ROMAN POLANSKI — “This guy’s life story reads like the script to a Max Hardcore movie!”

Libel
Roman Polanski is a monster. He viciously raped and abused a thirteen year old girl, he pled guilty, and then he fled the country to avoid sentencing. There is no argument that can be made for his innocence, because innocent people don’t have any reason to run. For the Swiss government to have refused to extradite Polanski back to America to face justice is inexcusable. The entire degenerate country has, by defending this pedophile, essentially said that raping children is perfectly ok. He got an innocent young girl drunk, pumped her full of drugs, and forced his uncircumcised cock, which is probably covered in wiry Eastern European hair, into her mouth, vagina, and anus. I mean, this guy’s life story reads like the script to a Max Hardcore movie! In what sort of world does it make sense that Max Hardcore is in prison for filming pornography with consenting adults, and this Polanski asshole is living the high life in Europe after raping a teenager? And, honestly, what bothers me most of all isn’t even that this douche is running free; it’s the fact that people are still watching his movies, still buying his movies, still giving him awards for his movies. He isn’t a great artist; he’s a pedophile! What needs to happen is this wild animal needs to be brought back to the States, his filthy child-loving testicles need to be cut off, and all of his movies need to be destroyed. No one should be forced to watch the work of a man who victimizes innocent children.

Counterlibel
Well, now, I’m not sure about all of that. Everything you say may be true, as far as it goes, but the man DID make some excellent movies.

Libel
No, no, no, you can’t say that, that’s fucked up. When you say ‘but’ you’re excusing the fact that he raped a little girl. Raped a little girl, hello?

Counterlibel
I’m not trying to excuse his crime, I’m just saying that even though he did what you say he did, Polanski still made some really awesome movies. I mean, just because the man is a pervert doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to enjoy Chinatown.

Libel
You’re doing it again! ‘Even though’ means the same thing as ‘but’! You’re saying we should overlook the horrible things this pathetic excuse of a man has done just because he’s a rich and famous Hollywood type. It’s disgusting that people think we should excuse this kind of behavior from this man just because he’s powerful and white. If it had been a black guy who raped that little white girl you would have lynched the fucker.

Counterlibel
Woah, where’s this racial stuff coming from?

Libel
Don’t try to change the subject. You’re an apologist for rape. You’re trying to say that it is ok for this man to do what he did because of who he is, just like all those celebrities who supported Polanski when this all first happened.

Counterlibel
Look, no, I’m just trying to say you’re overreacting a little bit...

Libel
YOU CAN'T OVERREACH TO CHILD MOLESTATION! He fucked a child, and if you like Chinatown that means you like fucking children too!

Counterlibel
No, that’s going too far. Look, do you like the pyramids?

Libel
What?

Counterlibel
The pyramids. You know, Egypt, big triangle things? Do you like them? Do you consider them to be one of the great accomplishments of mankind? What about the Great Wall of China?

Libel
Well sure, yeah, I guess so. But what does that have to do with anything-

Counterlibel
The Pharaohs used slaves to build the pyramids. So did the Emperors in China, to build the Great Wall. So does that mean you like slavery?

Libel
No, that’s not the same thing at all!

Counterlibel
Of course it is, it’s exactly the same thing. What about Woody Allen? Does everybody who thinks Annie Hall is a great movie want to marry their own adopted daughters? If I think ”Anarchy in the UK” rocks does that mean I want to stab my girlfriend and beat up female Welsh folk singers? I mean come on, man, you have to be able to draw a line between art and reality. If we start pointing out works of art and decreeing them unacceptable because the people who made them were assholes or criminals or whatever we’re going to lose half the art in the world. I mean, no more Picasso, right? (Womanizer.) No more Poe. (Incestuous pervert.) Salvador Dali once kicked a three-year old girl in the head and, in his own words, was “carried away with a ‘delirious joy’ induced by this savage act.” What about Lewis Carroll? The Marquis de Sade? Rousseau? We have to be able to judge art on its own merits, not in light of how likeable the artist is, because it is an unfortunate truth that good artists aren’t necessarily, or even often, good people. As George Orwell might put it, Polanski might be a scumbag, but “he has fifty times more talent than most of the people who would denounce his morals.” It’s unconscionable to deny people access to the beauty the man brought into this world through his films just because of the horror he brought into it through his personal life.

Libel
Um…yeah. I was mostly just trying to say he should be punished for raping that little girl…

Counterlibel
Oh, well yeah, obviously. Fucking recidivist.

—Maxxx Peters