People have been very quick to get on the "Everybody Against Mel Gibson" bandwagon and that is a mistake.
Gibson is an admitted alcoholic. And following his arrest for driving under the influence, he entered a rehab program that deals with addictions.
It's an understood fact that when someone is drunk, they sometimes say things that are very offensive. That's the alcohol doing most of the talking. So when I hear that Mel Gibson went on an anti-Jewish tirade when he was extremely intoxicated, that's not the real Mel Gibson speaking.
Point: many are angry at Israel for bombing so many innocent civilians in their war against Hezbollah. I've expressed that kind of anger at Israel for all the collatoral damage they're causing on this blog. Alcohol is an an amplifier and if Gibson was feeling anger at Israel too, the alcohol impairment might well have amplified that anger and caused it to come out in the form of an unfortunate verbal assault on Jewish people.
He's also fighting to get out of a very long shadow cast by his father's anti-Semetic comments. He probably worries about what his dad is going to say next all the time, and the alcohol probably brought that out of him too.
I cannot condone what he said, but my understanding of alcoholism has increased exponentially in recent weeks and how alcohol treatment programs work. I understand a great deal more about it now having observed someone going through it.
Most of Gibson's tirade is the alcohol talking; when he's in the rehab program he will need to confront things he's said and done while under the influence of alcohol. This will be a part of it. And his fellow recovering alcoholics in AA will keep him honest too.
He may well come out after his treatment is done and come clean about how he feels about things. I will reserve my judgment until then. The press and Hollywood probably should too.
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