UNSAVORY TOPICS II

It’s my birthday. I’m 62 years old. ‘Nuff said.

I’ve little love for so-called “reality shows.”  Outside of Fangasm
and Heroes of Cosplay, which I watched because they touched on my
world, the only such programs I watch even occasionally are House
Hunters and House Hunters International. 

I loathe most reality shows.  If I come across them while channel-
surfing or if I walk into a room where a loved one is watching one
of them, I find myself wishing a flaming meteor would fall from the
sky to flatten Jon and Kate...or the sister wives and their creepy
“husband”...or the teen moms...or, well, you get the idea. I know
there must be a special hell reserved for each and every adult who
is involved in making pedophile TV programs like that Toddlers and
Tiaras abomination. I’m a hater and I cannot lie.

In my defense, I hate such TV shows because they are terrible shows
and because they suck the intelligence out of viewers and promote
a sordid voyeurism.  Firefly didn’t last a year, but they have made
how many seasons of The Real Life and Big Brother?

If you want to see true hate and ignorance, gentle readers, I give
you Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the Duck Dynasty, who, in an
interview with GQ magazine, paraded his bigotry and racism for all
to see.  My Facebook and Twitter response to him:

Fuck Duck Dynasty and the bigot it rode in on.

Elegant it wasn’t, but it expressed my long-established disdain for
so-called “Christians” who wrap themselves in their soiled bibles
and embrace a hatred the Savior they claim to worship would never
condone, a hatred He never stated in the precious book they believe
comes from God and not from fallible men who were products of their
ancient unenlightened times and likely pursuing their own agendas.
Any wonder I now revere a giant radioactive lizard?

One of the more common responses to this Facebook/Twitter rudeness
of mine boiled down to...he’s entitled to his opinion.

Technically, that’s absolutely correct, though I’ll never see such
bigotry and racism as a legitimate opinion.  I consider it to be a
mental illness and a moral deficiency.  Even more so when it’s put
forth as some sort of affirmation of one’s religious beliefs.  If
your God actually requires such intolerance from His followers, I
respectfully suggest you need a better God.

Speaking of intolerance, I saw this “tweet” coming ten miles away
because this bilge always surfaces when I write about bigotry and
my unswerving opposition to bigotry.  An anonymous fellow who goes
by the name “Old Comic Smell” posted this:

Because the guy has an opinion that differs from yours? How very
tolerant of you.

It’s true.  I am intolerant of intolerance. This fellow exposed me
as a hypocrite to all six of his followers.  My reputation has now
been destroyed and my career is over.  It’s a shame the heroic “Old
Comic Smell” apparently can’t reveal his real name.  I’m guessing
that would put his loved ones in jeopardy.

If you want to talk actual hypocrites, you need go no further than
the ninnies of the right.  When Martin Bashir made unkind comments
about one individual, the perpetually toxic Sarah Palin, on MSNBC,
the Fox News crowd exploded with frothing rage.  Bashir apologized
for his remarks and resigned from MSNBC.

No one called this a First Amendment issue, probably because most
educated people understand that the First Amendment only applies to
government censorship.  Some called it a freedom of speech matter,
though, again, educated people do understand that while a person is
perfectly free to say almost anything, said person is not and has
never been guaranteed freedom from the consequences of what he
or she has said. 

The ninnies of the right were incensed by Bashir’s comments about
an individual.  They were perfectly fine with Robertson’s horrible
comments about all homosexuals...and they seem to think it’s some
terrible violation of basic decency and the Constitution that A&E,
the network which airs Duck Dynasty, has suspended or maybe fired
Robertson from the series.  Because consequences should only apply
to those who disagree with the hypocrites of the right.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the third installment of this “unsavory
topics” series.  Collect them all.

© 2013 Tony Isabella