 every hypersensitive social justice warrior woke bullshit story in the news. Anne Hathaway apologized last week because in her new movie she plays a witch, a fictional character that has three claw-like fingers and that's offensive to people with limb differences. I, I. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented and delightful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today. I'm Footless Joe, where I am still Joe. I'm still missing a foot and I am definitely gonna need some coffee for the rest of this video. I need to share just a little bit of context from the last couple weeks. So I made this video about two weeks ago on the film The Witches. The Witches is this HBO film adaptation of the book. The Witches, it's like this beloved kid's story and in it starred people like Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer. It's like this big deal thing, tons of advertising. All right, however, the filmmakers made one very unfortunate decision to make all of the evil sinister, unredeemable bad guys into characters that have a limb difference. Now, the video that I made back then, which is linked up above, really goes into the details of why this is an issue. The long and short of it is, number one, having this kind of limb difference was not a part of the original story. It is not what Roald Dahl wrote in his book. Number two, they did it to make the characters seem more sinister and evil. Number three, this is noted as a way to identify witches as in you are telling children the way to identify who is a very, very bad evil person is by seeing someone who has a limb difference. There's some pretty dangerous messages in it and the limb difference community of which I am apart started speaking up and using our voices to be like, hey, this isn't cool and here's the reason why. Like I said, I go into a lot of details up above. I'm also gonna link a few of my friends' videos down below that kind of talk about the impacts of this film. But, moving on to today's video, I was listening to Bill Mehar a few days ago. Now, he is not usually my cup of tea, if you don't know who he is. He has this show on HBO called Real Time with Bill Mehar. He's a political commentary guy, social commentary guy, a fairly abrasive person. My husband, Brian, really likes him and so he'll watch him from time to time. And we were watching this episode from last week in which he said this. And Hathaway apologized last week because in her new movie she plays a witch, a fictional character that has three claw-like fingers and that's offensive to people with limb differences. So right before the clip that I just played, Bill talks about how the Democratic Party is the party of every hypersensitive, woke social justice warrior bullshit story and then proceeds to give this as an example. In his mind, this is obviously ridiculous. Like you can tell from his tone, you know, it's offensive to people with limb differences, right? Like this never should have had to happen and Hathaway shouldn't have had to apologize. So as we continue here, I wanna make it really clear that I am in no way like angry at Bill Mehar or that this video is about like you said a bad thing, you know, boo on you. I honestly think that his sentiment reflects what a lot of people think and feel, which is why I wanted to talk about this. When I uploaded my video on The Witches, within the first 15 minutes of it being uploaded, the title was pretty clear, like what I was talking about, like why this controversy is a bigger problem than most people are thinking it is for people with limb differences. Within the first 15 minutes of uploading that video, it's a 21 minute video. It already had a significant number of dislikes, meaning that the people who were disliking it literally did not have time to watch the whole video and as time went on, this is one of my most disliked videos, which hey, is totally fine. That's also coupled with a lot of comments from people being like, this is ridiculous. This is hypersensitive. Just let a movie be a movie. It's just a friggin' story, but this tone and frustration and attitude that Bill has, I understand. And I get that a lot of people feel that way. I totally understand the sentiment of feeling like everybody is so friggin' hypersensitive right now and everything is so, you know, you can't say anything anymore and it's just, it's frustrating, right? It can feel frustrating, depending on what group you belong to. As an example of this, I will take one for my own personal life. Here was this campaign going around on TikTok for a while that was like, the word lame is offensive to people, towards people who are lame in the literal definition, meaning unable to walk without difficulty. I am unable to walk without difficulty. Hi, I'm an amputee. So this argument that was being made is like, you can't say that's so lame because it's gonna offend me and I am happy to be in the wrong on this one. I'm just sharing my honest gut reaction was to just be like, oh God, where did we go wrong? This is so ridiculous. I say lame all the time and I am lame. And it doesn't bother me if people who aren't lame happen to say that because it's just part of our vocabulary. Like that's where my brain went. I'm not saying I'm in the right. I'm just sharing like my legitimate feelings when I heard this going around. But I felt that same feeling of, can we just stop? Like, can we just let people talk? We just let people live their lives. Like I had that rise up in me for just a moment. So when Bill said this on his show, I totally understood the feelings that he was probably feeling of like, are you kidding me? She's a fictional character. Give it up already people. But the thing is, because I think a lot of us can relate at least on some level to this like frustration with everything being politically correct, we don't stop to consider whether or not the things that we're frustrated about are legitimate changes that should be considered. We live in a time of crazy change right now. Like so many social issues, so many things that we are trying to do to make the world a better place and a more inclusive place and a safer place for people. And I don't know if you know this, but generally us human creatures are a little resistant to change. So when there's so much change coming at us and on top of that, that change comes with the insinuation that we are not being good people. We are not being nice people. Like for instance, saying lame is offensive to people. So if you ever said lame, you should feel bad or you shouldn't use that word anymore. To me, it's kind of like a throwing the baby out with the bathroom at a kind of situation where we're like, just stop it with the hypersensitive stuff, just stop. However, some of the issues that people are bringing up are legitimate things. Like issues around racism and sexism and ableism are very real issues that affect people. They affect people's lives and safety and identity and all different sorts of things. And I think it's really important when people suggest, hey, what you're saying and what you're doing is actually really harmful to a large group of people. And here's why. That we take a moment to at least consider their argument. I have no way of knowing this. Let me just restate that. This is pure conjecture, but it sounds to me that what Bill said in that clip was either read off a script that he knew a little about or maybe heard the headlines of like, Anne Hathaway, I do apologize for playing this character and just perhaps understandably without knowing the context for the situation rolled his eyes and went, what the hell? Like feel free to disagree with me, but it doesn't strike me as though there was at least an average amount of research that went into what he said there. He's frustrated with the fact that people can't play fictional characters anymore and they would offend people. However, if you look into what is actually being said, what is actually being done, the arguments that are being presented, they hold a lot of value in my opinion and in the opinion of a lot of other people. If you read Anne Hathaway's apology, she does apologize, but she does so in what I think is a very compassionate and human way. She isn't like groveling because she broke some PC rules. She's saying, hey, I realized that I heard people and it wasn't my intention to and I'm sorry about that. Warner Brothers, the company that made the movie also came out and apologized and it started to make some real change. Like for instance, they are gonna be working with the Lucky Finn project on future projects that involve limb difference to have the actual input of people who are dealing with the things that they are presenting on screen to do a better job of it. Like positive things have come out of this and it wasn't a finger pointing movement of like, you suck, you did a bad thing, that's bad. It was a movement of education. It's making the argument that, hey, what you are doing is very directly impacting children, the youth of tomorrow to be biased against people who have limb differences and disabilities and also those kids and adults who have limb differences and disabilities. You are literally playing right into the bullying that they already experienced. So maybe we could do this differently in the future. Like maybe this wasn't a good idea. So I wanted to take just a moment to talk about intention. Hi there, it's me, it's Joe from the future because I forgot to film this part yesterday. I feel like an argument that surfaces quite often is this idea of no harm was intended. So why are you upset about it? I've definitely heard this. I've definitely felt this about certain things that I was in the wrong about. If someone's intention wasn't to cause harm, it's easy to think, why is it really that big of a deal? Like if someone has malicious intent in creating a film or saying a slur or whatever and wants to hurt people, it's a lot easier to get behind the idea that that's bad, that's wrong, we don't like that. But if someone just made an honest mistake or it appears that way, the attitude is often just like, come on, come on, give them a break. They didn't mean it that way. The thing with intention is it only matters so much and stick with me for just a second. If someone hits you over the head with a baseball bat, it hurts. They did that because they were really mad and they wanted to hurt you versus they did that because they were turning around and an accident didn't realize you were there and you got hit, your head still hurts. The intention in those two different situations is obviously very different, but the physical throbbing in your brain that you feel is not altered. How you choose to move forward with that relationship is what is actually impacted. If someone made an honest mistake and accidentally hit you, it still hurts, but you can be like, you know what, it's fine, I forgive you, just try to be more careful. Versus if someone does that in anger, you might not want to be around that person anymore. Intention really matters for relationships, for repairing relationships, for the future of a relationship, but it does not necessarily have any impact on the severity of the harm that's caused. So when we see situations like this or when we see situations where we think people are being ridiculous because someone just made a mistake and it's not their fault, they didn't know, so why are you having a hard time with this? I think it's really important to remember that if you get hit over the head with a baseball bat, it hurts just the same, regardless of what someone's intention was. So speaking on a personal note for a moment, I have this theory about everything that's been happening. Like when we, as a limb difference community, are like, hey, this isn't a good idea and here's why, maybe we could do better, and the response by the general public is sit down and shut up, no one wants to hear it. You're being overly sensitive social justice warrior jerks. I obviously think that there's a lot of things that play into that, but I know for me personally, when I have been faced with things like this in my life before, when I'm the one who's being told, hey, maybe that phrase isn't what you thought it was, hey, maybe that's actually hurting people unintentionally and maybe you could change the way you talk about things or change the way you do things so that you avoid those things, right? There definitely is a lot of defensiveness that can come up of like, it's not that bad, I'm not a part of the problem, you know, how dare you suggest that? Even I think by suggesting that something that someone enjoys, for instance, this movie, if we suggest that what they're enjoying is bad, easy to feel like by association, I'm insinuating that you're a bad person for enjoying it. For me, the thing with all of this is that change is uncomfortable, it's not easy, it takes time, and the backlash to people who are speaking out about this, it does not make it right, but I do understand where it's coming from because even though we are incredibly adaptive and we are creatures of change and we progress through life and our societies move along, we don't really like change. We like things to be predictable, we like things to say the same. If we're in the in-group, we like being in the in-group and we like staying there, because it's safe, it's predictable, we know what's right, we know what's wrong, the path is clear, it's comfortable. When people are suggesting that maybe there are things within that comfortable little bubble that are hurting people outside the comfortable little bubble, or that could be contributing to harm elsewhere, or that you're inside the safe little bubble, but other people are not inside that, this discomfort and this frustration with even suggesting that makes a lot of sense and it can feel ridiculous because you haven't experienced this thing firsthand, so it's hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes, or you don't wanna believe that you could ever be a part of the problem. So I guess what I'm saying is that to anyone who's felt any of these reactions, like who's heard about this controversy or really any kind of controversy and has just rolled your eyes and been like, God, just shut up, let people enjoy their lives. I understand that reaction, I've had that reaction to a number of things in my life, but it can be really wise to pause for a moment and consider if the argument that is being presented to you maybe has more weight than you think it does. It's easy to write things off. Like I said, we don't like being uncomfortable, talking about or thinking about this stuff is breaking that comfortable little bubble a little bit. However, it's worth it. It's worth it to make the world a better place. It's worth it to create a future where kids are not bullied or picked on or harmed for looking different. Whether that is from a limb difference as I'm talking about now or race or gender or ethnic background or any of these issues. None of that is comfortable to think about or work through, but the cool thing about people is that we can deal with a little bit of discomfort. So in closing, Bill, definitely disagree with what you said. Definitely understand where you're coming from. I doubt you'll ever see this video, but on the off chance that you do, I would encourage you to look into the actual arguments that are being made behind the reason that Anne Hathaway was forced to apologize for being a fictional character that could offend people in the limb difference community. Maybe take 15 minutes and try to dig into it a little bit further than surface value, then then face value and see if the arguments being made have any validity to them. And for what it's worth, I really think that they do. And on a closing note, if you are someone who has had that reaction to this controversy, please know that I don't hate you, I'm not coming after you. I am simply submitting the request to you that maybe you consider thinking outside of the box. Maybe you consider stepping out of what you previously thought. Maybe take a few minutes to honestly consider another viewpoint dropping some of the biases that we all carry. I think it can be a really beautiful and a helpful thing to yourself and a lot of people. It's up to each of us individually how much we want to take other people's opinions or thoughts or feelings into account. But personally, I am of the belief that at least taking the time to consider people who think differently, who look differently, who act differently than you, at least considering what they have to say does nothing but expand you as a person whether or not you end up agreeing in the end. For those of you who saw my The Witches video, I didn't want to like completely remake that video within this video. So if you're interested in really understanding a little bit more of the context of why a lot of people believe how The Witches portrayed characters like Anne Hathaway played, it actually is a problem. Check out that video linked down below. Check out a few other videos I've linked from my friends who made videos on similar topics. I really appreciate their opinions and what they have to say. And I'd love to hear if you agree or disagree with me respectfully in the comment section down below. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your day to sit and watch this video here with me. I really appreciate it. I hope you guys had a great day. I said I look forward to hearing your thoughts on comments down below. Before you leave, if you want to hit that subscribe button, maybe hit that like button. Maybe if you're feeling super generous, you could ring that notification bell so you see videos from me in the future. I think that'd be fabulous. To my patrons over on Patreon, thank you so much for continuing to support me in what I'm doing here. Your support and generosity means the world to me and I'm truly grateful for each and every one of you to you watching this video. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. 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