Posted 2022-April-08, 18:09
Re: the Oscars - in defence of Will Smith, this wasn't the first time. And it wasn't the first time he had said "go after me all you want. My wife is off-limits." The joker decided that either his fame, or his notoriety, or the stage he was on, protected him from any serious retaliation from the (not very funny) joke at her expense.
He was wrong. It cost Will Smith a *lot* in reputation and potentially in money to prove him wrong, but one expects it was worth it. I bet it's the last of those jokes that will be told in Mr. and Mrs. Smith's presence... But I bet if it wasn't someone with Will Smith's level of reputation and ability to just blow off working for the rest of his life if it came to that, he would have been right, protected, and unslapped.
There's someone here who has a high opinion of Heinlein, in particular the "an armed society is a polite society" bit. For those who agree with him and with Heinlein, *this is what it means*. It doesn't mean that everyone will be polite because there's guns - back in the day, there had to be laws against duelling because it reduced the government's power to keep a trained officer corps. It means that those that have enough power in society can *hurt you*, even *kill you*, if you're not "polite" enough. The flip side of that is, of course, that if you don't have that power, the people that do get to do whatever they want, and you "have to be polite". Your armed status doesn't matter. Barring "Billy the Kid" levels of skill and gall, just being armed doesn't give you that power (and even in Mr. the Kid's(*) case, it lasted how long?), you need society to back you.
Funny how that seems to apply even here, even now, even with "you need a gun to protect your rights". Why (I hear someone ask) did St. Ronnie impose one of the strictest gun control regimes in California? Why are the anti-police violence protesters denied arms (even shields and helmets) if they want to be deemed "peaceful" and not "rioters"? It sure ain't because the police are gonna be polite if they show up armed...
(*) Argh, missed the obFootnote: "Be excellent to each other."
When I go to sea, don't fear for me, Fear For The Storm -- Birdie and the Swansong (tSCoSI)