February 24, 2012
But the answer is “no” if a person is merely speaking their mind and special-interest groups are pressuring you to kowtow to the control-freak tendencies that emerge from their eternally bruised feelings. Appeasing extremists with apologies only encourages them. We don’t let heads roll for such trifles”that’s not how we roll in the West.
I have a hard time thinking of circumstances where anyone should be fired for being offensive. If someone sneaks pornography into your kid’s movies then yes, they”re gone. However, if an American adult decides he is offended by a word that’s in the English language or a nonviolent action such as burning a book, that’s his problem.
Back in 2001 when I first met Sarah Silverman, she was in trouble with the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) for saying, “I love Chinks.” The line was in a joke where she said she chickened out of portraying herself as a racist to get out of jury duty and replaced “hate” with “love.” The head of MANAA said comedians should consult with his group first before making such jokes. Silverman wasn”t falling for it. “Well, I’m not afraid to say something if I think it’s funny,” she said, “even if it’s harsh or racist.” More people should have her attitude.
I don”t like any rules that start with, “What were they thinking?” because it reminds me of the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s crusade against Ezra Levant. After being legally harassed for republishing the infamous Muhammad cartoons, he stared his inquisitor right in the eye and told her it didn”t matter what he was thinking.
I”m offended every day I walk around New York City. I don”t sue anyone for it because I”ve known since kindergarten that only sticks and stones can break my bones. That’s what I love about what’s left of the Western world. If you”re at a Glaswegian comedy club and you talk about Braveheart having sex with toddlers (Princess Isabelle would have been four if that movie was accurate), you get uproarious applause. This is what separates the West from the rest”our ability to take it on the chin.
But if you make a cartoon of a cartoon drawing a cartoon of Muhammad in a bear costume, terrorists try to kill you. By kowtowing to intolerant extremists both here and abroad we are submitting to Islam’s worst characteristics. When I heard high-school students in Utah were told their team’s cougar mascot is sexist, I was reminded of the Taliban confiscating kids” stuffed animals because they were considered blasphemous.
I say we shouldn”t be bowing to Islamic or PC-extremist tantrums by apologizing for and censoring everything that offends them. By second-guessing everything we do, we more than appease and empower the enemy”we do their job for them. Why is every comment on the Internet shrouded in anonymity? That’s not “the land of the free.” As writer Lisa Carver put it:
The self-love, the bravery, the in-your-facery that made America great in the way it was great….Walt Whitman, Anne Sexton, flappers, expatriates, talk shows”that all came from the boldness of being a nation on the ascent. This is the descent, and we don”t know how to do it; we don”t have the manners that helped the Brits retain grace while losing their empire. Confused, we look for enemies…who did this to us? This is how the police state begins. From within.
It’s a natural impulse to want to censor things that make you uncomfortable, but to give into it is to surrender our culture. That is more than a waste of time; it’s the beginning of the end.
