Discussion for article #232218
It appears the actor wants more money from media ventures that require a pardon and an expunged record…He has enough money to figure out a new path to his business goals without further victimizing the children and adults he attacked without mercy.
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After reading what Markey the Mark did lo those many years ago, he deserves no pardon!..Rich racist trying to rewrite his past, live with it racist!
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Reading this made me sick to my stomach. I will NEVER pay to see one of his movies again, I don’t think I can even watch one of his movies now.
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what he did was terrible, but it was nearly 30 years ago too. Has he done anything like this since then? I mean, if liberals can forgive Robert Byrd - who actually belonged to the KKK at one point, and has repeatedly repented of it - then perhaps Marky Mark can get some bleeding-heart forgiveness as well. Maybe he has to show his contributions to the DNC? Again, what he did was terrible but he was also young and stupid and running with a typical Southie crowd. Surely there is some sort of informal statute of limitations on holding this against somebody, whether or not they are famous. He didn’t rape anybody, he didn’t kill anybody, he didn’t diddle a child.
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Ironically, his attempt at getting a pardon is just making people way more aware of his horrible past than they would be if he had just kept his mouth shut.
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So when exactly did Mark Wahlberg stop being a racist? The article doesn’t make it clear.
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Mark loves to star in really violent movies. His racism and right wing tea party politics fit right into his MO.
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when did you stop beating your wife? That’s not clear, either.
No idea about whether he will always be a racist.
But even if he has gotten over that (of which I am not certain) I question whether or not he is still a man with anger issues that put him beyond the pale.
Let his conviction stand.
I’m not even sure why Hollywood gave him a career, given his record and that he likely is still a dangerous thug.
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Belief in the possibility of redemption is, to my mind, a cornerstone liberal value – even if plenty of liberals have been complicit in constructing our insane, racist criminal justice system (three strikes laws, minimum sentencing statutes, the Drug War, prison privatization – all really exploded in the Clinton years). And sure, he was just a kid responding to his environment. Obviously he’s matured since then.
But why should he have this expunged from his record, especially when – unlike millions of low-income people that can’t get jobs and get out of dire poverty because of prior convictions – having it on the books isn’t holding him back any? Why should he ask for redemption from the law instead of working for it where he has power, in the court of public opinion, by advocating for people that came up like he did, made bad choices and didn’t get Raptured up into Hollywood?
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When exactly did Robert Byrd get membership in the KKK expunged from his record? It was there, it is still there and he lived with it the rest of his life and continues to have it associated with him after death. It is part of his record, anyone can and will see if they research his life.
If Wahlberg truly wanted to make up for what he did, he would not seek to have his record expunged. He’d own the mistakes he made and live with the consequences, which do not seem to have been too bad for him honestly.
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The rock thing, at 15? That’s getting old enough to know better, there is a lot of peer pressure at that age, but beating someone unconscious with a large stick until it breaks, that’s a whole different level of violence.
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Since pardons are almost never given, I see no particular reason to favor Wahlberg with one when there are doubtless many thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands who deserve it more than him. However, I think there is a systemic problem in the law denying rights to anyone who has served their sentence. Whatever happened to “paying one’s debt to society” by serving your sentence? Once done, the debt should be stamped “Paid” and all the rights of a normal citizen restored, without the need for a pardon. Of course, any individual is free to boycott Wahlberg movies if they wish, but society should not deny him the ability to own a TV station or to do anything else because of past acts.
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I’m torn, on the one hand what someone did as a young teen or adult shouldn’t haunt them for the rest of their life, on the other hand Mark Wahlberg is a douche bag… bah give the douche his pardon.
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In 08’ Wahlberg beat up SNLs Andy Sanberg for impersonating him. In 00’ he beat another up for calling him Marky Mark. Sorry but once a douche ALWAYS a douche.
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I disagree with miss Atwood re: being a racist once means you are forever. Thats patently untrue.
But, Jeebus! Attacking Fourth Graders? There’s a special circle in Hell for them and/or ALOT of atoning to be done.
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Only after someone reviews the convictions of every under age, no name felon on the books with an impartial way to determine if they deserve a pardon, or not also. Until then no way. It just would not be fair.
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I hadn’t heard about this until today. I think what troubles me almost as much as the heinousness of the attacks is that Wahlberg built his career on urban music and appealing to urban audiences. Mark Wahlberg not only adopted the music, but the style, vernacular, and cadence. To put it another way, he was slightly less immersed in black, inner city culture than Vanilla Ice. His stage name was Marky Mark and his almost all black band was called The Funky Bunch. The band debuted their first album in 1991, a mere three years after the first attack. Maybe prison changed him from a racist to an admirer of hip hop culture, or maybe a racist decided that copying urban culture was an easy way to make a buck. It’s hard to decide, but it really makes me uncomfortable.
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Robert Byrd has been dead for years and despite supposedly having changed, people still remember and make note of his racist past. As you just did here.
So if a supposedly-repentant and now dead man can still bear the label, so can a supposed-repentant and still living Wahlberg.
Nobody is talking about sending him back to jail.
He just has to keep having the record he earned.
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