We sue people so that we can receive a, usually monetary, compensation for the defamation, libel or what not, which in some way have affected us and what we care about. A person may sue a doctor for neglecting their sick child or an angry husband sues his wife for divorce. Your parents sue your teacher after you tell them that you have been kept in the naughty corner for no reason for nearly three days now and communication directors sue the newspaper for defaming their corresponding political figures. Along with the money, we also gain a sense of pride and social superiority - same as the satisfaction you get when you win an argument about whether a zebra is black with white stripes or white with black stripes.
But, like with most things in life, suing costs money. Depending on the scale of the case, it could range from a few thousands of dollars to numbers much larger than that. It takes time to prepare an argument, it takes time to find and understand evidence and it takes time to make the argument. And sadly, those who are capable of doing all these things charge at an hourly rate. Suing is sort of like gambling - you put your money in the slot and hope to win a lot more back. If you lose, well then you've just chucked a couple of grand down the drain. Most people who sue have a particular motive or know that they are going to have a high chance of winning. I wouldn't risk my money in suing if I thought I'd lose. That's just daft. But it has been brought to my attention that some people sue for the most retarded things.
I heard that this man once sued McDonald's, KFC and Burger King for his obesity. I decided to Google it in order to fill this blog post with some facts. To my surprise, (although I kind of expected it to happen), many other articles on people suing fast food restaurants came up. They claimed that these fast food restaurants were to blame for their weight. But honestly, who are you kidding? No one has forced you to eat McDonald's, KFC or Burger King, nor have they ever been deemed as "healthy" and "nutritious". You made your own choices for your diet and your eating habits. It's like saying "I have bad teeth so I'm going to go sue the chocolate company". I mean, if you're going to do something like this, at least have a logical argument. Amidst these articles I found one about this Brazilian guy who sued McDonald's, and won (even though he isn't that fat). His argument was that because he was a franchisee manager, he was entitled to free lunches from McDonalds. And because of how busy he was and how appealing it all is, he ate a lot of Big Macs and ended up being "fat". His argument makes sense. Bravo.
And while reading Wikipedia about the Lion King (as you do), I saw that there was also a case of hyena scientists suing the people who made the movie for defaming hyenas. Apparently, they were portrayed as evil and vicious when they are not like that at all. It's a cartoon for goodness sake. There's got to be a bad guy in any sort of movie or TV series. Why don't you also sue all the other movies that portray the bad guys as a certain race or type? The evil person in that movie is a woman - it must mean that this movie is defaming woman, let's go sue them! - that's basically the same concept. Would it be just as justified to sue all cartoons for teaching children that animals can speak human languages?
And why Lion King? I'd say Pokemon (no offence) has taught children more "wrong" things in the past. Let's just begin with the elements. Ever since Pokemon, every time I think of a certain common element, such as electric, my brain would tell me WATER: Super Effective! and GRASS: Not Very Effective! But if you really think about it, who would win? A lightning bolt or the shrub it hits? Even if it was a big gigantic tree, it'd set on fire and die. Furthermore, Pokemon has taught us that no matter how evil you are and how much electrocution you endure, you'd just end up being sent into the sky and be still alive after falling like metres and metres down to the ground. I'm not saying that Pokemon was a bad influence or anything (if everything was 100% factual and correct, children wouldn't be able to watch any cartoons) but people suing directors and producers for things like that are just absurd.
Indeed there are certain movies where racism has been identified and people have managed to sue and win, but at least their arguments and reasons made sense. Otherwise you're just wasting time and money. I'm sorry scientists who study hyenas, you'll just have to get over yourselves.
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