Dumbass.
So the latest salvo in the alleged "Culture Wars" is the
sacking of "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson for making homophobic and quasi-racist comments. As one might expect, these talking points seem to emerge en masse from the Right, with exactly the same talking points spewing from their opinion holes almost simultaneously.
As if reading from the same playbook, wingnuts like Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh left their oily smears all over the controversy, decrying the blows to "free speech" and "religious liberty", and of course, invoking the evangelical Right's bogeyman. Quoth Jindal:
The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with.
FOX contributor
Gerald Geraldo Rivera also invoked the lurking horror:
I want to say it’s ridiculous to suspend him over his remarks. It’s political correctness that’s gotten malignant.
And of course, so did
El Rushbo (link goes to his site):
I think a lot of people are sick and tired of being pushed around by a very small minority of leftists who use weapons, like political correctness and censorship, intimidation, and everything else, in order to shut up the people who say things they don't want to hear or disagree with.
I have a few thoughts on the use of terms like "free speech" and "political correctness" in this context, of course. If you care to hear them, join me over the Great Divider Doodle.
The term "political correctness" is code, as are its adjectival and adverbial forms. When you see them used, one may insert the sentence "I want to be able to disparage minorities and historically oppressed groups without personal consequence" into any screed containing the terms. That is the sentiment being communicated.
The same can be said of any paean to "freedom of speech" or "religious liberty" in the context of non-governmental consequences for unclosing one's cake trap and allowing hate-filled detritus to spew therefrom. (Or for that matter, complaints about "playing the race card" or "being humorless" or similar attempts to reverse the argument.)
And make no mistake: the people making these pleas know exactly what they're doing. Their memories are not so short that they forgot what they did to the Dixie Chicks ten years ago. They certainly haven't forgotten their attack on Martin Bashir only two weeks ago -- even the same Sarah Palin who rushed to Phil Robertson's defense had no problem with Bashir losing his job.
Because they know damned well that free speech is not freedom from consequence. They know that employers have the right to fire people for saying asshole things (indeed, the GOP took steps last month to preserve employers' rights to fire the very people Phil Robertson disparaged simply for existing and being gay). And they know that the First Amendment does not restrict private citizens' responses to free speech via exercise of their own free speech and free association.
But they do know that they can score rhetorical points and curry favor with their base with this rhetoric. They also know that by misappropriating the First Amendment and invoking the "political correctness" trope, they invert the argument about the perniciousness of bigotry. Just as they did by deflecting outrage against Sarah Palin through attacking Martin Bashir, just as they defend Rush Limbaugh from his dwindling advertiser base (h/t ProgLegs) by screaming "Censorship!" they are demanding the offended and outraged justify themselves rather than address the cause of the outrage.
The media and political figures who do it simply want to appeal to their base, increase their popularity among their base, and politically or financially profit thereby. But their base -- they are the ones who want to be able to preserve their privilege, be proud in their bigotry, and suffer no consequence for it, even as they demand the censure and censorship of those who say things of which the bigots don't approve.
This is what's going on with this right-wing backlash. This is what's going on every. single. time. that the Right invokes "free speech" or "political correctness" to defend against blowback from the consequences of their own actions.
Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequence. Taking offense at the offensive is not political correctness. People who want the right to disparage people without consequence are bigots and cowards.
And as a footnote, this is a lesson we on the Left need to remember too. I've seen some of the same buzzwords appear in the lefty blogosphere, including here on the Great Orange Satan, when people are called out for bigoted language and bigoted argumentation. We must be better than that.