NeonKitten

Ugh.  We’re seeing a lot of this lately.  So let’s go over a few things, shall we?Like we said a couple of months ago, liberals - who have demonstrated throughout history that they have no fucking clue what to do about fascism - always seem to trot out the same old tired horseshit about antifa:-you can’t fight hate with hate;-if you fight fascism militantly, you’re just as bad as they are;-nazis should have the right to publicly advocate and organize genocide because “free speech;”-if we just ignore the fascists they’ll go away;-shutting down racist events won’t change their minds about their racism;-the police and the state will protect us from fascists;-we need to “shine a light” on the racists’ bankrupt ideas, so everyone can see their ideology for what it is, in the free market of ideas blah blah blahAll of which essentially boils down to:NAZIS AND COPS: we want to beat up minorities. We’re going to do that now.ANTIFA: we aren’t going to let you.LIBERALS: uwu don’t fight hate with hate. Antifa is sooo violent.ME: they’re literal fucking nazis who are beating people up.LIBERALS: that’s their opinion and you gotta let them. It’s the rules.& yet you never see liberals confronting WW2 veterans with this “logic,” do you?

As we’ve said before, iberals aren’t exactly experts when it comes to dealing with fascists and their  liberal “strategies” of non-confrontation, “debate,” and giving fascists free publicity are counterproductive, dangerous, and irresponsible,  The people that have been dealing with fascists for decades - and the victims of fascism - know what it takes to stop fascists and racists from doing real harm.  As Holocaust survivor Frank Frison put it: 

“If fascism could be defeated in debate, I assure you that it would never have happened, neither in Germany, nor in Italy, nor anywhere else. Those who recognised its threat at the time and tried to stop it were, I assume, also called “a mob”. Regrettably too many “fair-minded” people didn’t either try, or want to stop it, and, as I witnessed myself during the war, accommodated themselves when it took over … People who witnessed fascism at its height are dying out, but the ideology is still here, and its apologists are working hard at a comeback. Past experience should teach us that fascism must be stopped before it takes hold again of too many minds, and becomes useful once again to some powerful interests.”   

Tears rolled down the purple giant’s face as he turned from the window.  Still, in his head, the voice screamed.  “We can’t have them in our restaurant, Grimmace!  The filthy ones!  The kings of filth!  What do we do, Grimmace?”

“No,” Grimmace sobbed.  “No, not again.”

“What do good little Grimmaces who love their Ronalds do?” the voice demanded.

He looked down at his hand and saw the familiar knife.  He felt it hunger for blood.  It ached and that pain shot up his arm.  Still he cried but attempted to answer.

“We… we get rid of–”

“We kill them!” the voice corrected.  “We kill them, Grimmace.  Now, go.  Do as your Ronald tells you.  That’s a good Grimmace.  Yes.”  The voice softened as he trudged into the night.  “Kings belong in the past, Grimmace-lovely, and that’s where you’ll send him.”

The movie is captivating, but the book is twenty kinds of terrifying, even now, ten years after I first read it. As disturbing as the movie may have been to some, the things Selick added really serve to cushion just how horrific the story really is.

First of all, the character of Wybie does not exist in the book. Coraline is facing all of this nearly alone, with her only help coming from the sly comments of the cat, a warning from the circus mice, and the stone given to her by her neighbor, presented with no comment but that it “makes the unseen seen.”

Second, the Other Parents are never quite as warm (and, dare I say, normal) as they are in the gifs above. They’re described as having paper-white skin and the Other Mother’s hair is said to move on its own, and her long, red, claw-like nails don’t ease any uncertainty that she is absolutely, positively up to no good. The first time Coraline meets them, they (and the rest of the Others) seem to be playing roles (for whatever reason, Coraline does not seem to pick up on this), like they all know what to say and what to do and are simply waiting for Coraline to make her move in their terrifying play world. This is shown to be partly true when the Other Parents tell her they know she’ll be back soon after she refuses the buttons - this time, to stay.

Third, the Other Mother commits atrocities that really should not have been in a book for anyone not fully grown up. She physically deforms the world around Coraline to slow her progress in their game beyond any mild traps the movie portrays, and, instead of turning the Other Father into the wandering pumpkin-thing seen in the film, she simply ceases to use him and throws his body away in the cellar, leaving him to rot with whatever bit of sentience he has left. She begins to lose her touch, as Coraline gains the upper hand. Her world doesn’t just become a nightmare - it falls apart completely. No creepy but oddly cool bug furniture here, just the house that now appears to be a child’s drawing. Whatever the Other Mother is (a beldame, but something tells me she’s much more ancient and powerful than that), she does not give half a hump about what she has to do to ensnare Coraline. Destroy the supporting characters of her twisted creation? Done. Allow herself to be dismembered to ruin Coraline’s life in the normal world? Not even gonna bat an eyelash.

On a final, personal note, imagine eight year-old me, ignored by my parents, absorbed in the story and identifying with Coraline from the start. Imagine me finishing this bloodcurdling book and immediately thinking of my basement, where there is still a locked door that my grandmother swears up and down is nothing more than a storage room, but has not once in my (or my mother’s) lifetime unlocked.

He almost punched me.

On another occasion, a person was talking to me outside a store, about 3 feet from a trash can, as she unwrapped her cigarettes and snacks, she just dropped the wrappers on the ground. She was trying to convince me of some cause or another (I don't remember, because I didn't respect her enough to actually listen) and finally I looked down at her litter, and back up at her and said "Really? With the trash can right there?"

She didn't even realize she was just dropping her trash on the ground...

In the case of the OP... definitely a malicious stupidity of irresponsibility.

In the case of most people, I think it's merely a casual disregard for their environment.