I warned everybody. I said, “Don’t hold up Martin Bashir’s resignation as some sort of victory.”
I warned that sooner or later somebody would make a comment or a statement that liberals would deem offensive and they would be demanding some kind of action, including said person be taken off the air.
Well it happened. Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family of Robertson’s said some stuff about homosexuality and the rush to “OUTRAGE!” was on.
Of course, Robertson said nothing all that controversial about homosexuality with respect to how it is viewed through the lens of Christianity. His statements were not “anti-gay,” “homophobic,” or “discriminatory.” He was talking about sin and if there’s one thing that gets people’s underwear bunged up, it’s when somebody talks about sin. Last night I tweeted:
I find it amusing that when somebody hears the word “sin” their knees jerk and they go into, “DON’T JUDGE ME!” mode. Chill. Not how it works
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) December 19, 2013
If you’re somebody that gets all riled up because somebody starts talking about sin, then maybe you want to stop and consider why instead of lashing out at the person speaking about it. Just a suggestion.
As the whole thing exploded throughout the night, I was witness to a number of different things which I will touch on here:
1. The “tolerance” crowd is made up of some the most intolerant people I’ve ever come across.
It’s obvious that Robertson would have escaped the McCarthy-esque rantings of GLAAD and The Human Rights Campaign if he had chased down a photographer, threatening violence and calling him a “c**ksucking fag.” Of course, they went easy on Alec Baldwin when he did just that because Baldwin has a gay hair stylist or something. They immediately ripped into Robertson however, behaving as though he advocated their extermination.
“Tolerance” for most factions on the left means, “Believe what we want you to believe, or you’re going to be labeled a hateful right-wing extremist bigoted homophobic racist misogynist!”
My message to GLAAD and HRC? Go jump in a lake, you hypocritical creeps.
2. Libertarian concern trolling about “rights” and “free speech” hits nuclear levels when something like this happens.
People often use the term “freedom of speech” as a figure of speech. But the moment that is uttered, libertarians are all out over social media, wagging their finger and haughtily proclaiming, “A&E is not the government. They are well within their rights as a business to do what they did. This is not a free speech issue.”
Guess what? We get it. I suspect most people are smart enough to know that. So stop lecturing. There is a scene in the movie Biloxi Blues where Arnold Epstein admonishes Eugene Jerome about standing around on the outside looking in. Epstein says:
“You’re a witness. You’re always standing around watching what’s happening, scribbling in your book what other people do. You have to get in the middle of it. You have to take sides. Make a contribution to the fight. Any fight. The one you believe in.”
Try this: take a side. Like Epstein said, get in the middle of it instead of standing around lecturing others on “rules.”
3. Phil most likely doesn’t give a rat’s ass about being suspended.
This is a man who would rather spend his time hunting and fishing than standing around with camera crews all day. Contrary to the notion that Robertson is just some backwater inbred hick, he’s a self-made man who has a Masters degree in education and was such a good football quarterback he played ahead of Hall of Fame QB Terry Bradshaw. He had an opportunity to play for the Washington Redskins.
He gave that up because it would interfere with what he loves doing — hunting.
The only people who can’t understand this kind of thinking, to me, are superficial types who don’t really love doing anything. There is something redeeming to me about a person giving up fame and fortune to do what they love doing, whether it’s hunting, painting, music, photography, cooking…. whatever.
That’s a quality to be admired, not ridiculed.
4. Let this be a lesson to conservatives who proclaimed Martin Bashir’s and Alec Baldwin’s departures from MSNBC as some kind of “victory.”
Rather than having those two idiots to use as a trump card against the whiny rantings of GLAAD and others, they’re gone. And that makes it easier for the foot stompers to get their way.
It’s very simple: people are going to say things that offend others. It’s bound to happen.
Deal with it.
Saying people should be fired for saying something “offensive” is just a means to screaming “shut up!”
5. Republican concern trolling over episodes like this and attempting to tie it to politics is mind numbing and lame.
“I can’t believe people are defending what Robertson said. This is why we can’t have nice things.”
“Why are conservatives going to bat for him? We’re not going to win if we embrace homophobia.”
You know what? You people can go jump in a lake along with GLAAD and HRC because you’re just as bad as they are.
Sorry, but I am not sorry if I don’t live up to your “enlightened” standards over cultural issues and matters regarding religion and faith.
Some of us don’t see everything through the prism of politics. There are larger issues at stake and here’s the final thought on this: If there is a person out there who decides they are going to vote for a Democrat because of what some reality television star says, then I don’t want a person with such a limited worldview on our side to begin with.
So there you have it. I suspect A&E will come to their senses soon enough. Duck Dynasty is a cash cow for that network and it takes a special kind of stupid to risk what the Robertsons can provide simply because GLAAD decided get upset.
Happy, happy, happy!