This isn’t going to surprise anyone, but I’ve taken IQ tests and the results weren’t all that impressive. And yet, I still don’t need Jon Stewart to tell me that Republicans aren’t Nazis. I still don’t need Media Speech Enforcers running around “protecting” me from harsh, partisan political rhetoric. And I certainly don’t need them telling Republicans or Democrats what is and isn’t appropriate speech on my little old behalf. This might surprise our smirky friend, but I am just as capable as he is at seeing through hyperbole.
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Again, I’m no genius — and have the documents to prove it! — and yet Big Brother Jon need not have bothered:
“What I have a problem with is people using hyperbole to induce an irrational fear of a particular group with the goal of ultimately reducing their numbers.”
You want to know what troubles me more than some hysterical Lefty whipping out tired Nazi references? This equally hysterical crusade currently taking place on the Left to chill political speech and set rules for what we can and cannot say. Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen hasn’t been doing the media rounds so that Anderson Cooper can press him to defend, on an intellectual and factual basis, his declaration that Republicans are liars and therefore Nazis. No, instead, our Media Overseers have invited Cohen into their own televised kangaroo court to defend his “inappropriate” speech. Even a marginal mind like mine understands how disturbing that is.
Sadly, I don’t even have to make the slippery-slope argument in this case. The absurd is already well underway. “Job-killing” memory-holed. “Crosshairs” disappeared.
This is still America, right?
Sure, it’s fun to watch Stewart go after the other side. But it’s also a trap. If I don’t defend Cohen, what defense will I have when Stewart trains his fire on us and declares other references off-limits? But this is about something bigger than just understanding Stewart’s latest political chess move.
What we’re currently watching is those who should be the guardians of the First Amendment suddenly using words like “can’t,” “shouldn’t,” “inappropriate,” “don’t,” and *shudder* “off limits,” when it comes to political speech. Today, Stewart and his media allies have trained their fire on a Democrat. But there will be a tomorrow.
Stewart also misses the most important part of his own schtick. At the 1:20 mark Congressman Cohen says:
“I won’t say it again, but I was right.”
In other words, Cohen believes what he said but he’s been shamed into not speaking what he believes to be the truth. This happened in America.
Unlike Jon Stewart and Anderson Cooper and John King and all the other Speech Policers, I like it when people speak their minds. If someone thinks I’m a Nazi, I’d like to know that. That’s good information to have. If my next door neighbor doesn’t like my wife because she’s Mexican and tells me so, that’s not Hate Speech, it’s helpful.
Civil discourse is a LIE if someone isn’t feeling civil.
I’m more interested in honesty than civility, or as the great Dennis Prager would say … clarity.
Again, Stewart’s own words:
“…he shouldn’t say it again because it’s wrong.”
“Shouldn’t.”
Actually, he should say it again because it is his opinion and he believes it to be true.
But hey, this is America, and Stewart and the media have every right to abuse their powers to chill political speech. And I would never say they “shouldn’t” do it because it’s helpful when they do … and very revealing.
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