Dear Dr. Babooner,
I attend a lot of political fundraisers because I love getting some proximity to powerful people. But once I’m there, I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut and I do have a tendency to heckle them a little bit.
Congressmen, Senator, Presidents, First Ladies. I hector them all!
I figure if I pay 500 dollars for a plate of dry chicken, cold green beans and lumpy mashed potatoes, I should get to shout my opinions at someone famous while they’re giving a speech. What they’re saying is totally predictable anyway, and the fact that I contributed an outburst is the one thing most people will remember from what is otherwise a completely packaged event.
I consider my spontaneous eruptions a form of art.
Experienced public people know how to handle it. They make a little joke or they pretend to listen and then offer some kind of First Amendment-y comment to argue that I should shut up and pay attention to them.
I decide on a case-by-case basis how far I will push it. About half the time I get escorted out, and on a good day I’ll get a little bit of ink for my cause.
I decided long ago that it’s a win-win-win proposition to be a loud boor. It’s all in a day’s work.
But at a recent fundraiser I started shouting at a Very Famous Person and she refused to follow the script. She left the podium and got in my face and in front of the whole group she made like it was a choice – the people at the meeting were going to have to listen to her, or to me. And if it turned out to be me, then she was going to leave, which I thought was rude and totally selfish. After all, they all came to the event to hear her in the first place. Unfair advantage!
Dr. Babooner, I was minding my own business simply trying to shout her down when she made the whole thing about me and left me feeling belittled and humiliated. I wound up leaving with my self-esteem badly damaged, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to heckle again.
Sincerely,
Will You Confess Your Sins Or Are You Ready To Admit Your Guilt?
I told W.Y.C.Y.S.O.A.Y.R.T.A.Y.G. it’s certainly a change in the status quo when a principled person can’t hijack a public event to promote their cause without being subjected to the indignity of criticism. Public attitudes in cases like these do seem to be swinging towards support for the event holders rather than the event disrupters. Perhaps the thing to do is stage your own dog-and-pony show and then arrange for someone else to heckle you. If you can plan a stylish response that resonates as well as the one that silenced you, you might be able to get the attention you seek AND some sympathy at the same time.
But that’s just one opinion.
What do YOU think, Dr. Babooner?
Trail Baboon 
I only wish Very Famous Person’s husband had backed down the screeching heckler interrupting his foreign relations speech a couple of weeks ago! I fear that allowing that woman to go on and on just reinforced a repeat performance by her or some other rude person.
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I thought about a face ook gem I ran across the other day
Think of how stupid the average guy is and then realize that half the world is dumber than that
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a tim gem: face ook gem.
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Good morning. I think I am almost always on the side of the hecklers. They can be removed as soon as they start heckling and should be removed. However, many addresses given by public officials are some kind of half truth designed to advance policies that should be more closely examined. Once the heckler has made any kind of effort to disrupt the talk they can be removed and usually are. The public official doesn’t have to do anything and should have people there to remove the heckler. These public official should know by now that when they get up there pretending they are doing the right thing they should expect that there will be some heckling.
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I am wondering why you would stop with a political speech for the places you would do your heckling why not do it at a movie theater as the movie reaches the climax you could stand up and shout your political aspirations why not do it on a city bus or light transit where the audiences captive and what have to listen to your political views nevermind that people are absorbed in their own reading and area of interest to them the heckler has an agenda
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I’m not a heckler, myself. At least some of the heckling done during political speeches is done by people such as the members of Code Pink. These are people who are willing to risk arrest to bring attention to bad government policy which they have closely examined and which I believe needs to be exposed. I’m not in favor of people doing heckling because they enjoy causing trouble for no good reason.
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Hmm, I find that like Jim, I am often on the side of the heckler, and I will say that any one standing the least bit to the left of Tom Emmer who decides to heckle him will get a warm welcome from me.
On the other hand, Dr. Babooner makes a fair point. It is generally accepted that the people who laid down their $500 did so with the expectation that this bought them proximity to the featured famous speaker so as to listen to them, not to heckle them. I’m thinking this is an untapped area of political fund-raising for the future. Sell tickets to well-heeled hecklers, prepare your speech and hearing protection devices and let them all howl against you while financially supporting your cause.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
I often agree with the heckler’s opinion, but I don’t care for the strategy. I think it is rude and it is usually difficult to hear what the heckler says. There are more effective protest strategies (voting, protesting with a group with signs, joining a group that agrees with my beliefs, etc). Nothing is more powerful than a group which responds with total silence. I was really impressed with Mrs. O’s “Mom” response–this is unacceptable. You go or I go.
I do think that the Obamas have been treated more disrespectfully than Caucasion presidents/wives have been treated which is disturbing to me.
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I’m stupidly old fashioned on this topic. Heckling strikes me as rude, and I don’t readily forgive rudeness. Heckling is rude to the speaker and rude to the audience that gathered to listen to that speaker. The world is filled with people who are inflamed with the righteousness of their chosen cause, whether that is stopping the use of land mines or jeering at same-sex couples or any other cause. We live in a society where it is easy for anyone to publicize a cause. The internet alone is a rich environment for disseminating information and views. Since there are so many appropriate places to state a protest I don’t respect those who give themselves permission to be rude to push their causes.If you tell me that you have a cause so important that you can only promote it with bad manners, I’ll tell you to rethink your cause and your tactics.
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Go Steve.
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I don’t have much more to say here in support of the principled hecklers. I will just say that in my opinion all of the freedom of speech that we are said to have is not working very well and we need people, like Code Pink, who are willing to use heckling in an attempt to wake up the public.
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I love it that we have some differing opinions on this. I can see that I was on the side against the rudeness of heckling, until mig mentioned Tom Emmer… uh-oh.
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I’m in agreement with what has been said thus far: although I may agree with a heckler, and I most certainly support freedom of speech, there is a time and a place for effective protest and political speech. Interrupting a fundraiser or other paid event? Not really the place. (Would you interrupt an opera or orchestra concert to say the same thing?) Outside that event? You bet. But not during. Press conference? Perhaps a better place – interruptions are part of what is expected there. During a Q&A session – if there is one during the event – that would be an appropriate time to bring up your issue. If you are a heckler trying to make a point, what people will likely remember is you as a heckler being rude, not your political agenda. So manners aside, heckling just doesn’t seem an effective way to raise your issue(s). Get 100 or more of your friends outside the event where your target is speaking? That’s where you will get the memorable press for your issue.
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I like your thinking, Anna. “Heckling just doesn’t seem an effective way . . .” This is exactly parallel to the situation of a political group that wants to make its point with a grand gesture, such as hijacking a plane or some other kind of violence. They have such a strong desire to be heard that they will do something violent because it is psychologically satisfying, even if in the long run it isn’t a smart tactic. But it satisfies a need, so groups do it.
If my point seems a little extreme, I only need to remember my opposition to the Vietnamese war. At first, it felt bold and exciting to protest the war. Then when years went by and the war dragged on, people felt the need to do something more dramatic. Some poor innocent folks died in a U of Wisconsin laboratory because blowing up that lab became the way some protesters thought they needed to make their point.
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You make good points, Anna. I agree, a press conference is a more open venue where such things are part of the deal. Me personally, I cannot see attending any event where I am likely to hear something repulsive, while surrounded by a crowd that will be eager to hear it. I could never, ever be a heckler (besides, if I land in jail, who will make supper-peanut butter and jelly only go so far). Paying good money that will ultimately go into the treasury of the person I would be heckling-that just smacks of not thinking.
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ill bet the geeks and hackers will find ways to insert heckling into the middle of the super bowla and the Oscars and the 9th inning of the world series before we get too far along in the world. it may be fun to have a hacker get a tom emmer heckler into the dfl just to create a bad feeling about tom emmer. I used to love yelling at the umpire and making him think I was on the other team. you need to do it early in the game and make him biased against the bad guys. would that be reverse heckling?
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Here is a suggestion about what to do when a heckler has come to a talk to raise an important issue. The speaker should take a quick look at what the heckler has to say. If the speaker feels that they are not dealing with a heckler who is raising an important issue, they can immediately have the heckler removed. If the issue raised does seem important they might actually gain more by addressing issue raised by the heckler than they would by dismissing that person. If they don’t think it is the time to address the issue they could say that they hear what the heckler is saying and they will address it another time. The speaker might consider that at least some hecklers are there because have a very serious concern about the failure of the speaker to deal with an important issue.
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One nice thing about blogging is that there is no such thing as heckling when the exchange of ideas is not taking place in real time. One person has the floor, and has the opportunity to express his or her thoughts in full. Then someone else can reply, but the reply does not interrupt the original comment. How civilized!
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There are so many facets to this issue. Not the least of them is the idea that one needs to throw down at least $500 for the kind of access that is the due of every citizen. The equation of money with free speech leaves some citizens with a whole lot more free speech than other citizens. And, of course, Michelle Obama is not an elected official. Treating her as a proxy for the President presumes a lot about her influence and demeans the presidency, in my opinion. The heckler stepped in it in the sense that there is already a perception of racist disrespect for this President as evidenced by the attitude of certain members of congress and by the birther phenomena. Last but not least, heckling like this virtually guarantees that the cause of the heckler will not get traction. Even if the President had been previously disposed to act favorably toward the heckler’s cause, he now can’t do it for fear of sending the message that heckling is an effective way to get action.
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Good points!
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Slow day, today. OT-My absence is due to a very quick trip to Fargo to get daughter registered for college. She suddenly, and without warning, changed majors on the trip East last night. I think it was a good decision. She is extremely excited by her classes for fall semester. She has succumbed to the siren call of the social sciences, a call that we in our family can’t ignore.
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How lovely of her to change her major now before she got registered!
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It sure made things less complicated. She decided that music will always be an avocation, but history and sociology really float her boat.
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