So they have a big memorial for Charlie Kirk and Fox News puts it on the air and Donald Trump was so broken up by Charlie’s death, he used the occasion to talk about how much he hated his opponents and promised retribution for those who oppose him, like recently telling reporters aboard Air Force One the FCC should look into the licenses of networks and evening shows that criticize him:
“When you have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump. That’s all they do. When you go back, take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that.”
So in Trump World, people aren’t allowed to criticize the president which means I have a slightly different interpretation of what Charlie Kirk’s Memorial looks like.
Trump also used the memorial to promote an upcoming announcement about curing autism and how amazed we were all going to be (he wasn’t wrong about that) because in his mind every occasion is actually about Donald J. Trump and here’s what he had to say when he was asked how he was holding up after Charlie Kirk’s assassination:
“I think very good. And by the way, right there where you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something they’ve been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years, and it’s gonna be a beauty.”
Donald Trump is pretty much free to say whatever he wants, but so is Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy ridiculed that response and said the fourth stage of grief was “construction” and we’ll have a lot more about Jimmy Kimmel before we’re through.
Anyway…
People—as you may have already concluded—can be incredible hypocrites. They’ll condemn someone for doing something, then turn around and do the exact same thing themselves, but when they do it, they’ll think of rationalization that makes doing it OK.
All of which reminds me of the 1983 movie The Big Chill.
And even more specifically, reminds me of Jeff Goldblum who played an irritating character that (as those Apartment.com ads indicate) seemed to be largely based on his own personality and here’s a scene in which he argues that peoples’ need to rationalize is more important than their need to have sex.
Just in case you didn’t watch it, Tom Berenger (who’s apparently getting laid a lot) argues nothing’s more important than sex and Jeff asks Tom if he’s ever gone a week without a rationalization.
Good—and somewhat depressing—point.
Which gets us (however slowly) to my point, which is that the Republicans complained about “cancel culture” (the idea that if you didn’t agree with the Liberals and Democrats position on pretty much everything, your show, podcast or used car dealership public appearance should be cancelled) and cancel culture was getting out of hand.
And the Republicans weren’t totally wrong about that.
People were (and are) getting in hot water for comments they made back when the comments they made were considered publicly acceptable, but now—armed with a new set of rules for political correctness—people with nothing better to do, were and are going back through old tweets and interviews and finding brand new gotcha moments because apparently some people’s lives are enriched by fucking up the lives of others.
And according to the New York Times, here’s what Trump had to say about censorship during his second inauguration speech:
“Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.” He later added that any kind of censorship in the name of combating disinformation was “intolerable in a free society.”
And since my mind retains useless information while forgetting the precise location of my car keys or all 9-digits of my Social Security number, the term “cancel culture” reminded me of the band Culture Club and in the following cartoon (much to the distress of Boy George) The Cancel Culture Club now includes Donald Trump and a variety of Republicans:
And now back to Jimmy Kimmel.
Jimmy said Trump and the MAGA Republicans were using Charlie Kirk’s assassination to shut down dissent. Here’s the quote that got Jimmy in trouble:
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
If you think about it—and I’m in a profession where I have to—Jimmy Kimmel did not say Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA Republican; he said the MAGA Republicans were desperate to characterize the assassin as someone other than one of them, which is walking a fine line (kind of what comedians do) but technically accurate.
Nevertheless, a variety of Republicans were outraged and said Jimmy Kimmel had misrepresented the truth, but then misrepresented the truth themselves when they said Jimmy had been fired and his show was cancelled.
He wasn’t and it wasn’t.
The show was suspended and Jimmy’s already back on the air and I’m guessing his ratings will be better than ever because people will want to hear what Jimmy has to say about all this. And just in case you do, here’s an article about it:
https://apnews.com/article/jimmy-kimmel-returns-suspension-charlie-kirk-a2
And Now A Word About Corporate Weasels
In my experience, Corporate Weasels (which would be a great name for a flag football team) believe in nothing except their own survival and will feed their own mothers to rabid hyenas if it means they get to keep their jobs and expense accounts and now that my mother has turned 100 years old I’m starting to see their point.
(C’mon, mom, you’re really pushing that “three score and ten” limit.)
Once some (not all) Republicans went batshit about Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks, a variety of Corporate Weasels associated with ABC refused to air Jimmy’s show, which pissed off an entirely different set of people and not knowing whose ass needs to be kissed, the Corporate Weasels put Jimmy back on the air almost immediately and therein lies a lesson:
If you do anything worthwhile you’re going to piss off somebody so you might as well do exactly what you want to do and piss off the right people.
The alternative is doing nothing worthwhile which is a course a number of people have chosen and they just try to keep their heads down and not get noticed and are willing to kiss whatever ass gets presented to them, but then go home and drink three Manhattans to get the taste of ass out of their mouths, yell at their family and now that they’re shitfaced, attempt to kick the dog, but miss wide right, which from what I’ve been seeing this season means they totally qualified to play in the NFL.
But I digress as I am wont to do.
BTW:
I have never used the word “wont” before and it means “customary behavior” so why not just say “customary behavior” and I wont use it again. (Man…that was a lot of work for a sophomoric joke which, come to think of it, describes my entire career.)
Now Back to Misrepresenting the Facts
There were—and I suppose still are—people saying Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a Right Winger, but as I said in a previous essay, we don’t yet know what motivated the shooter and maybe ought to withhold judgment, which didn’t stop some guy I never heard of from getting on Facebook and claiming I said the shooter was a MAGA Republican, which is 100% inaccurate.
Here’s what I actually wrote:
“Since Charlie Kirk’s death Trump has blamed the people on the Far Left even though we don’t know what motivated the shooter and now there are people claiming the shooter actually made his base camp on the Far Right and when you don’t know something (a condition we have a hard time admitting to because social media demands that we have firm opinions and have them right now this minute) the least you can do is withhold judgment.”
The Facebook dude then said I was responsible for the divisiveness in America which means I’m way more important and Donald Trump is way less important than either one of us seems to think.
Today’s Lesson
The First Amendment and Free Speech are a Big Deal, but when people get freaked out they’re likely to agree to pretty much anything (9/11 and the Patriot Act come to mind) and right now some people are promoting the idea that dissent and speech should be limited, but there are already rules about that.
The First Amendment does not protect: “obscenity, child pornography, defamation, incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats and fighting words.”
Trying to use Charlie Kirk’s death to ban legitimate criticism has even bothered some of the Republicans smart enough to know they won’t always be in power and whatever limits they set up now will eventually be used against them.
As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote:
The remedy to harmful speech is “more speech, not enforced silence.” And he wrote that in 1927 and if you think someone is full of shit (and that includes me and Jimmy Kimmel) use more free speech to explain why you think that.
It’s why we have a comments section.
You’re free to comment and I’m free to ignore your comment or rebut your comment which I probably won’t do because those internet feuds wind up solving nothing, and as I understand it, a Facebook disagreement is how the Hatfield and McCoy feud got started which ended tragically when Romeo Hatfield and Juliet McCoy wound up committing suicide.
You may want to check that last bit and if I got it wrong, leave a comment.
It’s how America works.
Lee, you are wont to make me laugh!
Wow. Just showed my math prowess. Should have been 5 score.