Sinead immediately became a pariah; she had death threats tossed her way, and public opinion of her was overwhelmingly negative. The next week’s host, Joe Pesci, opened his monologue by holding up the picture, now re-taped together, and proclaiming that had he been around for the shredding, he would have hit her.
Sinead’s career never fully recovered from the incident. She continued to put out albums and perform, but where her hit album sold millions, the follow-up releases barely dented the charts.
As we now know, the shaved-head singer was on to something. The Archbishop of Ireland eventually released over 65,000 documents from Church archives which verify repeated instances of sexual abuse. Molestation was covered up and cloistered away under orders from the Vatican; in some cases, children were told to “remain silent” regarding what had been done to them.
So Sinead was 20 years ahead of the curve, but the public didn’t care.
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There is little more damaging in life than someone who puts what they want to be true above all facts that may show otherwise.
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I do understand the initial hesitation to immediately embrace her action; Sinead has always been fairly insane. Back when popular, she acted more like a petulant teenager than a young woman. She shit on the American Anthem—stating she wouldn’t perform in an arena where it played before her concert—and when nominated for several Grammys she asked to have her name withdrawn from consideration. In the past few years she began meeting men on the internet and having quickie marriage-and-divorces.
Which means, as said, it is easy to look upon anything Sinead says with a hint of suspicion. What bothers me is the fact that sometimes truth hits home so hard it is undeniable. Despite what lunacy she may have spewed, Sinead was deeply religious herself. She was not an outsider railing against an institution she hated, Sinead was an insider asking the practice she believed in to step up and right itself. When any sliver of clarity shoots through the fog of injustice, it should contain a resonance that is impossible to ignore…
…unless you happen to be an ideologue.
There is little more damaging in life than someone who puts what they want to be true above all facts that may show otherwise. And when it comes to religion, ideologues lose their mind.
I know a man who defiantly stood by a friend of his in expressions of anger toward me because I happen to be agnostic, and this man and his friend were Christian. The only problem with the situation is: the man standing by his friend was supporting someone who happened to be a sociopathic woman-beater. But, as the friend who hit women believed in Jesus, this somehow made him more holy than me, a non-violent agnostic. Kind of like how Joe Pesci thought threatening to hit a woman on live television was more righteous than the simple tearing up of a picture.
Which brings us to the next logical step: Donald Trump. I believe that President Babyhands is as misogynistic as they come, yet voters ignored that fact in numbers great enough to win him The Oval Office, even if he lost the popular vote.
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It is insane, the ability with which people can separate themselves from the highest ideals any faith may be based on and use it to cater to base fears and prejudices.
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Juxtapose the two events being discussed and ask: What does that say about society? What does that say about how we treat women? What we think of women? How we (de) value women? Sinead tears up a picture of a tired figurehead who was actively involved in evil, and it ends her career. Donald Trump brags about his ability to assault women and is launched into the highest office on the planet.
Does that make us more tolerant or forgiving today? Or are we stupid, apathetic, and sexist? Sadly, I’ll go with the latter.
Religion, unfortunately, has the uncanny ability to bring out the worst in people. Evangelical leaders promoted Trump to no end; they called him flawed but human. These are the same people who swore on the bible they profess to love that President Obama is a Muslim.
It is insane, the ability with which people can separate themselves from the highest ideals any faith may be based on and use it to cater to base fears and prejudices. Politicians know this all too well and use passages out of context to inflame the masses inspired by such rhetoric.
When a book of allegorical fables enters into the political realm, it is in a position to do maximum damage. The Taliban and places like Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Bosnia are prime examples of what happens when religion becomes the forefront of governmental policy
“But that’s Islam!” the weak-minded cry. “We gots us Jebus!”
True. And Christianity has in its wake the Crusades, the Salem Witch Trials, the Spanish Inquisition … Just because a religion has, for large part, moved beyond the worst it has to offer, that does not mean it has disappeared entirely. When you listen to people like President Babyhands, Santorum, Carson, Gingrich, and so on, the rhetoric they spew is dangerously akin to the Christianity of old, that which we should have grown past at this point in history. The frothing-at-the-mouth mobs they inspire? That should be enough to give anyone pause. In the least, it should make those who do not buy into the politics of hate and derision reflect upon the words of Sinead herself:
“Remember what I told you: if they hated me, they will hate you …”
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Photo: Getty Images
There is one major difference between Sinead and Trump. When Sinead tore up that picture there weren’t entirely movements of people saying “if you buy her music that means you hate the Catholic Church”. There wasn’t a nearly year long campaign of trashing and insulting anyone and everyone that didn’t blindly support any artists that may have been competing against her for Grammys. On the other hand up until Election day last year many news sites were literally running daily “Trump is Trash” style posts because lumping anyone that wasn’t gung ho Clinton 1000% in the Trump supporters and then… Read more »
I disagree with Lukas. I think it’s good not to use his name. He ran on his own publicity. That’s literally all he had to offer. (It speaks volumes that Steve Bannon’s previous pick for president was Sarah Palin.) Everyone knows who you’re talking about. He doesn’t need nor deserve the publicity, the SEO, or respect.
He ran on his own publicity. That’s literally all he had to offer.
Exactly. But who gave him all of that publicity? It wasn’t the Right. Trump makes 1 idiotic tweet and it becomes front page news across the country because so many sites trip over themselves to condemn him in public.
I wager Trump’s presidential marketing costs were tiny because his enemies were doing his publicity for him by putting so much effort into trashing him all day everyday.
I do not agree with President Trump on a single issue, I did not vote for him, and I will not vote for him in the future. That having been said, I think we lessen ourselves when we use derogatory language to describe him instead of his name. He is the President, and despite the fact that he will likely be the least of the men who have held that position (and that is saying something) he deserves proper courtesy. As to your larger point; yes, there is danger in religion and there always has been. It is one of… Read more »