Not asking if it is justifiable, but are all actions understandable with a full knowledge of someone's history?
Whether it comes down to environment or genetics, I suspect the answer is yes.
I would apply this principle to the biggest "monsters" in history. From Hitler and bin Laden to Jon Benet Ramsey's parents and every abusive Catholic priest. From Caligula and the Koch brothers to every slave owner and slave trader back to Saddam Hussein and George Bush.
It doesn't mean nothing is ever wrong. It doesn't mean there is no such thing as crime or should be no such thing as punishment. It just means we have to think differently.
I think Mike Tyson is a good example. (This example is just intended as a starting point and this is not meant as a Mike Tyson thread. The examples are infinite.) Tyson has been dehumanized as a monster or animal millions of times and even uses those labels to describe himself. But, right or wrong, isn't he who he is for a reason?
Mike Tyson rips into host for bringing up rape conviction
Mike Tyson is a terrible human being. He is an animal. That is why he was such a good boxer and such a good entertainer. He did things that not many other boxers have ever done, both good and bad.
Despite being a known convicted rapist and being infamous for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during one of their huge bouts in the 1990's, Tyson is actually quite popular these days.
Since his retirement, Tyson has managed to carve a career out of reliving the past while remaining calm and collected in interviews and showing his softer, more reflective side.
It looks nice for the audience at home to think that Tyson actually has a softer side, which he does, but only when he is getting his own way.
But the reality of what Tyson has done over the course of his life hit home again on Wednesday. We were treated to a little bit of the old Tyson. A bit of the former Boxing Heavyweight Champion's character that he tries so hard to keep locked away and hidden from the public eye these days. The animal returned.
During an interview this week live on Canadian television, Tyson was interviewed about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's candidacy for re-election. Ford is well known as a bit of a mad man, and go figure, the mayor hung out with Tyson recently.
The interviewer proceeded to ask Tyson whether or not he thinks that Ford's attempt to get re-elected will be affected by his decision to hang out with a convicted rapist.
As you can imagine, Tyson was not impressed by the interviewer's comments and went mad. He proceeded to call the host a piece of sh** and told him to **ck off." Take a look at the video below for the full interview, but it does come with a WARNING, there's obviously plenty of foul language used by Tyson.
Unacceptable reaction
Granted what the interviewer asked was slightly off topic, but at the end of the day, Tyson was indeed convicted for rape and we should not feel sorry for him.
This resurgence of popularity for Tyson is great for his bank account and reputation as a man that still has something to offer entertainment wise. The Hangover movie franchise definitely saw that in him when they offered him a cameo in their movies.
He offers up the crazy side of life on a plate for us all to trivialise and pretend that there's nothing wrong with what he has done in life.
[URL="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2814981/He-snatched-street-Mike-Tyson-reveals-sexually-abused-child-stranger-Brooklyn.html"]Mike Tyson reveals he was sexually abused as a child
Published November 02, 2014[/URL]
In an interview with Opie Radio this week, Mike Tyson said that at age 7, an older man "bullied me, sexually abused me and stuff ... snatched me off the street." Tyson, 48, claims he ran away and never saw the man again.
Tyson said he never told anyone, including the police, about the abuse.
The former boxing champ never reported the abuse, which he says only happened once. "It's nobody's business to know," he said during the interview.
"I just went on with my life," he said.
When asked by the interviewer whether the event changed him, Tyson answered: "I don't know if it did or not."
He added: "I don't always remember, but maybe I do but I don't. I'm not ashamed or embarrassed by it."
Tyson was doing the interview to promote his new show "Mike Tyson Mysteries."
Born in Cumberland Hospital in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in 1966, Tyson never really knew his father. The man on his birth certificate, Percel Tyson was a man he never met.
And the man his mother, Lorna Mae, told him was his ‘biological father,’ Jimmy ‘Curlee’ Kirkpatrick Jr was an infrequent presence in both their lives..
By the time Tyson was seven his mother had lost her job as a matron at the Women’s House of Detention in Manhattan, and she and her clutter of children had been evicted.
As a seven year old, small and nimble he began a career of petty crime – clambering in windows of houses through which older boys were too large to fit to steal whatever he could get his hands on.
His early boyhood took on a relentless rhythm of crime sprees, being hauled in by police only to be taken home and brutally beaten by his despairing mother.
By the time he was 12 he was a ‘zonked out zombie’ on Thorazine and a regular attendee of reformatory school, or ‘special-ed crazy school.’ There are not many light spots in the childhood that Tyson recalls. But one that stands out happened during a stint in the Reformatory school of Sporford.
He recalls: ‘We watched a movie called “The Greatest” about Muhammad Ali. When it was over…we were shocked when Ali himself walked out on that stage, ‘ he says. ‘I thought, I want to be that guy.’
He didn’t want to be a boxer. He wanted to be great.
Tyson, nicknamed 'The Baddest Man On The Planet,' was undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion in the 1980s. In 1992, Tyson himself was he was convicted of raping teenage beauty queen Desiree Washington in Indiana and served three years in prison.
He added to his notoriety later in the decade when he bit rival Evander Holyfield on both ears in a 1997 bout, for which he was disqualified and temporarily suspended from boxing. Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003 and retired from professional boxing in 2006.
Since his retirement, Tyson has appeared in the TV shows Entourage and Brothers, and had a cameo role in the 2009 hit comedy movie The Hangover.
Whether it comes down to environment or genetics, I suspect the answer is yes.
Formally stated, Newton's third law is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I would apply this principle to the biggest "monsters" in history. From Hitler and bin Laden to Jon Benet Ramsey's parents and every abusive Catholic priest. From Caligula and the Koch brothers to every slave owner and slave trader back to Saddam Hussein and George Bush.
It doesn't mean nothing is ever wrong. It doesn't mean there is no such thing as crime or should be no such thing as punishment. It just means we have to think differently.
I think Mike Tyson is a good example. (This example is just intended as a starting point and this is not meant as a Mike Tyson thread. The examples are infinite.) Tyson has been dehumanized as a monster or animal millions of times and even uses those labels to describe himself. But, right or wrong, isn't he who he is for a reason?
And-- applying that standard to other people-- isn't everyone?
Mike Tyson rips into host for bringing up rape conviction
Mike Tyson is a terrible human being. He is an animal. That is why he was such a good boxer and such a good entertainer. He did things that not many other boxers have ever done, both good and bad.
Despite being a known convicted rapist and being infamous for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during one of their huge bouts in the 1990's, Tyson is actually quite popular these days.
Softer side is just a lie
Since his retirement, Tyson has managed to carve a career out of reliving the past while remaining calm and collected in interviews and showing his softer, more reflective side.
It looks nice for the audience at home to think that Tyson actually has a softer side, which he does, but only when he is getting his own way.
But the reality of what Tyson has done over the course of his life hit home again on Wednesday. We were treated to a little bit of the old Tyson. A bit of the former Boxing Heavyweight Champion's character that he tries so hard to keep locked away and hidden from the public eye these days. The animal returned.
Heated interview
During an interview this week live on Canadian television, Tyson was interviewed about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's candidacy for re-election. Ford is well known as a bit of a mad man, and go figure, the mayor hung out with Tyson recently.
The interviewer proceeded to ask Tyson whether or not he thinks that Ford's attempt to get re-elected will be affected by his decision to hang out with a convicted rapist.
As you can imagine, Tyson was not impressed by the interviewer's comments and went mad. He proceeded to call the host a piece of sh** and told him to **ck off." Take a look at the video below for the full interview, but it does come with a WARNING, there's obviously plenty of foul language used by Tyson.
Unacceptable reaction
Granted what the interviewer asked was slightly off topic, but at the end of the day, Tyson was indeed convicted for rape and we should not feel sorry for him.
This resurgence of popularity for Tyson is great for his bank account and reputation as a man that still has something to offer entertainment wise. The Hangover movie franchise definitely saw that in him when they offered him a cameo in their movies.
He offers up the crazy side of life on a plate for us all to trivialise and pretend that there's nothing wrong with what he has done in life.
[URL="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2814981/He-snatched-street-Mike-Tyson-reveals-sexually-abused-child-stranger-Brooklyn.html"]Mike Tyson reveals he was sexually abused as a child
Published November 02, 2014[/URL]
In an interview with Opie Radio this week, Mike Tyson said that at age 7, an older man "bullied me, sexually abused me and stuff ... snatched me off the street." Tyson, 48, claims he ran away and never saw the man again.
Tyson said he never told anyone, including the police, about the abuse.
The former boxing champ never reported the abuse, which he says only happened once. "It's nobody's business to know," he said during the interview.
"I just went on with my life," he said.
When asked by the interviewer whether the event changed him, Tyson answered: "I don't know if it did or not."
He added: "I don't always remember, but maybe I do but I don't. I'm not ashamed or embarrassed by it."
Tyson was doing the interview to promote his new show "Mike Tyson Mysteries."
Born in Cumberland Hospital in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in 1966, Tyson never really knew his father. The man on his birth certificate, Percel Tyson was a man he never met.
And the man his mother, Lorna Mae, told him was his ‘biological father,’ Jimmy ‘Curlee’ Kirkpatrick Jr was an infrequent presence in both their lives..
By the time Tyson was seven his mother had lost her job as a matron at the Women’s House of Detention in Manhattan, and she and her clutter of children had been evicted.
As a seven year old, small and nimble he began a career of petty crime – clambering in windows of houses through which older boys were too large to fit to steal whatever he could get his hands on.
His early boyhood took on a relentless rhythm of crime sprees, being hauled in by police only to be taken home and brutally beaten by his despairing mother.
By the time he was 12 he was a ‘zonked out zombie’ on Thorazine and a regular attendee of reformatory school, or ‘special-ed crazy school.’ There are not many light spots in the childhood that Tyson recalls. But one that stands out happened during a stint in the Reformatory school of Sporford.
He recalls: ‘We watched a movie called “The Greatest” about Muhammad Ali. When it was over…we were shocked when Ali himself walked out on that stage, ‘ he says. ‘I thought, I want to be that guy.’
He didn’t want to be a boxer. He wanted to be great.
Tyson, nicknamed 'The Baddest Man On The Planet,' was undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion in the 1980s. In 1992, Tyson himself was he was convicted of raping teenage beauty queen Desiree Washington in Indiana and served three years in prison.
He added to his notoriety later in the decade when he bit rival Evander Holyfield on both ears in a 1997 bout, for which he was disqualified and temporarily suspended from boxing. Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003 and retired from professional boxing in 2006.
Since his retirement, Tyson has appeared in the TV shows Entourage and Brothers, and had a cameo role in the 2009 hit comedy movie The Hangover.
