Larry Flynt

[benburch]

Poll question: Larry Flynt

[kentuck]

1. A poor boy from the hills who learned early that sex sells....

He knew what men liked to see and he provided the product. In the process, he made tons of money. After being shot and having much more time to think in these, his later years, he seems a much more charitable chap...

[Skink]

2. His last book is a who's who of republican slime.

[FreedomAngel82]

3. And I loved when he went up against Jerry Falwell

Hehehehe!

[bliss_eternal]

4. I loved it when he offered big money to anyone that had slept

with a member of Congress--at the time they were trying to hang Clinton for getting a bj. That was so cool of him, imo. He called them on their hypocrisy.

[hopeisaplace]

6. lol, I remember that...that was so freaking funny..made my day

I almost started researching :smoke:

[Catherine Vincent]

10. Same here.

I also loved it when newly appointed repuke leader Rep. Livingston said that Flynt was a bottomfeeder. Flynt fired backing saying "yeah that's right, but look what I found when I got down there".

Heehee!

[bliss_eternal]

16. Flynt's a character!

LOL! It's funny he said that.

It just tickled me to no end that he went after the hypocrites that went after Clinton.

[Greyhound]

5. Great American.

:kick:

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Greyhound]

18. It's not like he's a saint or anything, but heroes rarely are. He just...

stood up and survived. He has done some evil shit, but he's done more good, IMO. :patriot:

[LincolnMcGrath]

7. A defender of freedom

To cherry pick a few cartoons is pretty weak IMHO.

There was a big Hulla-Bulla around here over a T-Shirt ad a few months ago, and this reminds me of that situation. Places like the site in question, or Tshirthell, etc. are equal opportunity offenders. If it ain't your cup of tea, don't look.

[Maddy McCall]

8. Both. A First Amendment crusader AND misogynistic slime.

Not mutually exclusive.

[amitten]

12. Agreed. n/t

[LincolnMcGrath]

14. Wouldn't that make him misanthropic as well?

He is, after all, an equal opportunity offender.

[Skittles]

15. I absolutely agree

He is slime and yet a I still admire the man.....damn him :o

[Yupster]

19. But that's the whole idea of the First Amendment

It's not there to protect the speech of people who everyone agree with.

It's there to protect everyone's speech, even the slimiest among us.

In Flynt's case, he was a sorry SOB to print a cartoon about Falwell sleeping with his own mother, but it was for sure political speech and therefore it needed to be protected and it was right that he won.

In a free society people have a right to be sorry SOB's and Flynt certainly proved it.

[Katherine Brengle]

17. good point. n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. An American willing to fight for his rights

Does that make him great? Perhaps it does in some peoples eyes, but I honestly feel that it's what we should all be like.

I don't hero worship the man and I don't begrudge him his success.

[Catherine Vincent]

13. I didn't know this about Flyn't shooter:

"I was shot by a white supremacist because of an interracial photo spread we had in a magazine. He’s presently on death row, not for shooting me, but for shooting a black man and a white woman jogging up in Utah. And he’s also the same man who shot Vernon Jordan several years ago, the civil rights activist."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/03/1359257

[Harald Ragnarsson]

20. Leaving aside pornography

I don't think people give Larry Flynt enough credit.

That man quite literally saved Clinton's ass during the impeachment and was single handedly responsible for outing Bob Barr, Livingston, Hyde and others' marital infidelity. I think Clinton would have been impeached if not for Larry and his work.

He is a true patriot. He believes and practices free speech and he's willing to put his money where his mouth is.

And having enjoyed Hustler on many occasions, I would be a hypocrite to act all uptight about his being a pornographer. People must want it or he wouldn't be a gazillionaire.

Edit: Don't drink and type boys and girls!

[LittleClarkie]

21. He may be a slimeball, but he's OUR slimeball

He tries to help in his own weird way. There's a good heart under that slime... somewhere.

So as far as the poll is concerned, he's both.

[bloom]

44. You can have him - he's not MY slimeball.

thanks anyway.

[badgerpup]

22. I clicked other, cos...

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Flynt about 25 yrs ago, working for him one evening as a nursing assistant.
Very nice guy, not a jerk, didn't treat the nursing staff like 'the servants' but was very considerate and courteous.
We got to talking for a bit, he was very concerned about his 13 yr old daughter.
It's tough being a single dad, even if...ESPECIALLY if you're a celebrity, and he was just going to pick his battles with her.
This was when cutting your hair in a mohawk and dying it purple was a signal of major rebellion...but as long as she kept her grades up, she could have her purple mohawk.
Kid came in later, looked REALLY punk, but she certainly loved her daddy...
Dude is human, I guess is all I'm saying...

[benburch]

23. That is how mutual friends portray him.

I know of nobody who knows him well who does not think he is a decent person.

[On the Road]

25. I Met Him, Too (Almost. Sort of.)

In 1979, before he was shot, I briefly worked room service at the Watergate hotel. I took breakfast up to a suite one morning. A man quietly opened the door, ushered me into the kitchen, and signed the bill.

On the way out, I looked at the signature and it said "So-and-so FOR Larry Flynt." Then I thought about what was going on in the suite when I entered, and it made sense: There was a little frizzy-haired guy on the couch with a whiny voice, and a senatorial-looking figure waling around the room saying (I kid you not): "...do you think that when our forefathers penned the first amendment they ever intended it to be used to degrade young women?"

I like his political instincts. When people here talk about fighting rather than lying down, I think less of making fiery speeches than of pulling a Larry Flynt or two. It's a talent more Democrats need to have.

[benburch]

26. I'd love to know who the politician was! nt

[On the Road]

27. Yeah, Me Too

I was thinking judge. He looked like the judge in 'My Cousin Vinnie' wearing a three-piece suit.

[bumblebee1]

24. I've enjoyed reading his book "Sex and Politics"

on several occasions. It's a hard hitting book. You know, Bob Livingston turned Larry Flynt's name into a verb. Bob Livingston said that he was flynted when he was exposed as a sexual hypocrite. I especially liked the job offer to Ken Starr to come write for Hustler. Hustler is not my taste in porn, but that's okay.

[bloom]

28. For a POV rarely seen around here:

www.hustlingtheleft.com

(questioning the left's support of Hustler).

[hunter]

33. Screams. Runs Away.

That's what I did twenty years ago. The last check I got from Larry Flynt was in 1987, for something entirely unrelated to his porn or political empire. Before that the money I got from him was usually laundered through the various anti-right-wing causes he supported.

But overall I think Larry Flynt got his business plan from J. Edgar Hoover: First you collect a lot of dirt, then you see what you can do with it...

To make my long opinion short, The United States is a very twisted and fucked up nation and Larry Flynt has figured out a way to make money off of this. To attack Flynt directly does little to solve this nation's underlying problems with human sexuality. Criticisms like hustlingtheleft.com address a symptom, not the disease.

If the United States was not a nation of closeted racist puritanical masturbating freaktards, Larry Flynt would not be a wealthy man.

[bloom]

35. "a nation of closeted racist puritanical masturbating freaktards"

That may be - but is encouraging the Larry Flynts of the world a good thing for leftists?

Is that who people want identified with Democrats?


I sure as hell don't think so.

[benburch]

36. You are entitled to your opinion.

I am proud to have Larry Flynt on my side.

He may not be able to walk, but he still has more spine than most of our elected Democrats.

[Solomon]

42. I agree. Flynt is almost singlehandedly responsible for our first

amendment rights. Not an easy thing to do but he did it.

[hunter]

40. Damn. Some things don't change.

Twenty years ago is like yesterday. It's like a recurring nightmare.

If you are left, libertarian, or green, do you accept Flynt's money or not? This was always a divisive question in the groups I was affiliated with.

My feelings are very mixed. I've already said how I've felt the money I got from Flynt was "laundered" but I also have to say "hustlingtheleft.com" is only a reflection of the madness.

Of all the problems we have as Democrats, I don't worry about Larry Flynt much. For every Democrat who finds Flynt repulsive, there are probably two Republicans who secretly admire him and the anti-fascist causes he supports.

[bloom]

41. That is what I would expect from Republicans

Racist, sexist and homophobic "jokes".


I don't see Hustler as fighting big-corporations - I see it as one - and part of the problem.

I wonder how much control and influence he buys. If the likes of him are what is funding our so-called movement - then I think it's no wonder we aren't doing any better than we are.

[benburch]

34. And questioning it stupidly. nt

[HughBeaumont]

37. I like the Anne Coulter comic myself.

Sorry, I'm a huge fan of porn. So are millions of others, men and women alike. It makes me no less of a progressive that I am. That makes me a shitty human being, so be it.

Larry Flynt is a great American and sometimes a good educator. I wouldn't have known about all of the corruption of ours and other governments at an early age had it not been for Hustler magazine.

[mongo]

39. Hustling the left

is full of lies about flynt -- like he publishes child porn in Hustler.

[bloom]

43. There were examples

- of the cartoon "Chester the Molester". Apparently the cartoon creator is dead now - but that is a hell of a legacy for Hustler to be associated with.


I didn't see where the hustling the left site said there was child porn published on Hustler - just that they bragged about using the youngest possible models.

[mongo]

45. Here you go

Many people do not realize that Larry publishes child pornography in his Hustler magazine, and almost every word and picture appearing in that despicable woman-hating publication reveals his utter contempt for women and girls, as well as his trivialization of incest, extrafamilial child sexual abuse, bestiality, rape, torture, mutilation, and femicide (the killing of women because they are women).

http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/CRAPP_E_LIB/russell.html

As far a Chester the Molester and other cartoons. They are meant to be sick. They are satire - not a political statement advocating the practice.

Most DU'ers don't criticize South Park even though it is often racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, etc. They can recognize it as satire and sarcasm, and not meant to be taken seriously - in fact just the opposite. But when a cartoon is put into a magazine with nude women, then we are supposed to take the sick, over-the-top sarcasm as some grand political statement advocating practices that we all find wrong.

No sane person reads Chester the Molester and thinks, "you know, child abuse is not so bad, I think I'll try it". And the insane and pedophiles don't need Hustler to make them commit crimes.

[benburch]

46. It is my thesis that Flynt tries to offend as many people as possible...

with each and every issue.

Some people are smart enough to "get" this. Others think that it is directed at them personally. These are the same people who, with just a bit more stress on their psyche, might think that the weatherman on TV is sending them secret messages...

[bloom]

29. There are a lot of issues toward which he (Flynt) has progressive attitude

When White Males Attack:
Larry Flynt, Racism and The Left
Copyright © 2005, Jennifer McLure, All rights reserved.

by Jennifer McLune

There are a lot of issues toward which he (Larry Flynt) has progressive attitudes (Black women were naked and spread-eagled in Hustler long before they were in Playboy.)" --"Carly-Sue”

The above quote, taken from the message board of a young hip feminist magazine, reveals how effective Flynt has been at becoming in the minds of many progressive folk an anti-racist. This image of him as progressive on race appears in spite of Hustler's long history of racist caricatures of Black people, people of color, and Jews.

One of his most recent viscously racist assaults has been on Aura Bogado, a Latina Feminist and Free Speech Radio News anchor at KPFK. In her article “Hustling the Left”, she exposes the war declared on her when a personal email ended up in the hands of Hustler editors in which she stood up to Larry Flynt and challenged The Left to look critically at building coalitions with pornographers.

Larry Flynt has been quite successful at positioning himself as a progressive media mogul rebelling through an empire of smut in the interests of American Democracy. He takes pride in exposing right wingers for the hypocrites they are and heralding the righteousness of "healthy heterosexual American male sexuality." However, the image of Larry Flynt as progressive on issues of race in light of Hustler's attacks on Aura Bogado, its long history of racist caricatures, and the very idea that showing naked Black bodies for pornographic consumption is a new and revolutionary act must be analyzed and uprooted....

(warning - there are images "reprinted from... Hustler as an act of political protest")
http://www.hustlingtheleft.com/mclune.html

[Protagoras]

30. Someone a bit larger than life

not necessarily a great American. Not someone with an enlightened moral compass. Not someone who's especially sensitive to the plights of many people (like women, or those with addiction issues).

Yet, he's also someone who has some surpassing clarity when it comes to some aspects of our national myth. He understands the extremes and limits of freedom. He understands the need to take a stand.

I don't buy his product. I do agree with most of what I see in his political view. I try and see someone for what they are, good and bad. I wouldn't call him great, but I would call him on our side politcally. And most of us aren't saints. he's just a bit more extreme about it than most of us.

Great American? nah.

Strong voice for freedom of expression? Yeah, I'd give him that.

Interesting and larger than life personal story? yeah I'd give him that too.

[aikoaiko]

31. His pictures of vulvas contributed significantly to my quality of life

...as well as his fights for freedom of the press.

But he very well might be a slime ball, too.

[npincus]

32. Both. I still have my issue of the "Flynt Report"

I wish he'd do another for the Chimp era.

[noonwitch]

38. A great american. "Hustler" isn't so bad (inside feminist perspective)

I had friends (a couple) who were into mag porn, especially "Huslter" because they thought it was funny, which it is. I looked at many of their Hustlers, Playboys, Penthouses, etc. Playboy and Penthouse had beautiful, air-brushed women in stupid poses with vacant looks in their eyes.

The people in Hustler at least looked like they were having fun. The layout scenarios are hilarious, the "Asshole of the Month" is usually dead-on, and there were a couple of cartoons I still laugh about when I think of them. The one thing I did find really obnoxious was the Beaver Hunt, where guys sent pictures of their wives and girlfriends posing in gynocological positions. But even that, if the women are wanting their husbands or boyfriends to send in those phots, it's their right to do so.