Ben Weasel is an ass

I was reading about the Ben Weasel SXSW incident recently (it came to my attention through maximumrocknroll) and in her blurb about it, MRR's coordinator mentioned that she was heartened to see that people had taken a stand against sexist violence. For those who don't know, here's the scoop
(http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/screeching-weasel-members-quit-after-singer-attacks-women-onstage-20110324-you can even see video of the whole thing) While I too am heartened by the fact that some folks have taken a stand against sexist violence by decrying Ben's asshole-ish behavior, what nobody seems to be mentioning is that this kind of thing is unacceptable. Period. Humans shouldn't act this way toward other humans. The genders of the respective participants shouldn't really matter at all. Leaping out into the crowd and punching a fan isn't acceptable for the same reason that punching someone on the street isn't acceptable. It's a dick thing to do.  On a few of the message boards, some witnesses mentioned that the woman was throwing ice at Ben throughout the band's set, as if to mitigate his actions by suggesting that she somehow provoked him. Wow. Ice? Really? Frozen water, dude? It's not going to kill you. If you can't handle that level of provocation, perhaps a career in the performing arts isn't for you. I dunno, maybe this is a calculated effort on Ben's part. Maybe he wants to go for some sort of irascible elder statesman of pop-punk thing (y'know, kinda like Lou Reed when he's cranky). If that's the case, then he really picked a bad way to go about it.

Sorry, Ben. Screeching Weasel meant a lot to me as a teenager, and the records still hold up, but if this incident is indicative of the kind of person you're becoming (or maybe always were) then I have no reservations calling you an asshole.