Something’s in the air, it seems. First Rush and now Bill O’Reilly. Both are self-important gasbags (unlike your humble scribe, who is only quasi-self-important) whom I wouldn’t cross the room to speak to. And both are being subjected to scurrilous charges of RACISM!!1! by those who find their views inconvenient but their access to a microphone intolerable.
Juan Williams, NPR correspondent and noted author on race comes to O’Reilly’s rescue.
These are the witch trials of the 21st century.
I wonder sometimes: Is the world really getting uglier? Or are we all just paying better attention?
The last time it was close to being this bad was during Watergate, and it just might have been worse then, but I doubt it. But I was mostly apolitical during that time, and besides that, I was the 70s equivalent of a moonbat.
Still and even, what with the proliferation of media outlets, the ‘net, the netroots, blogs, et al…it’s probably worse now. Makes one REALLY worry, it does.
Sadly and tragically, each of us is subject to the same allegations in the workplace. Some superiors are quick (eager, even) to find racism when alleged, or fearful of their own jobs should they not jump on the racism wagon.
And us WASPS (remember that old term?) while ineligible to be victims of racism ourselves, are almost the only ones capable of being racists.
It’s a tough, ugly world.
Seems everyone these days is offended by something and with the media doing all they can to make a story out of little or nothing, if one is so inclined, he/she gets to tell the world about it. Thankfully, we’re not all inclined to whine continuously but tend to go on with our lives, offended or not.
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In 12 months you’ll look back on this as a time of civil discourse filled with mutual respect.
The true racists are those who believe that to be black means to be a gansta rapper…..
Those who are pushing an entire race down into a different, but equally bad slavery.
shame.
d
Cap’n,
With all due respect, a Naval Aviator (especially one who flies F/A birds) who is not self important is a contradiction in terms. The difference is these folks feel it necessary to actively convince you of their self-worth.
Naval aviators simply wait for you to recognize the obvious.
I made this comment on Shrinkwrapped’s (http://shrinkwrapped.blogs.com/blog/2007/09/liberalism-raci.html#comment-84406700) site, but it bears repeating here.
In the PC world we have today it is difficult to say anything about race without being labeled a racist. With that caveat, here goes.
I believe that what many perceive as racial differences are actually class differences. Let me amplify.
When I was a Navy pilot I associated with a certain class of people. We were all well educated, reasonably smart, ambitious, aggressive, conservative, and we shared the same attitudes about service to our country. It was a built in social system. These were people I enjoyed working with and socializing with. Many might decry the lack of diversity. But in a way it illustrated a poem my grandmother taught me:
“Birds of a feather flock together
And so do pigs and swine.
Ducks and geese will have their choice
And so will I have mine”
So, what happened when two African Americans joined the squadron?
Nothing, absolutely nothing. They were welcomed because, in spite of the color of their skin, they shared all the previously mentioned traits .
As Martin Luther King asked, we evaluated them on the content of their character not the color of their skin. They were not members of our race, but they were members of our class. And that made all the difference.
Racisim has been good for at least a few folks…
Quite lucrative indeed.
this from one who was usually the brownest one in a very white world….
I think if you parse O’Reilly’s statement carefully he is making a good point-this emphasis on diversity has gone way too far. This whole nonsense of having a “black” or “white” cultural identity is what fosters a big part of this problem. All races need to assimilate into an “American” identity and culture.
Which means ditching the long T-shirts, backwards hats and baggy pants by the way.
Guess that makes me a racist.
Now all that said-seeing O’Reilly get fisked by the same tactics he uses on others is pretty satisfying indeed.
A note to Looking Glass here:
No we won’t.
I was alive and cognizant during the McCarthy era. I listened to the hearings in my dorm living room. We won’t forget what the social fractures of today’s society are. I haven’t forgotten what they were then. Mankind behaving badly.
But yes. I think it can get worse. Dammit
Marianne Matthews
Marianne,
I think that was LG’s point. Things will continue to get so worse that–looking back–today will seem tame by comparison.
It’s what I’ve seen in my own lifetime.
I tell my kids to remember that they are living in their Good Old Days.
MD
Limbaugh & O’Reilly both “self-important” gasbags? O’Reilly demagogues a bit, but that’s his schtick, and how he reaches his market demo. Limbaugh however is the soul of humility. You really haven’t listened to him. If anything, he’s the everyman’s WFB.
Things are no different now than they were yesterday, or will be tomorrow. If there was a period of tempered discourse, it was because one side was bound, gagged, and locked in the trunk away from public access, while the left controlled the media for forty years.
MM, I recommend reading WFB’s McCarthy and his Enemies. Time does dull memories.
I grew up in the same area in which Mr. Williams lives. I went to school in a rough area which was mostly Black. I was then, and am now, disgusted with the “Black” culture being pushed. A lot of the Black kids with whom I went to school had two working parents who earned more money than mine. Yet, they bought into the idea that to be Black, they had to sell drugs, or be thugs. Within 4 yrs or so, my graduating class had lost almost 9%- an overwhelming amount were drug related deaths. Most of my friends are Black and they have been called “Wanna be’s or Oreos” for seeking education and speaking proper English.
When Bill Cosby first aired, I recall the Black community castigating him for an unreal premise. That there would be a Black lawyer and doctor married, raising a “nuclear” family. Yet The Cosby Show portrayed a life that was more in tune with my friends and their families. I did, however, see the violent, self hating culture everyday in school and in great abundance. As Mr. Williams points out, Bill Cosby caused quite a stir with his comments about the Black community needing to look within, and not at the Whites of America for the failings in their community. But then, he has a very personal stake in it. As I recall, his son was a victim of Black on Black murder. But, in my experience, diversity, racism complainers, and feminism are big business. Oh, btw, has anybody called Jesse a racist for questioning the “blackness” of Sen Obama? I guess being well educated, well spoken and intelligent is just reserved for Whites, right? Idiots.
If you have an interest in American history, go see the Abraham Lincoln National Museum in Springfield, IL. It does a wonderful job of taking you back to his era. Superb quality and effects.
One of the things that struck me was how deeply and bitterly the population was divided WITHIN the north. And the mainstream media of the day, especially in the more populous states of the east, were stoking these divisions with caustic diatribes against Lincoln, and insulting characterizations of him.
I had no idea how personal and vitriolic these attacks were, and by some of the most widely read “MSM” of the day.
I did get a new perspective on the present.
Gasbags? Sure they both expel a cow’s carbon credits worth of CO2 a year.. Well paid & market reaching gasbags- yes. Relevant messages- yes, mostly.
O’Reilly of course as Himself for himself and by himself- Despite that trait…I have never observed a guy who really and honestly tries to get to the bottom of this racial thing. Have you ever seen the guests he has on..they truly run the range from Black Panthers to Gangstas to Black conservatives.. This whole thing is his strong suit. His weak suit- his own limited NYC centric view of what makes us RedZone conservative Americans tick when it comes to Guns, religion (values) and war…Basically he is a bloviating, opinionated, domineering, TV version of Rudy G. I often wonder if he ever watches his own show..Do I watch him? I often do- at least the first 5 minutes….
Again- on Rush. I can’t listen to him during the day when he is on, however 98% of the snarky, ironical things he often points out in his own bloviating way is more often than not- Right On.
Racists? Hell no. More like long winded, self important Diogene’s like characters.
Looking Glass up above makes a prescient statement. Take that with Flatlanders uncomfortable point and teleport us back to 1857 Inverse.
b2
I refuse to listen to either Limbaugh or O’Reilly precisely because the are self-important gasbags, but I’ve also got to say that if I EVER discovered that I agreed with Juan Williams on anything I would have to immediately rethink my position. As far as I can tell, Williams can never be swayed by logic on any issue. His position is reliably so far left that he makes Howard Dean look like a conservative.
I prefer the less-windy and more apocryphal Glenn Beck to the other conservatives gas-bags… but, O’Reilly IS amusing to watch. Racist? I never thought so… and I did hear the whole deal when it first aired. But, it did remind me of walking on eggs… no need to hop, you’ll break plenty just walking. O’Reilly seems to like hopping.