http://www.theforce.net/holonet/index.shtml#22917
Is this guy an idiot or something? Lord of the Rings is story meant to entertain people. I don't understand how he could of came to this conclusion. Not to mention the fact that only Fox News (In my opinion the worlds dumbest news agency) would report this.

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Long live the United States of America.

So.. it's come to this

/me kills self

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Happy "Diseased" dud: You said I'd be like this guy. Boycotting everything..
Happy "Diseased" dud: ted kazcnisky. That's who it was.
Happy "Diseased" dud: Wait, That's the unibomer.
Happy "Diseased" dud: Wrong guy.

*sigh*

When will this stop? Black people are more racist towards blacks than the whites they accuse.

Considering the fact that the focus of the entire trilogy is how many different races come together to fight evil that threatens them all, somehow I doubt that Lord of the Rings is inherently racist.

firstly....whole topic is total and utter nonsense....

secondly the guy who wrote this belongs in the x-files...



k, maybe the church held europe back in the middle ages but now-a-days....you gotta be kidding....

and as for the bit on freemasons....someone shoot him....please....

heres the link if you want to read it all

http://paris.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=13086

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I heard someone say once that the world is a fine place and that it was worth fighting for....I agree with the last part.

People of our generation should not be subjected to mornings.

Rbots website

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"The Oracle told me I would die with my boots on. I've worn tennis shoes ever since." - Axis

im brown. and as a brown person i tell you, that guys is so stupid, hes not even worth our time gettin riled up over it...so be happy the trilogy was one sexy piece of movie-age!

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[teletubbie voice] BIG HUG!!!! [/teletubbie voice]

It is news, regardless of how you feel about the article. It may not be important news to you, but I'm sure there are a few people out there that may find the article interesting (especially people who are obsessed with ism's). I've seen the other news channels cover some pathetic stories in the past and don't see how that makes them dumb.



As an English teacher once said to me; Generalizations only weaken your argument.



There are plenty of caucasions in the film that follow Sauron (Saruman, Wormtongue, and the Nazgul (once white kings), to name a couple). The author of this article is simply trying to search out racism in something popular to strengthen his agenda. A simplistic, yet effective strategy that so many people use today.

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http://www.napalmdeathsquad.com

[This message has been edited by MentatMM (edited December 29, 2003).]

Alright then, I'll narrow it down.

Militant activist blacks, whom manage to find racism in EVERYTHING EVER created, are merely perpetuating racism; prolonging it's existance indefinetly. Of course there are racists, bigots will forever stain our planet, it is human nature, unfortunately. HOWEVER, using the race card for EVERYTHING only has negative effects.

There are three reasons for this prolonging or racism byblacks.

1) It gives a feeling of superiority and perhaps racial closeness to protest in groups. Group discontent brings togetherness.

2) Hope of a reparation, payment for slavery, even though very few blacks have direct ties to slavery closer than 3 or 4 generations back.

3) Let's face it. If racism didn't exist, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and tons of "professional" activists would be out of a job.

SHOTGUN!

I get to SHOTGUN him in teh face before you do.

I bet he's just bitter for some reason*

*immense philosphical arguement

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

I wish the guy had posted more examples, because then I could counter them and make him look more stupid.
Firstly, Middle-Earth is in the East. If it's geographic symbolism you're looking for, it'd have to be somewhere in Asia.
When Theoden refers to the "great warriors of the West" he is referring to Numenore. This is a land that was raised for Men, but it was later sunk during the marring of Arda. If it's symbolism you're looking for, the sinking of the West, then this'd appear to be symbolic of the fall of the white race, perhaps? (Or perhaps a Nostradamus-esque prophecy of the World Trade Centre attacks?) Again, not quite what this blokey is wanting to get at.
As for all evil being portrayed as 'black'... Well, he may be getting at something here, but it's something that's far bigger than just Tolkien's work.. Historically, evil has been represented by the colour black, even before Europeans discovered black people (there may or may not be some Bible references to back this up? I wouldn't be surprised if there were, but I'm sure that most people here would know of this better than I). It is unfortunate that African peoples have been labelled 'black' together with the 'evil' connotation (though I certainly don't think it is a coincidence), but it is not the fault of Tolkien. You could argue the same for a whole host of literature, Shakespeare noteably.

It's odd that the most obvious 'ism' has been overlooked in terms of Tolkien; sexism. Bearing in mind the time in which Tolkien was working, and also that the works are set in an unspecified imaginary time in the past, it is not surprising that his works have a distinctly sexist tone. However, that sexism appears to be quite deliberate, especially the character of Eowyn, a symbol of women's struggle for equality, and Aragorn's blatant disregard for her skills. Although it clearly isn't the most important feature, Tolkien did make an important statement about sexism in pre-modern society and its existance in society now (or rather, then). Anyway...

As for someone or rather saying that racism is 'human nature'.. I find this very hard to believe. I think it inconcieveable that there should be some genetic hatred for other ethnic groups. In fact, 'human nature' is quite the oxymoron for humans are not controlled by instinctive urges like other animals; humans are defined by society. A newborn baby is a blank sheet of paper, and would die were it not for society. There are numerous reports of children being raised by dogs or monkeys or whatever, and they act like those dogs or monkeys; if a monkey or a dog is raised by humans they do not start acting like humans. It's society that creates racism and sexism. But why? Because racism and sexism are necessary elements of capitalism, necessary to break up and divide the proles into opposing factions; this way, the proles cannot unite. This is one of the reasons why the Revolution hasn't happened in Britain or America yet.

Anyway, whatever.

It's funny how you try to spin this news to support your anti-Fox News agenda.

This makes me shake my head there is no such thing as racism in this part of the world anymore.

I had a feeling something would come up about a relation of the LotR movies to racism. Thank god it was made by New Zealanders; the cinematic greatness would have been nit-picked to death by people of all sorts of extreme views if it was produced in the U.S.

The topic that I thought would bring heated discussion is the lack of non-white actors/actresses in the films. I can't name one.

Yeah, I could see how the elephant riders were partially similar to African tribal men and a mix of Arabian knights and ninjas, but it is nothing to fret about! They were awesome in appearance and presence in the battle scenes! The standard Orch (sp?) troops seemed similar more to Vikings. They talked like Europeans anyway.

Overall, the racism concerning the movie is a stupid dispute.

I have "non-white" friends who had no remorse after seeing that movie. They all thought it kicked tumultous @ss.

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Multiplayer Game Alias: II88BlackOps
JA is awesome!
Corrupted Paths, my WIP for JA. Screens here: http://imagebase.freewebspace.com/photo.html

My quote: "People choose to side with the left, and the others choose to side with the right. I go forward."

Tolkien was obviously a racist. He very clearly hated orcs.

This happens with every big movie and it's always BULL****! Some people have nothing better to do, and it makes them sad.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

I know really, first, JRR Tolkein names his book The Two Towers [HOW INSENSITIVE CAN HE BE?!?!] and now this? Where will the atrocities end??

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1 of 14 | 6-16 Never Forget. | Click.

I think LotR is prejudiced against evil people. Why can't people just let us be evil?

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"LC Tusken: the idiot is the person who follows the idiot and your not following me your insulting me your following the path of a idiot so that makes you the idiot"
NMGOH || Jack Chick preaches it || The Link of the Dead

Plus, what Patriot fails to realize is that, the Fox News contributors reason for referencing the author is to draw attention to how ridiculous his ascertations are. I guess he considers it dumb for a news organization to allow anyone to point out a ridiculous ascertation.

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former TACC outcast

I think the Orcs are just severely tanned. You look at that beam that that eye was using to peer over things. Long exposure to something like that may cause sever skin darkening? So it wasn't their fault.

Star Wars is the most racist though. A guy in an all black suit commanding legions of white guys that're dumber than dirt? Dude that's just completely racist!

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"We came, we saw, we conquered, we...woke up!"

A bit of a tangent here, but I thought it might be interesting. The real reason for evil being represented by black and good by white probably has more to do with the night and day cycle than anything else. The night brings darkness, and with it all sorts of nocturnal predators and such. Plus it's hard to see in the dark. It's only natural for human beings to fear the dark and enjoy the light. The fact that some people have a darker skin tone than others is just a coincidence.

As an interesting side note (a side note to a tangent, hehe), the Norse culture (upon which Tolkien's works -- and much of Western culture today -- is based) had even further reason to associate the colour black with evil. In the winter when someone died, the ground was obviously frozen, preventing burial -- the body would be stored aboveground until spring. Due to the cold it wouldn't decay but instead turned black (like what happens with severe frostbite). So the Norse associated the colour black with death.

/me stops talking about vikings.

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5=(x-(x-5))
where x = infinity

*sigh* I KNEW that someone was going to bring up the fact that the evil men had darker skin. The moment I saw them on the screen I just knew that some moron would claim the movie is racist (yet hoped I was wrong). Ugh.

[sarcasm]Actually, in warcraft orcs are green. RACISM towards green people in warcraft!
I think that the Jedi Knight it racist towards Asians because Yun is Asian and Yun is the wussiest Jedi!
AND!
[randomness]the Kleenex company is racist because Kleenex's are white not any other color[/randomness][/sarcasm]

See how rediculous this is?

Sauron's eye is red

Say, who wants to move to Mordor? (raises hand...looks around...lowers hand...leaves room)

[This message has been edited by F-Body (edited December 29, 2003).]

Dude, like, completely!

This Lloyd guy, who wrote the aticle. His beliefs that lotR is racist, just makes me feel sorry for him. I kept feeling even more sorry for him until the very end, where he promoted the rap/hiphop culture.

I want him dead and I want him dead NOW!

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

Um, just to ask, since when was western a race?

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"No good can ever come from staying with normal people"
-Outlaw Star
"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul"
-Tycho, Penny Arcade

False.

But so is the article.

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<A HREF="http://www.rot13.com" TARGET=_blank>Wnav "Xebxb" Ghbzvara
w_ghbzvara@yhhxxh.pbz</A>

Mine are blue.

And as for the actual article, I haven't read it yet. I'm not going to waste my time with it.

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My Daily Ramblings
"This world is made of love and peace!"
"Let's live today, let's live tomorrow, and let's live the day after that, even if it means living in eternal pain."
- Vash the Stampede

[This message has been edited by Chaz Ghostle (edited December 30, 2003).]

Tolkien didn't give it the name 'The Two Towers.' Originally, there was just one book - The Lord of the Rings. However, the publisher said since the book was so massive, it would be a fortune to print. If the prices were much higher, less readers would have bought the books. So much against Tolkien's will, the book was splitted into three and the publisher gave 3 separate names to the books, not Tolkien.

Yes.

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The Massassi-Map
There is no spoon.

Well you learn something new every day!

I read the books through (in one fat volume) after seeing the first film (up till then they didn't appeal - there were too many wierd-named characters) - funny to think that a publisher would split it, then sell squillions of books, then stick them back together again!

I'm going back to designing concrete slabs now... *sigh*

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If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

At the time, it was a matter of cost-effectiveness. Tolkien didn't like the idea of splitting the book up or some of the names that were given to the books, but printing it all as one book would have been a disaster at the time. Today it's not such a bad idea, which is why you see it being printed as one book.

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http://www.napalmdeathsquad.com

It's more crap from indymedia. I used to know people heavily involved with some of that, they're so stuck up their arses going as far left in their politics as possible that they never actually do anything but hold meetings and steering commitees. They worry at these meetings about making sure that they don't offend or exclude someone. In case a black muslim immigrant transexual octagenarian lesbian single mum with one leg, HIV, a speech impediment and a mental disorder wants to join in. Then, once they're done making sure they're not "ist" (racist, sexist etc) in any way, they go on to nitpick with each others ideas about proletariat uprisings and how the revolution should be orchestrated. They whine about the rest of the population not being politically active, but when they bother with anything, it's half-arsed and generally involves prancing in front of a police line in tutus. If I were you, don't take a single bit of anything they say seriously because no matter how much you argue they never can see the practical side of things, nor do they ever change their ideas.


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Jagged Conscience: No maeve, don't stand up for Rob, he needs to learn.
Maeve:that's Rob?
Jagged Conscience: He's a Rob

I dont know what's stupider, that article, or what you just said? No racism?? Wake up man, its everywhere.

Racism does exsist but blatant racism in movies and as such doesn't.