I don't think anyone has compared him to De Belin (if convicted)
And personally I'm not hurt or upset by his tweets. That said I can appreciate that they are hurtful and damaging to not only his organisation but also marginalized sectors of our community.
He is free to express his opinion and likewise the public and ARU are free to disagree and act accordingly.
Let me ask you this....in real simple terms. If you owned a cafe and a waiter of yours walked over to a quarter of your customers and told them they are digusting revolting people who dont deserve to eat there. Can you honestly say, as the owner, you should be like "well thats his opinion, fair enough" or would you be like "mate, you can't treat my customers that way, have your views in private and wait tables professionaly or you are fired and you can say whatever you want"
a) This isn't a cafe or family business;
b) If we sacked players for saying offensive things, we'd have half the league we have now (example: Maloney would be fired).
Societies become too precious . Example:
X Walker pulled his partners hair (allegedly). People want him rubbed out of the game for life. Dumb, dumb act, yep. But something he should learn from and move on. But all the heroes out there want his income, his wife's income, and his child's income dissolved for life.
Whatever happened to remorse / mistakes / redemption / empathy / open mindedness.
Even on these boards. People can't have an honest opinion without being berated. That's what this site was for ,to have an "alternate" but open view and opinion. Not these days. You critique the team or a player, you're targetted, called names. Some people defend Des, the club, Parker, Suli and others vehemently, and if you critique them, you're the most hateful, spiteful, negative , terrible human being on the planet, but apparently it's open season on Barrett, Brown, Kelly and others and it's okay to bad mouth them, their personalities, life, name call etc to the hearts 's desire. That's Silvertails mentality now.
Maybe I'm getting old and grumpy. I'm not sure. But I miss the warm and fuzzies. I miss a time you could share, be open and honest, regardless of how cutting edge your opinion was. People could disagree, but they wouldn't slay you for it. Especially when hypocritically, their opinions meant slaying certain elements, players or coaches WAS acceptable .
We've become Americanised. Narrow minded, insular , hypocritical, and over sensitive.