In the early Renaissance, with the invention of the printing press, making print much cheaper and easier to produce, the Catholic church, recognizing that it was easier to spread heresy by written word than by word of mouth in a time when travel was quite difficult and time consuming, came up with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, known in modern times as the "Index of Forbidden Books." Books that made the list were destroyed by fire if found, sometimes along with the people who owned them (unless of course said people had money or friends to bribe their way out of it).
This post is not intended to be a history lesson, but rather to compare the tyranny of the medieval-minded authorities to the tyranny of modern neo-liberalism. When I was younger my dad used to go on about how all of the "Politically Correct" speech was just getting so out-of-hand, and how he could foresee a time when it might be absolutely ridiculous. Well, folks, we have arrived there. When twitter erupted with the proverbial pitchforks and torches in a cry to throw Steven Colbert out of the studio over a tweet he made, you know that society has gone too far. Look, of course there is polite conversation and not-so-polite conversation and then of course down-right-rude conversation, but whether you like it or not (and I'm of the opinion that a lot actually don't like it) we have something called freedom of speech in this country. You're supposed to be able to say whatever you like (crying fire in a crowded theater, when there is not a fire, notwithstanding), and not have to fear for losing your livelihood. But that's exactly where we've come to. Plenty of times in the last ten or fifteen years, people have said stuff that wasn't that bad in my opinion (but what do I know? I'm just an artist) who had their lives destroyed, their incomes vanish, their jobs taken away from them, because a bunch of stupid people couldn't, or wouldn't, go on about their lives without being upset over someone saying something that "offended" them. I didn't necessarily agree with what was said in those other cases, but I didn't get upset over it. But now we've all got to be righteously offended, and if we're not then we must be the bad guy (see: racist, sexist, fill-in-the-blank-ist). And when I say righteously offended, I don't mean offended over any real injustice. I just mean over fake, inconsequential, bullshit words on the page or screen. It isn't real people. Whether it's a joke, a book, a blog post, a game, a comic, or whatever, it in no way affects you unless you decide to look at it. In the meanwhile...
If you want to be offended over something, be offended that even though we live in the 21st century, that approximately thirty million people live in slavery and many more are victims of human trafficking. That fact alone kinda makes your "outrage" over Colbert, and even your "outrage" of the name of a football team pale in comparison. There's plenty of other things to be outraged about as well, and I won't deign to pretend that I could list them all here, from transgendered youth being beaten up and bullied, to people losing their jobs because of real racism (which has nothing to do with the name of a football team or what Colbert said). But what Colbert tweeted, isn't even at the bottom of the list. It ain't even on the list. Why not get off your computer if you're so outraged and go do something to help an actual person, instead of typing stupid crap on twitter? There are food banks that need volunteers, and elderly people who need help doing chores around their house, and the list goes on and on. I suppose it's easier to target inane things on the internet rather than risk your safety, or take up your actual valuable time (time that could be wasted on twitter!) doing something that might actually make the difference in someone's life. Am I minimizing your angst? Why, yes, yes I am. Because I think it's ridiculous. These little spoiled spoon-fed twenty-somethings that think they know something, going on about all of the things they see as injustice, when they haven't grown old enough to realize that the world doesn't really care what they think.
Also, I'd like to use this topic to inform you that I have come to the conclusion that the more times that the word 'privilege' is used in any manner than the traditional sense of the word, the probability that the writer is themselves a privileged jackwaggon (in the traditional sense of the word), approaches one. You can call that T's Law. Hope you're not outraged. If you are, I don't give a rip.
By the way, it was a beautiful day today. The sun was shining, we had a lovely dinner, and I have worked nearly forty hours this week. I'm serious, be thankful for what you have and get off the computer and go outside and play. What people write on twitter, is a tempest in a teacup.
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