O'Reilly: Gays can be equated with Al-Qaeda

[Lunar]

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/03/oreilly-mcdonalds/

Take the time to watch the video in the link.  Pretty disturbing offhand comments.

[Lunar]

also: Any ad which doesn't target my demographic is a bad business decision!  Also, any ad which doesn't directly tell me to purchase their product is a bad business decision!  I don't understand marketing at all hurgh hurgh.  France is way more gay than the United States hurgh hurgh.

[Landslide Lyndon]

He is a self-righteous douchebag.
What else is new?

[Torie]

Lunar, O'Reilly was just doing a reducto ad absurdam technique. He is not a gay basher per se. But it was an unusually clumsy riff for O'Reilly. He normally is quite facile with words and uses them well.

And Bill may well be right that in the US, more of those who patronize McDonalds might be turned away with a gay friendly theme than attracted. Plus, gays tend to want fit bodies, and that means McDonalds just isn't on their "to do" list anyway. I mean,  McDonalds customer base is more along the lines of fat straights who can't get it up isn't it? 

[Bo]

O'Reily is just saying this to make boatloads of money from the loons who consistenly watch him. What else is new?

[Lunar]

Lunar, O'Reilly was just doing a reducto ad absurdam technique. He is not a gay basher per se. But it was an unusually clumsy riff for O'Reilly. He normally is quite facile with words and uses them well.

I know he doesn't think gayness is on the same level of terrorism, but it does seem clear that he thinks ads targeting gay people will backfire on the straight population ("are they going to work, because, y'know, straight people are going to see them too") and that said ads are "trying to make a political statement."  He obviously came up with that thought when he first chose to run the segment.

McDonalds doesn't give a damn about politics,  they are the only company that I know of that runs ads in Spanish on English channels, they aren't trying to f#&*ing say anything besides come buy our french fries and sodas at insane markup margins.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

The guy passed up a perfect opportunity to bash Islam, and continue the politics of hate!

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Oh, come on Lunar - he wasn't equating Al-Qaeda to homosexuals.  He was making a (distasteful) joke, but he wasn't actually equating the two.

Although, I will say that I really don't see the point of that ad.  I'm more inclined to go to McDonald's if I see a big juicy Big Mac rather than people talking in a commercial.

[Lunar]

Oh, come on Lunar - he wasn't equating Al-Qaeda to homosexuals.  He was making a (distasteful) joke, but he wasn't actually equating the two.

As I said above, there are other problems with the segment that drove a "really?!" response from me, but perhaps "disturbing" is overly harsh. 

[Joe Biden 2020]

Oh dear...

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Oh, come on Lunar - he wasn't equating Al-Qaeda to homosexuals.  He was making a (distasteful) joke, but he wasn't actually equating the two.

As I said above, there are other problems with the segment that drove a "really?!" response from me, but perhaps "disturbing" is overly harsh. 

Yeah - I'm not saying he isn't over the top sometimes, but a lot of times the stuff that gets in trouble is his (often poor) sense of humor.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Oh, come on Lunar - he wasn't equating Al-Qaeda to homosexuals.  He was making a (distasteful) joke, but he wasn't actually equating the two.

As I said above, there are other problems with the segment that drove a "really?!" response from me, but perhaps "disturbing" is overly harsh. 

Yeah - I'm not saying he isn't over the top sometimes, but a lot of times the stuff that gets in trouble is his (often poor) sense of humor.

Yeah, I'm an O'really hater but I think this is much to do about not much.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Plus, gays tend to want fit bodies, and that means McDonalds just isn't on their "to do" list anyway. I mean, McDonalds customer base is more along the lines of fat straights who can't get it up isn't it? 

I presumed McDonalds' customer base was mostly fat children (and their parents, who come along for the ride).

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

In France Mc Donalds remains mostly for teens, families after I'd say, then the way the ad is done would find its spot since 'gay open-mindedness' is trendy amongst teens here  less and less by a slight trend I'd say though), but as a lot of ads it is done in a quite basic way, not sure it's good to attract teens then.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

As brave as respectful and sensed. Gays who openly live it have made their coming out, he could make a clear anti-gay coming out.

[nclib]

Lunar, O'Reilly was just doing a reducto ad absurdam technique.

Not an O'Reilly fan, but this was likely what he was doing, not equating them. Perhaps similar to:

Teenager: Can I drink alcohol at the party?
Parent: No.
Teenager: Jimmy's doing it.
Parent: If Jimmy jumped off a cliff, would you?

That said, in this context I'm not sure what point O'Reilly was making about gays and the ad.

[Lunar]

Lunar, O'Reilly was just doing a reducto ad absurdam technique.

Not an O'Reilly fan, but this was likely what he was doing, not equating them. Perhaps similar to:

Teenager: Can I drink alcohol at the party?
Parent: No.
Teenager: Jimmy's doing it.
Parent: If Jimmy jumped off a cliff, would you?

That said, in this context I'm not sure what point O'Reilly was making about gays and the ad.

But would "reaching out to all of France, including the gays, so that we sell more of our product" prompt the question "would you reach out to terrorists then?"  

The idea of "reaching out to all of the French" doesn't spark the air of illogic that "Oh, I did it just because Jimmy did it" does.

I mean, if, say, O'Reilly was questioning a McDonalds spokesmen about their Spanish-language ads on New York subway trains or on English-language channels (both of which exist), and the McD's spokesmen said "we reach out to everybody," would "would you reach out to terrorists?" really be on the same level as your example of "I drank because Jimmy did it"?

So while I may have overreacted, I feel that's a poor counterexample.

I think "equating" is the correct verb to use here.

[RosettaStoned]

I remember thinking the same thing when I saw this on TV. -.-

[opebo]

Is he just a dumb, hate-filled M*** or is he pretending to be so to appeal to the public, who are mostly dumb and hate-filled, if not all catholic or celtic?  I don't suppose we'll ever know.   A lot of people like to say 'oh he's just playing it for all its worth, just to make money', etc.  But I think its a lot more likely he's just a dumb hate-filled M***, hired for a job he's a natural for.  Because I've honestly never heard him slip up and say anything intelligent.  I think he is what he appears to be.

Now, what about the crazy one (forget his name)?

[Brittain33]

Wow, who knew that slur was blocked?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Wow, who knew that slur was blocked?

Neh, opebo is just making a point over the new jihad against anything offensive.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Wow, who knew that slur was blocked?

What slur?

[Brittain33]

Wow, who knew that slur was blocked?

What slur?

Aha, Opebo is putting the asterisks in "M***" himself.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Wow, who knew that slur was blocked?

What slur?

Aha, Opebo is putting the asterisks in "M***" himself.

But what is the original word?  If you don't want to say it - at least give me a hint - I'm clueless.

[Brittain33]

But what is the original word?  If you don't want to say it - at least give me a hint - I'm clueless.

Mick.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

But what is the original word?  If you don't want to say it - at least give me a hint - I'm clueless.

Mick.

Yeah it's certainly NOT filtered and opebo knows it.......but opebo is just making a point.