Amell Leaves Social Media "For A Bit" Following Controversial Tweet

[Darrell D.]

Well to be fair Texas brings a lot of the hate on itself and has for a long time. Texas really needs more sane voices to start screaming and shouting to try and drown out some the racist and ignorant fools who seem to do nothing but run their mouths.

What the actual hell? Do you actually think that free speech should be eliminated?

[simbob4000]

While I agree it may not have been smart to bring something that looked like that to school, I'm inclined to believe that he legitimately was just excited about bringing a homemade functional clock to school to show his teacher. I can't even fathom what you mean by trying to push something. I mean, have you never made anything and just been excited to share it with someone who could appreciate it?

Try to push thing, like kids sometimes do. Like doing something that you know probably could get you in trouble, even if it really shouldn't; pushing the boarders of what you know is acceptable, testing the waters kind of stuff. Like, I don't know, if I'm 14, than I probably know well enough how my homemade clock in a suitcase could look. Maybe I wait a day and make it look a bit different, clean it up a bit, because after all I'm just randomly bring it in to show off, this isn't a project with a deadline for a grade. Or maybe I just make a little video showing it off on my phone and show that to the teacher; which I would probably do, because by the end of my time in high school they didn't even really want use using lockers. But maybe he is just a kid that's lived his whole life under the zero tolerance policies that started in 1994, and just never once thought how that could look to whatever teacher he had that had this reaction to it? I had some teachers that were nuts, and I had one that didn't like me at all, and I know I would have never brought anything like that into their classes...especially if I lived in Texas, where in the same year (the last school year) some little kid got suspended for playing make believe with a ring. Or maybe I would, because it's amusing, and technically I've done nothing wrong because it is after all just a harmless clock.

I'm not going to pretend to know what the kid was actually thinking, but the story just sounds weird to me given his age. Which isn't to say that the schools extreme overreaction is right, because it's not. Although I don't really think the schools overreaction had anything to do with race either, (unless some racist stuff was said by the teacher that I just didn't hear about) because I've heard of this kind of stupid stuff happening to white kids too. But a race angle is a more interesting story, and an easier story to sell than weird stories of a teacher's overreaction to non issues and having students arrested, where at no level anyone steps in to say that maybe this is a bit much.

As for your question. For the most part, not really. I find people telling me how great something I'm doing kind of embarrassing. Have you ever been doing something, then people started forming around you watching you do it, while telling you how much they like it? It's nice for a bit, then it feels weird real fast. Not to say I've never been pleased or happy to bring something in for a competition or whatever. But I don't think I've ever felt the need to just randomly show something off to a teacher. Have you just randomly ever shown something off to a teacher?

[bloodofthegods]

The new Left is already eating itself. I am a Liberal from the Gen X type, which, I think some of this petty **** can be laid at my generation's feet. But we believed in FREE speech, regardless of the speaker. The new Left? You say something out of line, damn, son, it's your ASS. Get ready to have a ton of invective swung your way. If you don't say something JUUUST right, with the right tone or if you don't check your privilege 24/7, yes, even when you are sleeping, well, you are obviously a transphobic, racist, misogynistic shitlord.

Yeah and that's the thing. I am all for free speech and ideologies, but for the sake of them working properly and for everyone they have to be consistent. If stereotyping was the reason the school called the police and overreacted and that's bad, then saying the reason he was stereotyped was because all Texans are racists is reductive. Either stereotyping is bad or it's not. Racism and stereotyping are both learned behaviors, and if we ever want to overcome them we have to turn off our self righteous outrage machine and get to the core of the matter and nip it there. I know you are but what am I, just doesn't work.

[Darrell D.]

Yeah and that's the thing. I am all for free speech and ideologies, but for the sake of them working properly and for everyone they have to be consistent. If stereotyping was the reason the school called the police and overreacted and that's bad, then saying the reason he was stereotyped was because all Texans are racists is reductive. Either stereotyping is bad or it's not. Racism and stereotyping are both learned behaviors, and if we ever want to overcome them we have to turn off our self righteous outrage machine and get to the core of the matter and nip it there. I know you are but what am I, just doesn't work.

Yeah, amen. A lot of the new Far Left ideologies echo the worst of the Far Right. No fun, as Iggy Pop sang.

[bloodofthegods]

Yeah, amen. A lot of the new Far Left ideologies echo the worst of the Far Right. No fun, as Iggy Pop sang.

And the worst thing is for either side, one has to actually take the time and effort to root through all the BS of the vocal minority to find that there are some good well meaning people that want to make good laws and do the best they can in their political station. If you just look at the surface, it's a horrible mess of misdirection and distraction. And neither of the vocal minority on either side will admit it.

[Darrell D.]

And the worst thing is for either side, one has to actually take the time and effort to root through all the BS of the vocal minority to find that there are some good well meaning people that want to make good laws and do the best they can in their political station. If you just look at the surface, it's a horrible mess of misdirection and distraction. And neither of the vocal minority on either side will admit it.

To be honest, the keyboard warriors on the left are usually impotent..it's when they actively try to ruin people lives for not thinking the same way they think is where is becomes the worst example of Right Wing Fascism. The extreme left and right would usually be marginalized and ignored by the mainstream, but social media has changed a lot of things in society.

[Farealmer]

Incidentally, why would someone want to bring a homemade clock to a school? The thing looks like a bomb! Schools can't have any tolerance for that! Setting aside the arrest, which was egregious and unnecessary, it was a bad idea in the first place. My daughter is 12, and neither Texan nor Muslim, and I would not allow her to take a homemade clock to school unless it was cleared with the administration first.

The incident says more about the sad state of the nation than any state of Ahmed or his family's mind.

[bloodofthegods]

To be honest, the keyboard warriors on the left are usually impotent..it's when they actively try to ruin people lives for not thinking the same way they think is where is becomes the worst example of Right Wing Fascism. The extreme left and right would usually be marginalized and ignored by the mainstream, but social media has changed a lot of things in society.

I agree with you there. And sometimes I guess when things like this are reported as far more than they really are it shows how much even I, existing on this planet before the internet, sometimes forget just how much it has changed things, and how in turn it has changed humanity. There's no work or research in getting your voice heard. You take 5 minutes to turn on your PC, log in and type away, never considering others. Reminds me of ... "your people were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

[AndrewCrossett]

I doubt Amell intended anything terrible by his tweet. But as far as his statement that "Stereotyping Texas isn't any better than stereotyping Ahmed" is concerned, the difference is of course that Texas wasn't led away in handcuffs by 5 cops, questioned for 90 minutes by blue-shirted thugs who think they're on a TV procedural, and told that it couldn't contact its parents. Texas is a state of 27 million people and several hundred million guns. Ahmed was a scared 14-year-old science geek.

So yes, stereotyping Texas is quite a bit better than stereotyping Ahmed.

[Darrell D.]

I doubt Amell intended anything terrible by his tweet. But as far as his statement that "Stereotyping Texas isn't any better than stereotyping Ahmed" is concerned, the difference is of course that Texas wasn't led away in handcuffs by 5 cops, questioned for 90 minutes by blue-shirted thugs who think they're on a TV procedural, and told that it couldn't contact its parents. Texas is a state of 27 million people and several hundred million guns. Ahmed was a scared 14-year-old science geek.

So yes, stereotyping Texas is quite a bit better than stereotyping Ahmed.

No, not really. I can't imagine people that are actual Texans would agree with you. Both are shitty things. It's not a competition.

[AndrewCrossett]

No, not really. I can't imagine people that are actual Texans would agree with you. Both are shitty things. It's not a competition.

But the people of Texas don't really have to care. When Texas is stereotyped, its residents may get offended and upset. When Ahmed gets stereotyped, he has to worry he's bout to be shot in the head by some goon saying "You all saw him grab for my gun, right?"

One of these things is a lot shittier than the other.

[Darrell D.]

But the people of Texas don't really have to care. When Texas is stereotyped, its residents may get offended and upset. When Ahmed gets stereotyped, he has to worry he's bout to be shot in the head by some goon saying "You all saw him grab for my gun, right?"

One of these things is a lot shittier than the other.

So, only one of the victims of two different examples stereotyping are allowed to express their opinion at being stereotyped and not expect a backlash?
Weird logic.

[Zero Hunter]

What the actual hell? Do you actually think that free speech should be eliminated?

What the hell are you talking about? I just said I wish some more sane voices would speak up in Texas to counter some of the vile hate that seems to be all we ever hear out of texas. Where did you get I want to end free speech out of that?!?

[bloodofthegods]

But the people of Texas don't really have to care. When Texas is stereotyped, its residents may get offended and upset. When Ahmed gets stereotyped, he has to worry he's bout to be shot in the head by some goon saying "You all saw him grab for my gun, right?"

One of these things is a lot shittier than the other.

If we as a species don't care to end all racism, prejudice, stereotyping and the like then we will just keep having these disagreements. Racism, prejudice, stereotyping aren't an option. If they are an option for one group over the other, than again this will never, ever end.

[AndrewCrossett]

So, only one of the victims of two different examples stereotyping are allowed to express their opinion at being stereotyped and not expect a backlash?
Weird logic.

Yes. Because of the vast differences in power and consequence in the two cases. One party is very vulnerable, and experienced severe and terrifying consequences from being stereotyped. The other is very powerful, and experienced mild annoyance.

I think the people who are rolling their eyes and saying "Only in Texas" are wrong, though. Much worse and deadlier examples have happened in much more liberal locations, from New York City to Baltimore to Seattle.