no more native than anyone else that was born here.
At one point in time, even they migrated here.
My understanding is that when the controversy started a number of the tribal council contacted the administration of the school and made it clear that they would not stand for a name change and that if the administration wished to continue employment they would not stand for it either.
There is a Navajo school that uses the same monikor. If Native Americans use the term for themselves, it isn’t off limits to everyone else.
I never truly understood the antagonism between native American named teams and the “activists”. There can not be any hint of caricature when naming a team for Seminoles or Apache or Cherokee or any other tribal names or themes. The purpose of a team name is to evoke strength, victory, success, honor, toughness, heroism, invincibility and more. By taking on a mascot and name that places those attributes foremost, it is honoring and not debasing.
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