offbeatorbit | moriartisans:

Okay. This article has really put me off and I’m not going to deny how gross the things said here are. Because…ew. Why. But here’s why I can’t even take this bit of information seriously.

First off, it comes from an article from the UK’s DailyMail. Here is the actual article. I’ve looked on Google and this is the only source, the only place that has an article of him saying these things (or anything related to multiculturism and racism). If you can prove me wrong, please do so (and I’m not being sarcastic). But everything else is just Tumblr links. I don’t know much about the DailyMail so I don’t know if it can be trusted as a reliable source. Really, though, it looks unreliable to me but I could be wrong.

Secondly, that article is from 2008. That’s FOUR YEARS ago. Therefore, it’s not very reliable in determining whether or not Freeman thinks this way right this very moment, assuming he actually did/does/whatever (and I find it hard believe he does considering what I mentioned earlier). Even then, it was four years ago, and so, if his way of thinking really was like that, how do you know it hasn’t altered a bit? People can learn, people can change. Kids grow up thinking saying a certain thing is okay (i.e.: “that’s so gay”) until they grow up and realize that it’s wrong and understand WHY it is wrong. So. Yeah.

Unless someone can provide a better (and more RECENT source) of him saying things like this, then I refuse to believe he actually thinks this way. I’m not trying to defend him (believe me, I have no intentions of defending someone who thinks that way). I just want a more reliable source and the DailyMail seems so…eh. 

Denial is a rough look.

1) Four years ago really wasn’t that long ago, and if anything, I’d see someone’s negative feelings towards multiculturalism in the UK deepening rather than waning over four years, in all honesty.

2) Yes, his opinion could have changed but that doesn’t mean that it has just because we are barely into the 4 year mark.  Do you have that same approach to other celebrities or public figures who say really awful shit?  ”Oh, well, no point in believing his/her opinion on that topic, it was said three years ago, and they could have changed their mind since then!”  Naw, shit doesn’t work that say.  Isn’t it far more practical to approach these things assuming that they still hold similar beliefs until proven otherwise, as opposed to believing that they reject those beliefs because time has gone by, even if there is no evidence of that?

3) Daily mail is pretty fucking sketch, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re always wrong (a broken clock is right twice a day) nor does it negate the principle of the matter here, really.  IDK I don’t live in a universe where four years ago was a super long time ago, nor in a universe where I can so easily give someone the benefit of the doubt when the seem staunchly against something that is a response to near state sanctioning of assimilation.

Er. Not to mention that those quotes are really quite specific — as in, this is clearly an interview which The Daily Mail conducted with Martin Freeman himself — and while The Daily Mail has its own (racist) agenda and no doubt asked some leading questions* and pulled out the quotes most relevant to the (racist) agenda they want to push you can pretty much assume that Martin Freeman did in fact say everything that was in that article. Newspapers can ask leading questions and they can take quotes out of context but I’m pretty sure big papers like The Daily Mail aren’t in the habit of making quotes up out of whole cloth and attributing them to people. You know why? Because they could get sued if the quotes are interpreted as defamatory.

*: This is not a defence of Martin Freeman — just an acknowledgement of potential interview tactics. Regardless of whether he was coaxed onto certain topics or not, these quotes are reflective of his underlying attitude and way of thinking. And regardless of whether he’s “changed his mind”, or was shooting his mouth off and didn’t mean what he said, he said some disgusting things. And if he didn’t mean them or he’s changed his mind? The onus is on him to step up, accept responsibility for what he said and the hurt and the harm it may have/has caused, and apologise. And until then? I will think of Martin Freeman as a man with some gross ideas about race, sexuality, etc.