From the various articles that I've read on the situation, Kim was actually just pissed off because of the plot of the movie in general revolving around the CIA recruiting two idiots to take him out. He even said if the movie was released period that he would've considered it a declaration of war by the United States.
I doubt seriously he's this upset for not getting a part in the film.
As for Sony, they really didn't have much of a choice because right after the threat was announced online, Sony gave all the theaters a choice about what to do with the movie; whether it be delaying it indefinitely or outright refuse to carry it. Sadly, a lot of major movie theaters took them up on that option, as you can read in the deadline article i provided in the original post.
A lot of major movie chains like AMC, Regal Entertainment, Cinemark and etc didn't want to put their employees and customers in danger. Is it cowardly of them to do that? Yes, but you can't blame them because they're only looking at this from a business perspective. From a business perspective, it would've been a pr nightmare for the brave movie chain that did carry the film. And, it might have led to a huge financial loss in the future if the terrorists did act on that threat.
Don't get me wrong, I do see what you're saying, and I agree with you that it does set a bad precedent going into the future. I mean what's to stop a terrorist group now from taking away our other civil rights down the road? It doesn't have to be limited to just films, as another terrorist group that watched this situation closely could easily get the idea of threatening us with something like "If you don't worship the same god as we do, then we'll do this and this." Or they can easily say something like, "We don't like gay marriages. Make it illegal or we'll kill you." Or something along those lines.
But on the other hand here, this is Sony's fault. They brought this upon themselves, and it's because of their arrogance and ignorance they put the U.S.A. in a compromising no win scenario. Think about it. The United States is already struggling financially enough as it is. Hell, on black friday, most of the stores in my city were dead. I don't understand it myself because black friday is usually one of the busiest times of the year for most stores, yet most of them were dead earlier this year?
Don't bring up the weather either because statistically people shop more the worse the weather is. The reason I bring that up is because that's not a good sign for the U.S. economy right now. Therefore, can America even afford to go to war at this point?
Plus, our military is already stretched thin as it is because we have troops fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention we have troops in Africa fighting Ebola, according to some news sources. Therefore, my only question is let's say hypothetically all the major theater chains and Sony did call Kim's bluff.
And let's also pretend, the terrorists acted on their threat. Would America have the resources and manpower to fight another war in addition to the ones we have right now? Plus, with the way the media ALWAYS gets in the way of the military doing their job by nitpicking and scrutinizing every single thing they do, I'm not even sure we could beat North Korea in a war to be honest.
Don't get me wrong, we have the technology to beat them, and we probably have some of the best well trained soldiers in the world, but none of that means anything if you have one side trying to play by the rules because the media won't leave them alone, while the other side isn't bound by any rules. It would be like you trying to fight a guy while wearing boxing gloves, and you were told that you could only hit him above the belt. Meanwhile, the other guy gets to fight you with his bare hands and feet. Plus he's allowed to hit you anywhere he wants, but you can't. How would that be fair to you in a fight?
In an ideal world, I think it would be great if we could just stand up to these bullies and show them what for, but there is something to be said about picking your battles. As a wise man once said, "Fighting should always be used as a last resort."
However, I can't disagree with anything you just said because this does sadden me a great deal as well. We once fought during the revolution to be free of any foreign tyranny, yet here we are the in 21st century still allowing a foreign power dictate to us what our rights are. I'm sure if our founding fathers could see this, then they would shake their heads in disgust. I am too. It saddens me that North Korea could control us this way, but at the same time, I don't blame the movie theaters for refusing to carry the movie. Nor do I blame Sony for eventually pulling out. Because this was a no win scenario here.
If we would've called Kim's bluff, then it might've escalated into a full scale war. But on the other hand, your right. This move does set a bad precedent moving forward for all the reasons you just stated. I can only hope now that this will be an isolated incident, and it won't lead to any other kind of censorship down the road.
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