In trying to decide what to write about for my final substantial post lots of things plagued my mind to talk about. I thought about the class as a whole and what we have been talking about in terms of morality. Every day we make decisions based on our ideals of what we as individuals believe to be moral. My mother always told us that when making decisions we have to be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and be confident with the decisions we have made. So in my train of thoughts I found a topic that has occurred over the last week or two.
In today’s society is has become very easy to put your thoughts out into the digital stratosphere. For example this blog has allowed us to voice our opinions that allow for friendly debate. Things like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram provide outlets to exercise our right to free speech. I have accounts to all of these outlets to where I can keep in contact with far away family members and friends that have moved away. This allows me to also follow and peak into the lives of my favorite entertainers. The celebrity world has become just as obsessed with these forms of social media outlets as the non-celebrity population. Some of them even take the opportunity to use it as ways of expressing thoughts and emotions on particular topics that they are passionate about. For example I follow Kristen Bell on Instagram and Twitter in which on both accounts she talks about volunteering for habitat for humanity and voting. I find people like her inspiring in using her status as a celebrity morally to promote great causes. However some celebrities do not use social media in the same fashion.
In the past few weeks the Duggars from 19 Kids and Counting have been in the news for the ways they have used their celebrity status on social media. A week ago they asked married couples to post pictures of themselves kissing on the Duggar’s Facebook page. Naturally all different types of couples were happy to participate in the request. However after the Duggars found pictures of same sex and interracial couples had appeared on their page they quickly took them down and then blocked the users. This act sparked an outrage that has invaded all media outlets and even a petition to cancel the television show.
This has sparked conversation among my friends and family on whether or not the show should be cancelled. In my opinion when you sign on to become a public figure to take on the moral responsibly for the things you say and do. In their situation they are looked upon as the perfect family made up of morals and values, their viewers strive to be just like them. In this powerful situation their followers take what they saw and do very seriously almost to the point of imitation. The Duggars have been very outspoken about their anti-gay opinion when comparing it to pedophilia. Let me just state that I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion and to voice it, however I believe that it comes with moral obligations. When someone has the ability to reach mass amounts of people with their spoken words or actions they have to be mindful that people can take their words to heart and even to the extremes. In this case they are tossing out facts into the public to which they have no proof; they are stating a harmful opinion. A man started a petition to cancel the show stating the reason for it is because they are using their fame to promote discrimination and fear mongering against the gay community.
I don’t agree with their beliefs but they have the constitutional right to have them and voice them. But in the position of fame they have the moral obligation to be conscious of what they say to the public because you never know what kind of person will take it too far. This is 2014 hate should be a thing of the past, people should have the right to live however they want.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/14/the-duggars-gay-kisses-_n_6154504.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/19/petition-cancel-19-kids-and-counting-gay_n_6185260.html
Morality and Politics 
amandar28,
It is ironic that some people who scream equality, are often those who criticize people for expressing their own opinion. Take for example Adam Smith, former CFO of Vante, who publicly slandered a Chick-Fil-A employee after Dan Cathy, president and COO of Chick-Fil-A simply express his support of anti-gay organizations. He then posted his video on YouTube which resulted in his termination from Vante.
http://www.businessinsider.com/vante-cfo-bullies-chick-fil-a-worker-then-promptly-gets-fired-for-it-2012-8
Adam Smith is entitled to his opinion, but so is Dan Cathy.
I’m taking a U.S. history course for which we read a lot of essays, speeches, articles, etc. written by people who lived in the time periods we study. A lot of these pieces, particularly those written at the turn of the twentieth century, convey an impression of trying to make sense of the changing world and changing definitions of concepts like freedom. A time period I find particularly interesting to study is the Cold War because, as a decidedly cynical and perpetually disappointed U.S. citizen, I get an odd, morbid kick out of reading about how the U.S. attempted to justify the ridiculous extremes they went to (and still do, but that’s another conversation) in the name of protecting/spreading democracy. However, there is one such idea that permeated the Cold War literature we read and which stuck with me, an attempt to cope with the changing world. It was the idea that the U.S. confines individual freedom to that which does not impede on the individual freedom of anyone else. This is how I feel about freedom of speech. It’s fine to support equal rights for people of all sexual orientations. It’s also fine if you don’t, although I have several adjectives in mind for such people. But that’s the point. I keep them in my head, because insulting others is not conducive to creating a nation of equality. America should be a place where we can have different opinions about things like homosexuality but coexist anyway. We are a nation of immigrants, built by people looking for acceptance and inhabited in many historical instances by the people no one else wanted. Coexistence is key to that aspect of our culture. It is important that all people are ensured equal freedom: freedom of religion, freedom to love whoever you love, and freedom of speech. But no one has the right to take away freedom from anyone else or make anyone feel oppressed. When you live in the media spotlight, you have to be mindful of the scope of your words, particularly when you are representing a television network. I don’t think people like the Duggars should be allowed to express cruel, oppressive sentiments about people whose lifestyle they disagree with. Learn to coexist.