Rob Ford's Toronto

[Jado]

Now at your local party store.

Discuss.

 

[evvabeing]

I know this is stating the obvious but Rob Ford is mentally challenged. He goes on record that he lives in a suit out of respect for the tax payer yet he smokes crack in it. Also he wears this ridiculous gangster attire. The man has no shame.

ummm, actually, it's calculated...

Trying to clean up before the big campaign, the mayor-to-be had sprung for some high-end tailored menswear, but a senior Canadian conservative politician, as yet unnamed, called Doug Ford and told him to get his brother out of those fucking suits and back into his novelty ties. It was important that he look like the outside, not the in.

http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/article/5879/rob-ford-toronto-mayor/

“Most of the time he looks very dishevelled,” image consultant Diane Craig said. “And it’s not about being overweight. If you look at the governor of New Jersey (Chris Christie), he never looks dishevelled.”

Ford wears jerseys to “enhance his likeability factor and appear more of a man of the people,” she said, adding the “Canadian conservative politician” probably gave Ford bad advice if it led to his dishevelled-in-a-suit look, because it makes him look messy and sends the message that anything he’d touch would be a mess.

“If Ford thinks looking dishevelled makes him look like one of the people, I’m not sure it is [true] because there are people who have money and know how to dress, and people who have money and don’t know how to dress,” she said.

http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/95...to-mayoral-race-candidates-why-image-matters/

 

[Dottie]

I understand your indignation, but the fact is that this man doesn't deserve our empathy or sympathy regardless of what his ailment is. It reminds me of Heather Mills, ex wife of Paul McCartney, whom I would trash. People were aghast. "How can you say such bad things about a one legged woman?!" I don't care if she's limbless, she's still a bitch.

You and Rob Ford are much more similar than you are different. He's not some monster or alien or robot - he's just a human being (with everything that entails). He's done and said a lot of things that I wouldn't do, and I don't think he was ever fit to be the mayor of Toronto, but that's a totally separate issue.

Empathy isn't something people "deserve". You either feel it or you don't. And if you don't, you're the one with a problem.

 

[howl]

You and Rob Ford are much more similar than you are different. He's not some monster or alien or robot - he's just a human being (with everything that entails). He's done and said a lot of things that I wouldn't do, and I don't think he was ever fit to be the mayor of Toronto, but that's a totally separate issue.

Empathy isn't something people "deserve". You either feel it or you don't. And if you don't, you're the one with a problem.

Empathy and politicians does not compute. Once you throw your hat into the ring you become a politician not a person. If Rob wants empathy he has to resign.

 

[ParkdalePetunia]

You and Rob Ford are much more similar than you are different. He's not some monster or alien or robot - he's just a human being (with everything that entails). He's done and said a lot of things that I wouldn't do, and I don't think he was ever fit to be the mayor of Toronto, but that's a totally separate issue.

Empathy isn't something people "deserve". You either feel it or you don't. And if you don't, you're the one with a problem.

Completely disagree with you. After everything Rob Ford has done and said, especially regarding those with addiction issues, he's lost any right to empathy. Empathy is something that can be earned/deserved. To say that people who don't feel empathetic towards the racist, homophobic, entitled, spoiled brat are the ones with the problem is ridiculous.

 

[A Torontonian Now]

Completely disagree with you. After everything Rob Ford has done and said, especially regarding those with addiction issues, he's lost any right to empathy. Empathy is something that can be earned/deserved. To say that people who don't feel empathetic towards the racist, homophobic, entitled, spoiled brat are the ones with the problem is ridiculous.

Not sure empathy is something to be earned, but I do agree Rob Ford does not deserve empathy.

Empathy is different from sympathy. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone out of respect, or on an intellectual level. Empathy is a much deeper feeling where you yourself essentially feel the emotion of the individual you are empathetic with.

I often feel empathetic for panhandlers, for example, because if my life had been a bit different, I can easily see how I could be sitting there beside them. However, I cannot feel empathy for Ford because I cannot imagine ever having made the decisions or done the things he has done, no matter what the circumstances. Or if I feel a twinge of empathy for him coming on, I very quickly and purposefully crush it.

 

[wheeler98]

You and Rob Ford are much more similar than you are different. He's not some monster or alien or robot - he's just a human being (with everything that entails). He's done and said a lot of things that I wouldn't do, and I don't think he was ever fit to be the mayor of Toronto, but that's a totally separate issue.

Empathy isn't something people "deserve". You either feel it or you don't. And if you don't, you're the one with a problem.

You're confusing empathy with sympathy. Only a mysogynist, drug addict, alcoholic, racist,bigot, homophobe who ALSO has a similar public profile could possibly have any empathy for that cretin. I would hazard a guess that there is not a single person on this forum that feels any empathy for that serial embarrassment...

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Y'all are using the wrong word. "Empathy" is being able to see another person's point of view. "Sympathy" is being able to feel sorry for them. Although, maybe you are using the right word, as I cannot empathize with his point of view, as it makes no sense and has more than a whiff of bullying for bullying's sake. I also lost all sympathy for his addiction problems about the third time he lied about them.

So... we're back to 'he's an asshole and needs to go away.' Occam's razor cuts deep with the Fords.

 

[The Golem]

How about this for empathy:

‘If they have to dry out in jail — great’: Back in 2005, Ford said ‘tough love’ is the only way to battle drug use

Rob Ford may not have had much to say about crack on Friday, but he had plenty to say in a story published in the National Post on October 18 of 2005. He spoke on the subject of the city’s drug strategy, free pipes and safe inhalation sites. Here is that article in full:

—————————————————–

Toronto should consider building crematoria beside crack houses if the city’s proposed drug strategy is implemented, city councillor Rob Ford warned yesterday.

The councillor, who has battled addiction in his own family, blasted a new report by Toronto Public Health on combating alcohol and drug use in the city. The report recommends the city distribute crack pipes and other paraphernalia to addicts and explore opening safe injection and inhalation sites.


“It’s euthanasia. You’re just giving them a place to kill themselves. That’s what is going to happen. You might as well just have a crematorium beside the crack house,” Mr. Ford said.

He said these “harm reduction” strategies only encourage addicts to continue their drug use.

“You’re not helping them, you’re enabling them,” Mr. Ford said. “They’re going to smoke that crack whether you give them those crack pipes or not. They’re going to shoot that heroin whether you give them clean needles or not. If people want a change, it has to come from within.”

And now he's bragging about being in a $100,000 spa for a couple of months (with weekends off) while still drawing his $170,000 salary from taxpayers. No empathy from hypocrite Ford then, so no empathy for him now.

 

[LowPolygon]

You and Rob Ford are much more similar than you are different. He's not some monster or alien or robot - he's just a human being (with everything that entails). He's done and said a lot of things that I wouldn't do, and I don't think he was ever fit to be the mayor of Toronto, but that's a totally separate issue.

Empathy isn't something people "deserve". You either feel it or you don't. And if you don't, you're the one with a problem.

oh c'mon.

do you also feel empathy for pedophiles? they also have a lot of problems.

how about men that torture animals? troubled, yes? deserving of our empathy?

the most responsible thing any of us can do at this point is Actively Resist any feelings of empathy that might bubble up, as we gaze upon the final chapters of this woebegotten asshole's public life.

i know whenever i start to feel a bit sorry for him, i recall this, and give my head a shake:

[video=youtube;brp-XXM9hVI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brp-XXM9hVI[/video]

 

[stoobiedood]

You might as well just have a crematorium beside the crack house,” Mr. Ford said.

What say we pool our resources and put up a sign in that little bit of park that RoFo was trying to buy, beside his house:

Development Proposal
235 Edenbridge Drive
An application to amend the Zoning By-law
to permit a Crack Addict Crematorium.
The existing parkette will be demolished
and a 2 storey crematorium with 3-storey
smoke-stack will be erected. Surface parking
for 10 bicycles will be provided. (Those damn
cyclists are suicidal, too; it's their own
fault at the end of the day).

STATUTORY PUBLIC MEETING
Information will be posted once Diane and Doug
have pre-determined the result.

<City logo> FILE # 14 003702799 FU 332

 

[JWBF]

Not sure empathy is something to be earned, but I do agree Rob Ford does not deserve empathy.

Empathy is different from sympathy. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone out of respect, or on an intellectual level. Empathy is a much deeper feeling where you yourself essentially feel the emotion of the individual you are empathetic with.

I often feel empathetic for panhandlers, for example, because if my life had been a bit different, I can easily see how I could be sitting there beside them. However, I cannot feel empathy for Ford because I cannot imagine ever having made the decisions or done the things he has done, no matter what the circumstances. Or if I feel a twinge of empathy for him coming on, I very quickly and purposefully crush it.

Agreed that Dottie is confusing sympathy and empathy, however, having sympathy for someone is not something given out of respect. Like empathy, sympathy is something that exists when there is similar experience, personally; empathy is the raw emotion a person feels, I can empathise without being sympathetic. In the case of an addict, enablers are those who don't have personal experience, or those who deny what addiction is, like Kathy. This allows enablers to delude them selves, and allowing them to ignore an event, or taking responsibility beyond their own needs.

 

[Dottie]

oh c'mon.

do you also feel empathy for pedophiles? they also have a lot of problems.

how about men that torture animals? troubled, yes? deserving of our empathy?

Yes, I do feel empathy for pedophiles and for people who torture animals. Feeling empathy does not mean I agree with their actions or their worldview. It means that I understand that the people involved in both of those examples have -- like you and I and all other humans -- thoughts and feelings. I may not want to be anywhere near those people, but I do try to understand that we really aren't that different.

 

[sno man]

What say we pool our resources and put up a sign in that little bit of park that RoFo was trying to buy, beside his house:

Development Proposal
235 Edenbridge Drive
An application to amend the Zoning By-law
to permit a Crack Addict Crematorium.
The existing parkette will be demolished
and a 2 storey crematorium with 3-storey
smoke-stack will be erected. Surface parking
for 10 bicycles will be provided. (Those damn
cyclists are suicidal, too; it's their own
fault at the end of the day).

STATUTORY PUBLIC MEETING
Information will be posted once Diane and Doug
have pre-determined the result.

<City logo> FILE # 14 003702799 FU 332


View attachment 28103

hehe, fun!
2 things...

FILE # 14 0N1027 FU A55

& where do I send my $20?

Also this should be done in the week he returns. Not before.

 

[JWBF]

Yes, I do feel empathy for pedophiles and for people who torture animals. Feeling empathy does not mean I agree with their actions or their worldview. It means that I understand that the people involved in both of those examples have -- like you and I and all other humans -- thoughts and feelings. I may not want to be anywhere near those people, but I do try to understand that we really aren't that different.

Since both actions can be linked to lack of control and superiority...