There's a lot of injustice in the world. But in our litigious society where people get money for slipping on ice, spilling coffee or just falling down, the tides seem to be turning. Perhaps we're seeing a trend personal responsibility is more important than placing blame.
When the movie "Borat: Cultural Leanings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" came out, millions of people were amused. This style of movie or reporting is nothing new. People are just amused when stupid people are ambushed and revealed to be the morons they really are. But not the two fraternity brothers from the University of South Carolina who sued everyone connected with the film because they looked like a couple of racist rednecks. And they don't want their scenes to appear in the DVD release of the film.
Well you know what the court said? I'm just paraphrasing here but the other day, the court said, "too fucking bad." Thank God.
We all wish we could take back things we've said. We've all hidden behind the "I was drunk at the time" shield. But in this age of You Tube and My Space, where the smallest of infractions can immediately be broadcast to millions of people, we need to be careful.
If you haven't seen the film, these three fraternity brothers (only 2 of them chose to sue) get drunk and talk about reinstituting slavery and disrespecting women and stuff like that. According to their lawyer, the scene cost one of the frat boys a job at a large corporation and the other one lost a choice internship. They've also been subjected to humiliation and ridicule. So why agree to appear on camera? They signed releases, right? Yes they did, but they thought that they were appearing in a foreign documentary that would not be screened in the United States.
Okay, I get it now. It was okay to say what they said because no one in the US would be seeing it. But since it was seen by millions in the US, the drunks must sue! In an increasingly smaller world, it is not beyond reason that this "foreign documentary" could be seen by any potential employer. Maybe a relative of an employer saw this thing on foreign TV and called his cousin to check it out. What I'm saying is that these boys are only suing because they got duped and they looked stupid at the same time. It was fine when it was foreign. Now that bad things have happened as a result, they want to blame others for the misfortune. Too fucking bad. You're a couple of redneck hicks whose beliefs don't jibe with many people anymore.
I just LOVE justice, don't you?
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