Toxic little hypocrites

Yes, right, of course. Of course Alec Baldwin can call a gay man a “toxic little queen,” threaten to physically attack him, and then ask his fans to track him down and assault him. Of course this will be forgiven immediately and he won’t lose his sponsorships or any opportunities to star in TV shows or films. Of course his wife can actually justify his vulgar threats and blatant gay bashing by saying “we have a lot of gay friends,” and this excuse will be somehow viewed as acceptable. Of course he has lashed out like this consistently through the years, threatening violence against women and hurling racial epithets at minorities. Of course Mel Gibson has been permanently exiled from the mainstream for his antics, which aren’t half as bad or anywhere close to as common as Baldwin’s. And of course, while this latest Baldwin incident unfolds to little backlash, we are treated to the paradoxical spectacle of Paula Deen losing her livelihood all because of a word she said thirty years ago, in a context and with an intent that wasn’t nearly as hateful as what Baldwin just said this past week.

Of course. Hypocrisy, inconsistency, confusion, insanity, absurdity. Of course. We could spend all day, every day, every week, all year pointing out similar scenarios. This is the world we live in, folks. This is America circa 2013. This is what happens in a culture without principles. This is inevitable in a society of moral relativists. These people, these pop culture cattle, these Obama cultists, these mass media sheep, these oblivious fools, they don’t care about anything. It’s not that they have “different values” — they have no values. It’s called relativism. It used to be a philosophy preached from fringes of society by borderline psychos — now it’s mainstream. It’s assumed. The disciples of Christianity built the West, but what they constructed has long since been invaded and now nearly taken over. The builders were working from a blueprint drawn by men like Jesus, Paul and Aquinas. But the termites who eat away at its foundation were hatched from eggs laid by cranks like Nietzsche, Kant, and Marx.

This Paula Deen/Alec Baldwin deal is but one very small and insignificant symptom of this infestation. So why can one person say horrible things and get a pass, while another can say less horrible things, less frequently and receive a metaphorical death sentence? Well, this question can only throw you for a loop if you think we simply live under the oppressive thumb of “political correctness,” where we must be very careful about what we say because people are extremely sensitive, to an almost Puritanical degree. But that’s not the case. Have you listened to a song recently? Watched a movie? Tuned into morning radio? Flipped on some reality TV? Listened to a couple of teenagers carry on? Overheard a conversation at a restaurant or a bar or, like, anywhere else? People say horrible, vulgar, violent, vile, hateful things all the time. The air is filled with the stench of the sewage that drains out of our collective mouth. Puritanical? We’re the most permissive society in the history of the world. Switch on Comedy Central anytime after 6pm and you’ll likely see someone making a joke about rape or pedophilia. Politically correct? Lil Wayne stomped on an American flag and it hasn’t put the slightest dent in his popularity. Hell, the simple fact that he is popular in the first place should tell you something. Sure, SOME people are punished for saying bad things, but it’s not the bad thing that people have a problem with. Clearly. It’s just the person who said it. Don’t give this culture any credit. It isn’t “easily offended.” It isn’t offended by anything. At least if you’re offended — even easily — it means you have SOME sort of value or some semblance of a principle.

Public outrage is almost always feigned, fleeting, directionless, and arbitrary. People don’t actually care that Paula Deen said the “n-word,” anymore than they cared that Mel Gibson got drunk and cussed out a couple cops. It’s what they believe (inaccurately, for the most part) these offenders to represent that truly angers them. Gibson was a vulgar drunk for many years but it only made him a pariah once he got on the mainstream’s bad side by releasing the Passion of the Christ. In the eyes of the left wing, the only sin he ever really committed was making a beautiful movie about Jesus. Paula Deen, although a Democrat, is a white southern Christian. Her brand has been built around that identity. It’s that identity that people hate, not the word she used. The guy who owns Chick-fil-A became a target when he articulated a Biblical stance on marriage. The people who tried to hang him for it said it was “just bad business” for him to “get involved in such a controversial issue.” Meanwhile, Pepsi Co contracted for a long time with a company that used aborted fetal tissue for flavor research. I’d say that’s a bit “controversial,” yet only pro-lifers seemed to care.

Bad business, bad words, bad actions, none of this matters. The secular left doesn’t care in principle about any of these things, in fact they usually celebrate them. The only thing that makes a difference to them is whether or not you stand for — or are perceived to stand for — “traditional” values, moral absolutes, natural law and faith. If so, you are a heretic and whatever you say, good and bad, will be used to build a case against you. Those are the battle lines. If you are on one side, you can say or do whatever you want and you’ll still be accepted and loved. If you are on the other, you can say or do whatever you want and you’ll still be hated and reviled. It’s as simple as that, and the sooner we all understand it, the better.