The Rush to Judgment
I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh, and I honestly don’t give a damn what he called that Georgetown student activist, not while true women-haters like Bill Maher get away with far worse insults.
Rush is a blow-hard, but so what? Do what I do and don’t listen to him. That’s what freedom of speech is all about. Same with Maher. I think he’s an elitist, misogynistic douchebag, but I don’t watch him. I’d say it to his face if I had the opportunity, but I’m not seeking him out because honestly, the world is filled with such people. If I spent all my time fighting them I’d miss out doing more important things like being a good parent and a considerate husband. I simply stand up to one every once in awhile and ignore the rest.
Maher has the right to call women whatever he wants to call them. I have the equal right to call him a douchebag that needs to work out issues with his mother. And Rush can call that nutbag who perjured herself in front of Congress last week a slut. Does that hurt her feelings? So what if it does? I’ve read the Constitution: there’s nothing in it about feelings. Liberty. Freedom. No mention about feelings.
You have the right to speak freely which means you have the right to be offensive. You do not have the right to avoid being offended and using the government and private entities to silence those who offend you. If that offends you, take a walk, read a funny comic, or forget it but whatever you do just get over it. Life is short and the world is an amazing place, too wonderful to waist time swooning from the vapors of offense like some Victorian lady of leisure.
H/t: Rhymes with Right
Pj:
Scott – I would love to read an essay about your use of the term “elitist” as a perjorative. Why is elitism a bad thing? In what way has elitism damaged American society over the years? Were the founding fathers elitists? What about the thinkers who developed the philosophical underpinnings of the Constitution? In what way is Maher an elitist? (Disclosure here – I have never had the opportunity to se his show, but I am aware of his style of humor; it had never occurred to me to call it “elitist.”). Are there elitists whom you admire? Was, say, Wiliam Buckley an elitist and was that a bad thing?
I ask this because I see so much use of the word “elitism” in ways that make little sense to me. Until recently, I had always thought of an elite is something one strives to achieve, not something one tears down.
6 March 2012, 5:09 pmScott Kirwin:
PJ
Interesting point you raise. It gives me the opportunity to share with you one of my favorite columns by one of my favorite political philosophers (he wouldn’t call himself that, but that’s what he is in my eyes.)
Walter Russell Mead writes about elites in his piece Establishment Blues, and the piece is long and very detailed. But here’s a good excerpt:
In his piece Mead doesn’t waste his time discussing the elite from the viewpoint of the left/right or liberal/conservative divide. He attacks Wall Street for its tolerance of insider trading and anti-free market expectation of government bailouts, just as he takes on the guild-like structure of academia and the gradual failure of the education system to educate our young. He has done some excellent analysis of the end of the Blue Social Model which can be viewed here (essay one of six)
As for Maher, I place him in the Limousine Liberal elite since he is influential, a liberal and has a million dollars to throw into Obama’s coffers. He called Sarah Palin, a woman I happen to admire, a vulgar Anglo-Saxon word that makes the word “slut” look positively endearing by comparison.
6 March 2012, 6:37 pmRoger:
I love your category for this post – “Idiots.”
Thank you for sharing the Mead’s essay.
15 March 2012, 11:41 am