Posted on 12/21/2013 11:36:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
If you're confused how a duck hunting entrepreneur's disparaging comments about gay people became the biggest news story of the week, you're not alone.
There were plenty of other things to talk about, from Iran and Syria, to Obamacare and the NSA, yet "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson's suspension from A&E commanded by far the most interest, as anyone who monitors traffic for news websites could tell you. The story has stayed atop the news ranking site Memeorandum's leaderboard for the past three days and absolutely dominated Google searches compared to other stories:
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Why? You could blame a slow news week, our infatuation with celebrity culture, the media's love of inanity, etc. But I'll hazard another guess: The story provided profound psychological satisfaction for both sides in the culture war by confirming deep, ugly suspicions of the other side.
Take two of the most cited columns from the right and left, which generally encapsulated the response from either side.
Matt Lewis wrote at the conservative Daily Caller that the controversy exposed that "there really are two Americas" -- a conservative, rural, Christian America that feels under attack from a cosmopolitan, blue America.
Responding to Lewis from the left, Business Insider's Josh Barro agreed, but added that "one [America] is better than the other." There's the one where it's OK to dehumanize gays as subhuman and claim that blacks were happier under Jim Crow than they are today, as Robertson suggested, and then there's the better one where it's not OK to say those things, Barro argues.
Each column elicited a chorus of "amens" from their respective side, and therein lies the appeal of the Robertson saga.
For urban liberals, it's hard to find a more cartoonishly distilled stereotype of the American South and modern conservative masculinity than Phil Robertson, with his ZZ Top beard, camouflage everything, and molasses Louisiana drawl. So Robertson's comments, then, were seemingly confirmation of the urban liberal's worst suspicions about Southern White conservatives: They really are all as bigoted as I thought!
Of course that's not entirely true, but it's much easier to think of the other side as a cartoon than as a complex, nuanced human, so this kind of apparent confirmation provides deep satisfaction that the way you think you understand the world is actually true and has been all along.
For conservatives, it's the inverse. A&E's (read: the liberal media) decision to fire Robertson and the left's glee at his removal is confirmation that your world and everything you hold dear really is under attack. Urban liberals really do hate my Christian, traditional, rural values. This country really is slipping away.
As Lewis wrote, the right sees it as "an attack on 'unsophisticated' country folks as much as it is an attack on orthodox Christianity." America is becoming a country conservatives no longer recognize, and when a guy like Robertson gets fired for espousing a deeply held religious belief -- a view shared, by the way, by almost half of Americans -- that is terrifying. Mark Steyn wrote Friday in the National Review that the firing harkins a coming "age of intolerance" against Christians.
Of course, both sides' reductionist views are incomplete. But the satisfaction of feeling like you were just given license to continue holding that incomplete view -- and to remain inside your comfortable bubble -- is what drove so many clicks and Tweets and comments on the Robertson story.
It's license to continue misunderstanding the other side.
Otherwise, they would have no objection to what Phil Robertson said.
Don’t miss the big picture here. It is more than some “redneck guy who doesn’t like gays”. Phil Robertson touched a nerve in what I believe is the majority of Americans who love this country, love God, love their family and their way of life. A small minority seeks to control us and eliminate our way of life from America. Everything from forcing school children to believe homosexuality is perfectly normal to removing God from every conceivable sphere of society to forcing businesses to accept and promote homosexuality and even employees losing their jobs because of their religious beliefs. Maybe this situation will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and moral citizens will be willing to finally push back against evil.
I understand A &E sacrificing hundreds of millions of dollars to publically lynch Robertson. Lockheed Martin cutting off the Boy Scouts completely because they did not bend over quickly enough; Anthony Kennedy ruling the legislative and executive branches unconstituional in regards to DoMA.
This is total war, both sides are an existential threat to each other but this guy is above it all. Good for him and his psychological superiority. I'm sure he'll be made to care in a grusome way.
Thanks. I remembered Jesus saying that in the NT.
I had never watched the show. Walked by the merchandise and wondered about why they were so popular but never checked it out until now.
Yes, they admit the show is scripted. They plan out skits. But even if it is 100% scripted and you view it as a sitcom..there are plenty of laugh out loud moments.
I will say if it is 100% scripted the writers are better than a lot of comedy shows and the “actors” do a better job, too.
Btw, I have never seen an animal skinned but they love to show Phil ripping the skin off squirrels, ducks, and catfish.
Seems like more and more people are getting fed up with the secular attack on Christmas. This year I have noticed way more people, clerks in stores especially wishing me a Merry Christmas, or when I say it they say it back with a big smile.
It’s a big story only because the USA has a big case of collective self-loathing White Guilt.
Nothing is worse than a bias “crime.” Murder is OK. Theft is really OK. But saying “watermelon” or “niggardly” is unforgiveable. Nothing can even come close.
“Maybe this situation will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and moral citizens will be willing to finally push back against evil.”
If good comes of it it will be worth it. Maybe if I’d ever seen the show I’d appreciate the situation more.
No he didn't.
Look at the number of stories about garbage A&E and the duck dude as compared to the ones about what is going on in Utah and New Mexico. If 10 years ago someone told you to pick the story that would dwarf the other as far as coverage— one is about a cable TV reality show on a garbage network that fired one of their stars over believing homosexuality is a sin—the other is about two whole states of the union that were ordered by judges to accept ‘gay marriage’ despite one of them having an amendment against it, which one would you have picked?
Something is wrong with the ratio of coverage here, in my opinion. Not saying things like Chick-fil-A and Duck Dynasty aren’t important, just maybe not as important as to dwarf the coverage/outrage of two states apparently going ‘gay marriage’ within a day or even hours of each other. If the Utah thing stands, that’s 17 states that have accepted it or will accept it by my count.
FReegards
I think it really just comes down to this. Either you believe homosexual behavior is sin or you don’t.
The real reason this was the top story of the week is that the culture wars aren’t anywhere near “lost”.
No, they are not. If we would fight instead of surrender, the outcome may be different.
When holding views that 40 years ago and 400 years ago were the norm (homosexuality is unnatural, unhealthy, abnormal) are now a sin worth banishment from the public sphere if not firing from a job, loss of a business or suspension from school for “bullying” - something radically changed. And it is the progressive elite in power, not the average people.
But revolutions become more likely when the leadership is radically different from the general population, because they are no longer seen as legitimate or “one of us”.
The Duck Dynasty case is classic because what he said is in print, the reaction by the TV show was public and there’s no he-said-she-said. He didn’t call for the execution of gays like Iran actually carries out, only saying that normal guys prefer women and it is a sin in his religion. If that is absolutely verboten, whereas saying the opposite 50 years ago landed you in a psyche ward, the problem is the world-view of those in charge.
And his case is confirmation that the over-reactions of a child suspended for calling another gay or one adult fired over an LBGTA person’s behavior aren’t one off instances. The overwhelmingly positive response by liberal media to his firing and calling his statements hate PROVE the abuse of the term “hate” to shut down all views not 100% supportive of homosexual lifestyle. The demand to change his tagline to “gay, gay, gay” from “happy, happy, happy” to say you can continue if you repent and get co-opted are another.
You are no longer allowed by those in charge to publicly proclaim the non-PC view without consequences. And the Duck Dynasty case is public proof for the world to see, vindicating the suspicions of millions who’ve seen small case after small case.
Then, of course, there's the third America where people like Mr. Barro, make stuff up and twist one's actual words to demonize the speaker. But, that's another column.
And then there is the America that spins statements into total lies. Phil did not say anything about Jim Crow nor did he dehumanize anyone. And, yes, I do fully understand the other sides' role in all of this and it isn't pretty. My take on why this is making headlines is because Christians are getting fed up turning the other cheek and are beginning to speak out. It's also about the government-led msm using it as another distraction while they pull more of their carp to destroy America.
This extremely sensitive fellow doesn’t get it.....One side of this debate is allowed to say anything it wants without fear of reprisal, the other is fired for expressing any view other than that held by the first group. Makes it mighty hard to have an intelligent conversation, doesn’t it? This political correctness must be destroyed before there can ever be any sort of “dialogue” about anything.
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