I see conservatives are already blaming The Left for ousting racist billionaire Clippers Owner DonaldSterling:
So the norm should be that people who make ill advised and embarrassing comments in private should "fall"? What a lovely state the left is building.I said this when a corporation fired Paula Deen and when a board of directors fired Brendan Eich, but let's try again to make it nice and sparkling clear for the hard-of-thinking:
I'm reminded of what Menachim Begin said when Lebanese Christians massacred Palestinians and Sharon and the IDF were accused of taking part: "The goyim kill the goyim, and then run to hang the Jews."
All of the principals in these dramas, protagonists and antagonists, are rich fucks, and their decisions have much more to do with perceived shareholder value than with the U.S. Constitution. The rich fucks fucked the rich fucks, and then ran to hang The Left.
I see some of you rightwing guys are sore about it. Well, go ahead, be sore, life's tough all over. But don't insult my intelligence by saying it's because you care deeply about civil rights, or you'd have been weeping over the scoutmaster whose troop got dumped because he's gay, too, and I sure didn't see that happening. You're just sore about these guys because the charge on their warrants was bigotry, and instead of the rich fucks laughing and saying, oh come on, how could anyone take such a thing seriously, can't you charge 'em with moral turpitude or something -- instead the rich fucks in charge said yes indeed, it was indeed serious, and pitched them out.
I don't care about the alleged victims one way or the other. They're rich and can afford to buy their own sympathy, or contempt if that's what they go for. Their speech will always be free, indeed worth more than mine because they can put a million bucks behind every word. But I must say I get a kick out of your discomfort. Like the song says, it's a different world from where you come from; you can't entirely count on being white and straight to spare you now, and you're shitting your pants. As someone who comes from the poor side of the white-straight family, and could never count on those breaks, I get a kick out of that. (I also get a kick out of professional hairsplitters trying explain why one rich-fuck prosecution is more righteous than another, or at least more suitable to their carefully cultivated contrarian brand equity. Coming up with new, lawyerly explanations of the moral meanings in rich-fuck battles royale must be exhausting.)
I'm an old man and resigned that the tumbrels may never get here, but at least I get to see you squirm a bit, and that's some consolation. I don't even mind you screaming that it's my fault. I'm used to it, and anyway we both know the truth.
(Title inspired by this.)
UPDATE. Inevitably, in libertarian land: Statists are the real racists!
I'm an old man and resigned that the tumbrels may never get here
ReplyDeleteNo sheet. The whimpering keeps getting louder, but I may not be here to see a bang, if there is one. Or the asteroids.
I still think they'll start stroking out when Hillary gets in. Not enough blood pressure medicine in the world.
ReplyDeleteOr when the gondolas row down the streets of Miami.
ReplyDeleteWasn't the problem with Sharon and the Sabra massacres that the Israelis were in military control of the area and therefore had responsibilities? One of the many problems with invading other countries is "you broke it, you own it" as even Colin Powell had the wit to advise GWB.
ReplyDeleteSterling's loss of the LA Clippers will be widely mourned. I can just see Trump pouring out a malt liquor on the ground.
ReplyDelete"You see, this is how you can tell that the Right understands and appreciates Freedom more than the Left; here at the Corner, we sit around all day complaining about the laziness and criminality of black people, and you don't see any of us getting in trouble for it!"
ReplyDeleteWoah! That's quite a rant, and I must say I entirely agree. Preach it, Edroso! :D
ReplyDeleteThat's one for the vault, as Larry Sanders used to say. Good stuff, Edroso.
ReplyDeleteRight? This post gave me hardwood, as an NBA owner might say.
ReplyDeleteIn the last few days, I saw a vintage wingnut rant about "political correctness" or some other moldy trope that they drag out for the misanthropic crank set. Creaky as it was, they did load it up with some up-to-date, Goldberg-tested Breitbart-approved talking points - liberals make absolutely everything political, they make everyone into victims so there's no personal responsibility...that sort of thing. Well, in the wake of what's happened this last week or so, I've decided that these people must be vampires, because if even one of them cast a fucking reflection they'd maybe realize the irony in this particular line of argument.
ReplyDeleteI can think of a group that refuses to take an ounce of responsibility for anything they do. A group of individuals who believe that their beliefs are so perfect that any failure must be someone else's fault, including those whiners they pledged to represent. A group that insists that anytime someone on their side says something unfortunate in public, it must he because he was tricked or baited. A group that maintains that they should be allowed to do whatever they want free of consequences, and will cry oppression if they face any pushback. A group that holds as sacred truth that anytime something changes in a way they don't like, it can't possible be because of shifts in demographics, economic realities, or personal opinions. No - it must be a conspiracy against them, and nothing else.
Guess what that group is? It's you assholes. No, not the Left, that great towering beast that exists only in your own heads and controls everything you do. It's you. You're the ones who sit in the corner whimpering because no one realize how perfect you are, that no one realizes that you'd be in charge if they weren't out to get you. You're the ones acting like a pack of sheltered, narcissistic teenage douchebags. You.
I know that this is not new to anyone here. You know this, you've seen their sad little game. We've all seen it, many times before. I just wanted to put it all right here in one place, so that I could step back and look at it. It's for my sake. It's to acknowledge that while I may be a self-defeating asshole, I can at least rise above this. If I get five query rejections in a day or crap out of an interview because HR found out I talked shit about the former employer, I may do something unwise. I may send small objects flying across the room or grab the bourbon for a one-man pity party, but the one thing I won't do is come over here and whine about how the Right is oppressing me. In my own narcissistic douchebag years, I may well have done that, and felt justified. But I grew beyond that, because I am capable of growth - as are all of you. No matter how shitty you are, you have the capacity to become less shitty.
These guys can't. They can't grow, because they're perfect. Nothing is their fault. And tomorrow, should things get worse for them, they'll still refuse to grow, because that won't be their fault either. It's all the same, every day the same, one long shitty day that never, ever ends.
Thank you for your indulgence.
I've searched the linty corners of all my pockets, but I can't locate the tiniest whit of sympathy for him, or them.
ReplyDelete.
For a lot of them, dishing it out and not being able to take it is a viable philosophy rather than a serious character flaw. And the sense of persecution that ensues is good for promoting unity, even while it keeps sane people away.
ReplyDeleteWhen it was Ari Fleischer telling people to "watch what you do, watch what you say," this crew was 100% in favor.
ReplyDeleteWhen it's business peers telling one of their own "you gotta go or we'll never get the stink of shit off of us," it's a travesty.
liberals make absolutely everything political
ReplyDeleteWhile a true foaming-at-the-mouth liberal will indeed find something new to be offended by every time they look around, the same is indeed true about a true foaming-at-the-mouth conservative. We weren't the ones who decided that "Happy Holidays!" was a declaration of war, chums! :P
they make everyone into victims so there's no personal responsibility
My first thought was that that is only true if "everyone" means "everyone who's part of an approved victim group." (that's a bit of a personal beef for me - I possess a pasty-white penis that reacts to the presence of women, and yet somehow that has not stopped my life from being one long string of miseries. Maybe it's defective or something...) My second thought was that, duh, that's exactly why they're complaining. They like to play the victim just fine, as we have all seen - they're just whining because the left won't let recognise their victimhood and the way that everything that go wrong was totally everyone's fault but theirs!
Mind you, actually I don't believe in personal responsibility - shit always happens and we all kind of suck, there's no point in assigning much blame - so I guess they're right about me, at least? As usual, I'm a real-life strawman liberal. :P
I may send small objects flying across the room or grab the bourbon for a
one-man pity party, but the one thing I won't do is come over here and
whine about how the Right is oppressing me. In my own narcissistic
douchebag years, I may well have done that, and felt justified.
Hah. Same here, I guess. As I grew older, I realised that the establishment wasn't oppressing me, it was just ignoring me completely. It can do that. It's the establishment - it has lots of things you need and you have a lot of reasons to fear it, but you have nothing it needs and it has no reason to fear you, so why should it go through the trouble of oppressing you?
That's just one of those demoralising realisations along the road from Angry Young Man to Cranky Old Coot, I guess...
I don't own a professional sports team, so my speech is being restricted.
ReplyDeleteHey, it's more logical than Sullivan's or Zeiser's conclusions.
According to my web browser's status bar, the first link above includes "nba-free-speech-drop-dead." Never mind the umpty-umpth installment of supposedly not having a goddamned clue what free speech is; apparently the Left owns the NBA now. I call dibs on San Antonio ... just so I can change their name to the "Santa Annas."
ReplyDeleteOr, as that Aussies might say, it's going straight to the pool room...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5KbMolsUPA
.
My favorite argument against punishing Sterling is that it creates a "slippery slope". My god, first they went after the racists, pretty soon, they'll **GASP** go after the sexists!
ReplyDeleteYou can't blame them, it's like every lesson they learned in their history books is all turned upside down. This can't be right, can it? Gays and blacks not only have rights, but they have influence too? 50 years ago, they could hang blacks from trees and be acquitted at trial. 20 years ago, they could go out fag bashing and laugh about it. Now they are being punished for what they say?! It has to be disorienting for assholes sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThat said, they can take solace in the fact that their preferred policies are making 98.5% of everyone poorer and global warming remains unchecked.
One thing I found amusing, in a bitter-enough-to-gag-on sort of way, is that one of the black people Sterling didn't wish to associate with was Magic Johnson-i.e. fellow billionaire, NBA legend, universally beloved basketball ambassador and human rights activist Magic Johnson. Also Matt Kemp from the LA Dodgers and I'm sure others. I'm betting that more than a few of the people defending Sterling have had to justify their bullshit in the past by saying they don't hate black people per se, they just hate the trashy ghetto ones. They're more violent, you know. That's just common sense. And I wouldn't mind them if they shaped up and got a real job. And statistically thinking, blah blah. You all know the drill. Well now, courtesy of Sterling himself, those excuses are all useless. This is about the most obvious "Yes, it is entirely about race" moment I can remember.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading about how Teddy Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to eat at the White House, and all the Southern senators spewed the customary shit about how the White House "stank of nigger" and so forth. Washington and Johnson both were some of the most successful and influential people, let alone black people, of their era, but no matter how successful they were, no matter how much they accomplished, no matter how well they exemplified the up-by-your-bootstraps story that right-wingers claim to support--to people like Ben Tillman back then and Donald Sterling now, no matter what they do, they're still just niggers and that's all that matters.
By the way, righties, when you're having one of your customary tantrums about why minorities won't vote for you, why self-made mega-millionaire Magic Johnson is a staunch democrat and why working-class and poor minorities are cynical and suspicious about the American dream as you present it-that's why.
For the record, most people who follow this stuff seem to be surprised that the NBA did anything. One, that the commissioner's office had the balls, and two, that the other owners were willing to chuck out one of their own. Sterling has been a piece-of-shit human being forever (see here: http://deadspin.com/your-complete-quotable-guide-to-decades-of-donald-sterl-1568047212), was the longest tenured owner in the NBA (and a shitty one at that; the Clippers are arguably the worst franchise in the history of American pro sports), and just in general one of those things like genital warts or bedbugs that never ever go away. So it was surprising for a number of reasons.
ReplyDeleteI'll buy the Lakers, trade every player to a different team, and move the franchise to Omaha.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Magic Johnson is a great and peace-loving guy, and so are all his friends and fans.
ReplyDeleteBut I wouldn't sleep too well if I were a grotesque, wheezy, old Baron Harkonnnen-looking fuck, and I'd been outed foully trash-talking a much-beloved, 6'9" ex-pro athlete like that...
.
Gee, I guess they weren't able to work any of their there-are-no-white-racists mantras into these cries for justice for poor, downtrodden, Donald Sterling. How peculiar.
ReplyDeleteYes and no. It certainly would not have been surprising if the owners circled the wagons and their representative, the commissioner (that's what he is in practical terms), just gave Sterling a dainty slap on the wrist. But....
ReplyDeleteWithout Silver diffusing the situation as he did, this was going to go very badly for the NBA as a business. The players had arranged to boycott the playoffs unless Sterling was banned for life, and advertisers had already indicated they were pulling from the Clippers (a HUGE deal, since the Clippers have 2 of the most marketable players on the planet) Furthermore, ticket sales do not make the NBA work. It's advertising, TV deals, tax subsidies, merchandise, etc. So much of that depends on having a good public image, which is why the NBA has been so image conscious over the last 30 years.
Also, the future of the NBA as articulated by Adam Silver's predecessor David Stern is in international expansion. I'm going to guess that protecting white supremacists simply because they're rich white supremacists is not the kind of thing you want to have associated with your aspiring global sport.
Lemmy will still be alive, driving his water-taxi through the New York canals.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpMIA-aAWmg
"no matter how well they exemplified the up-by-your-bootstraps story that
ReplyDeleteright-wingers claim to support--to people like Ben Tillman back then
and Donald Sterling now, no matter what they do, they're still just
niggers and that's all that matters."
As a black person, this is the best explanation of racism. Doesn't matter how much I earn, the good I do with it, or the lives I make better, some asshole can come along and I'm just a nigger. There are a lot of rich black people who forget this because they think money can buy them whiteness (in the sense that people will forget they're just a nigger). There are a lot of black millionaires in the NBA waking up to that right about now.
They actively assisted the phalangists in the massacre:
ReplyDelete"According to Linda Malone of the Jerusalem Fund, Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan[37]
met with Phalangist militia units and invited them to enter Sabra and
Shatila, claiming that the PLO was responsible for Gemayel's
assassination.[38] The meeting concluded at 3:00 pm 16 September.[31]"
I.... I don't think she'll win. I'm just some foreign asshole, but even we've heard that freshly buried Republicans will crawl out of their graves to vote against Hillary Clinton. Obama seems to have made people who didn't want to vote for a black guy stay home (judging by turnout figures, and assuming it wasn't two crappy Republican candidates who caused that) but I think no candidate will energise the right wing base like HRC.
ReplyDeleteOf course, all these whiners on the right could vindicate their whining about the left's overbearing PC police being responsible for Sterling's downfall: All they have to do is point out which of the NBA owners and officials make up the liberal majority of the organization. Name some names here.
ReplyDeleteThat, no doubt, will happen right after Jonah Goldberg is crowned queen of Norway.
Indianapolis Honkeys! Oklahoma City Ofays! Minnesota Crackers!
ReplyDeleteI didn't speak out when they came for the racists because I wasn't a racist. I didn't speak out when they came for the bigots because I wasn't a bigot. So when they came for me, there was no one left to point out that weaselly leftists like me were getting their just desserts and this was IN NO WAY the same as the atrocities visited on the racists and bigots.
ReplyDeleteI think this is political,
ReplyDelete*foams at mouth*
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/texas-sized-bankruptcy-began-with-tacos-at-the-capitol-2014-04-30
~
I see conservatives are already blaming The Left for ousting racist billionaire Clippers Owner DonaldSterling:
ReplyDeleteCommentary at that Spectator blog are entertaining. People are warning one another in the Minatory Voice that it is just the thin end of the wedge, when a millionnaires' club can vote a club member off the island in order to maintain the income of other members... it presages a dystopian future without job security! An economy where employers can sack employees for purely personal reasons! It will all be the fault of the liberals!
Conservatives' power has always come from following the orders of rich people. When those rich people seem to lose power they panic. Now they are wondering if they too will be fired for something they said or did. How many of them have racist rants on home video or in some Corner of the internet? They're shitting bricks right now.
ReplyDeleteSullivan will go back to supporting power over the powerless the second his ego becomes involved.
Or, what Malcolm X said.
ReplyDeleteI always figured the Left would change San Antonio's team name to the "Alamos", and then hire the shittiest players imaginable, so they'd always lose.
ReplyDeleteFloating fat man...nice imagery!
ReplyDeleteOh, I have absolutely no objections at people being pissed off at greedy idiots with too much money and the mindless craving for stealing even more. :P
ReplyDeleteJust generally, when I mention liberal craziness, I don't mean anything that usually goes on around here. I mean things like saying that the phrase "the departed woman is mourned by her husband and children" clearly indicates that it was written by someone who hates women and thinks they lack all human value. And yes, I have seen that argument made.
I find it odd that these free-market absolutists haven't figured out that, yes, racism does have a market valuation and--surprise!--it's a big net negative. Once the players made it clear that they weren't having any part of Sterling's shit, and once the advertisers did the same, there was hardly anything Silver could do but get rid of Sterling--despite what personal feelings Silver or the owners might have one way or the other. The market has spoken, and what it said is, "No, you can't say 'nigger' anymore, and no, you are not a plantation-owning slave master. Decent people don't stand for this shit, so please get the fuck out of here." Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Sterling. You might be rich but that doesn't mean you're not disgusting.
ReplyDeleteWhile the morality of the situation might not be obvious to conservative apologists, the money angle certainly should be. I suppose they could tie even that to some sort of liberal political correctness, but do they really want to do that? It's not like we're talking about the Sierra Club here.
Am I the only one who thinks that "The Left is attacking the City" would make a kickass song title? Maybe by Kanye. Bet you can dance to it, too.
ReplyDeleteYes, she will energize the right, but she also will energize the left. And the democratic coalition is for now more numerous. It easily elected a lame duckish president in a stagnant economy. When it comes to 2016 it for now looks that it's for the Democratic Party to lose. Which is still possible, mind you.
ReplyDeleteDonald Sterling is going to make a shitload of money on the deal. Poor him.
ReplyDeleteThey do have a point. If even billionaires can't safely be moronic bigots, then who can? What's next? Are misogynists not allowed to make rape and death threats against women anymore? What's the world coming to?
ReplyDeletesome of the most successful and influential people, let alone black people, of their era, but no matter how successful they were, no matter how much they accomplished, no matter how well they exemplified the up-by-your-bootstraps story....no matter what they do, they're still just niggers and that's all that matters.
ReplyDeleteNote the example of the present occupant of the White House.
Should have scrolled down before I made a similar comment. Well said, Susan.
ReplyDeleteHey, it's more logical than Sullivan's or Zeiser's conclusions.
ReplyDeleteMost things are.
As Alexander Cockburn pointed out at the time, the Israelis had already killed thousands of goyim in Lebanon in 1982 before they sent the phalangists into Sabra and Shatila to kill a few hundred more.
ReplyDeleteDon Sterling Cooper Draper: My first job, I was humping racial quotas for a real estate company with this old athletic supporter. Greek, named Jimmy. And Jimmy told me that the most important thing in sports is breeding. Black is better because they're bred to have bigger thighs. Sometimes it's that simple. But he also talked about a deeper connection that comes from owning a team. Jimmy told me that in French "bigot" literally means "long, thin bread penis". I didn't know what he meant until I realized that a basketball team isn't a franchise or a business, it's a time machine. It takes you to a place where you can still own blacks even if it's 150 years after they they made it illegal. You can be the guy with the whip who keeps his blacks in line with a checkbook. You're the master, the master of them and the master of your own destiny. You're free to be the bigot of your dreams. Or, as Jimmy would say, a real dick.
ReplyDeleteSo Megan, you understand now why I don't want to see you bringing black people to the game?...
Megan? You still there?
Recording technology is a bitch, innit? Christ, it's getting so that Mitt Romney can't even yuck it up with his peers about those lazy takers without some two bit nothingburger of a moocher recording him and turning it over to Mother Jones. And don't get me started on that ungrateful piece of arm candy V. Stiviano outing her meal ticket as a racist. Their problem is not that they can be fired for some reprehensible thing they said... hell, they've been saying these things among themselves forever, and as long as the gentleman's agreement to not let the hired help know held, it was fine. The problem is when their peers bail on them the instant that the moochers find out what their betters are saying about them, and they realize there is no safe place left where an oligarch can let his freak flag fly without the peasants grabbing the pitchforks and torches and coming for them.
ReplyDeleteI don't worry so much about 2016... I worry much more about this year. 2014 is the hump for conservatives... if they can hold the House and take the Senate, they can pretty much do what they want and only Obama's vetoes will stop them from burning down the country.
ReplyDelete"You may not feel much sympathy for him, because he's a billionaire and he'll stay a billionaire, but just you wait; one of these days, they'll give YOUR boss the power to fire YOU for something you said that the boss doesn't like!"
ReplyDelete"My boss has always had the power to fire me for saying something he doesn't like."
"Well that's his absolute right as a maker and job-creator, libtard!"
(Should have scrolled down to this before repeating the point.)
ReplyDelete"<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w6m-nhUcos&feature=kp>how do i say goodbye to what we had?</a>"
ReplyDelete"...you can't entirely count on being white and straight to spare you now, and you're shitting your pants."
ReplyDeleteThat says it all, really. For 100 years conservatives were OK with Jim Crow; today, Affirmative Action is a crime against humanity.
Just posted this in the Spectator comment section:
ReplyDelete"As someone recently said on twitter :"30 billionaires self governing an
unregulated organization is literally a libertarian utopia."
The
left has nothing to do with this unless you assume that only the left
objects to racism. What was done to Sterling was done by other
billionaires to protect their bottom line. Care to comment/suck on that?
"What a lovely state the left is building."
ReplyDeleteYeah, a state where racism and bigotry aren't tolerated. Who would want that?
"What was done to Sterling was done by other
ReplyDeletebillionaires to protect their bottom line."
Only because the billionaires are terrified of the Left! They are haunted by the fate of the Romanov's.
And it is likely that Obama will cave in on some issue to appear "reasonable".
ReplyDeleteExhibit A from the Spectator: "It would be more accurate to say that white men don't like a world where
ReplyDeleteeverything they do or say is stripped of context, hunted down,
comedically exaggerated, and harshly punished, and everyone else's
personal biases and bigotries get a slap on the wrist, are ignored, or
sometimes are even praised. Why on earth would you expect me to be in
favor of a system that works against my interests? Everyone else
nakedly agitates for their group interest and identity.'
And get away from a shitload of responsibility he's too senile to handle.
ReplyDeleteI know very little about the man, but shall I take him as a cautionary tale about a lifetime of alchohol, cocaine, Viagra and money? Now, there's a rational mixture!
With a fist-in-the-air anthemic chorus repeating the title!
ReplyDelete"the Clippers are arguably the worst franchise in the history of American
ReplyDeletepro sports), and just in general one of those things like genital warts
or bedbugs that never ever go away"
So it is true, the franchise will be moved to Seattle.
Shorter whining wingnuts: B*tch set him up!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for "Dr." Mrs. Ole Professor and her MRA morons to chime in.
Of course it's political! Didn't Lather, when he turned thirty years old today, come foam from his tongue?
ReplyDeleteAnd I liked "hard-of-thinking". That's a good one.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel energized by the woman who let Clinton walk all over her. However, there is no telling how energized I might be by the need to defeat the Republican nominee.
ReplyDeleteThis always bugged me. It's not "You broke it, you own it." It's "You broke it, you BUY it." I.e., you pay for it. THEN you own it.
ReplyDelete"in the Minatory Voice"
ReplyDeleteOriginal name of the NYC paper Roy writes for. Thank God Norman Mailer had a better idea!
Our biggest problem is the replacement of conservatives with "libertarians." If they live long enough the Koches will control enough politicians to take over the Republican Party, which is why Matt Kibbles-n-Bits is saying that libertarians will take over the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteAnd Megan McArdle will be White House Mouthpiece, and call the press "my little chickadees."
I want to sail a ship across the water with this comment.
ReplyDeleteThis on, uh, stilts. There's no way the players would have acquiesced if the league had done nothing or as-good-as-nothing. Olbermann did a commentary about previous sports walkouts, in the AFL and MLB, and it was persuasive. (The protesting players got their way in fifteen minutes, and one day, respectively.) That fact that the players are almost all millionaires would have meant approx. zero to the fans, too. I can't imagine Silver having done anything other than the maximum.
ReplyDeleteAh, Al Lewis. I used to enjoy his columns when I still subscribed to the local fish-wrapper. Glad to see he's still writing good stuff like this.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm old enuf to remember when the right's battle squawk was "If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to hide!"
ReplyDeleteCan you call yourself a Übermensch if you can be forced to respond to the lice and scum? Will the victimization never end?
ReplyDeleteAlso this mango which apparently is not snark but who can tell anymore I offer without comment: "And I certainly object to "Magic" Johnson's racist crusade to steal
ReplyDeleteDonald Sterling's property rights in the Clippers. His motivations are
on public record as nakedly racist."
The players had arranged to boycott the playoffs unless Sterling was banned for life
ReplyDeleteThis is my one quibble with the embedded tweet. It may be a self-regulated billionaire's club, but the employees have a really strong union. And look what happened! A real commissioner would have just shipped in a bunch of D-league players and internationals and called it "the playoffs."
Especially since you only got into that college or got that job because of Affirmative Action, which is basically theft from the white person who would have gotten that acceptance letter.
ReplyDeleteI misread that rant as "stripped down and hunted nakedly for comedic effect..."
ReplyDeleteVery nice point, Satch. Structurally V. Stiviano and the anonymous bar guy who filmed Romney are both in the same position--the hired help whose VERY JOBS THESE NOBLE JOB CREATORS CREATED are turning on the hands that feed them and the dicks that fucked them and proving...unreliable. This is actually the scariest slippery slope argument of all time--talk about the peasants revolting! When you can't trust your valet, your barman, and your mistress to protect you from the stupid shit you say that all your buddies think is totes adorbs then who is going to protect you? Its the horror story the 1 percent tells around the campfire at night: The tapes are coming from inside the house
ReplyDeleteIt is always telling to see just which precious freedoms' loss is mourned the loudest, innit. Whine havoc and let slip the slopes of PC, and all that. "What's next? *Any day now* the left could ban something that isn't mutton-headed racism, sexism, fatshaming, fagshaming, hippie-punching, or poor-kicking, and THEN won't you be sorry!!!"
ReplyDeleteThat's the idea - it comes down to the fact that these billionaires have to depend on the whims of the PC-gone-crazy left, which is exactly like having their balls chopped off.
ReplyDeleteHere, you can have some of mine - oh, wait. Sorry, I'm skint, too.
ReplyDeleteFuckin' Jefferson and his "all men are created equal" crap. Always gives the lower orders the wrong idea.
ReplyDeleteOnly because the billionaires are terrified of the Left! They are haunted by the fate of the Romanov's.
ReplyDeleteO god, if only.
A rich guy not only lost his job because he's terrible, but is on his way out not with a severance package and a claim to be spending more time with his family* but with a massive fine? It's like I don't recognize my own country anymore.
ReplyDelete*OK, I guess that one wouldn't fly.
Hmm, I recall hearing the same thing from aggrieved white males when this white female got a job that they wanted but weren't as qualified for.
ReplyDeleteI remember when Edward Snowden's detractors in the democratic party yelled the same thing.
ReplyDeleteZou Bisou Bi-ooga Booga.
ReplyDeleteStealing property...that kinda sounds familiar. Maybe Sterling should get a bunch of white men with guns to back him up and go to basketball games anyway. That'll get America on his side
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing about these guys: I can't help but notice that the only thing that gets them roused and ready to fight is defending their right to be as big an asshole as possible.
ReplyDeleteOr as XKCD put it, when you make a 'free speech' argument to defend your own racism or bigotry, you're admitting that the best argument you can possibly make for your view is that it's not technically illegal.
I like it, but we have Hoseheads here, not Crackers. Atlanta Crackers is better.
ReplyDeleteI think we should all just go and lie naked on the beach with this comment and call it a day.
ReplyDeleteJimmy told me that in French "bigot" literally means "long, thin bread penis".
ReplyDeleteROFL
I'm surprised that Rage Against the Machine hasn't already done it.
ReplyDeleteOmahan: "At least we got lakes!"
ReplyDeleteBOTH SIDES DO IT!1
ReplyDelete"My house in Pensacola is under three feet of water! And I can't get flood insurance! Waah!"
ReplyDelete"The president of the United States is black, so fuck you."
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing that anti-vaccination folk are all "liberal". This proves all liberals are evil and stupid.
ReplyDeleteWell, he can claim to want to spend more time with his family but having publicly shit the bed so that his wife is declaring herself and their children "estranged" I'm thinking that one wouldn't fly for other reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe following people are qualified for and deserve nice things. Or anything really:
ReplyDelete1. White heterosexual Christians with penises.
2. White heterosexual Christians with penises.
3. White heterosexual Christians with penises.
4. White heterosexual Christians with penises.
5. White heterosexual Christians with penises.
When anyone else has a thing, they acquired it through cheating or theft. (You might also have fucked your way into the job.)
If they absolutely can't find fault with how a person who isn't a white heterosexual penis owner got a thing (or don't care because that person has a thing they don't want), then that person is invariably being paid too much (teachers, nurses), spending their money on extravagances (you never hear anyone call a super-yacht "bling").
"The "Wisconsin White-Trash!"
ReplyDeleteAn indicator that there ARE more liberals in the US than buttfaced racists. The plutocrats know it.
ReplyDeleteI wanna bet $2000 on Sterling dressing up like Uncle Ben, and his girlfriend dressing up like Aunt Jemima while she pours a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's on his cock. What kind odds will ya give me?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah...Remember 3 weeks ago when the brethren got all weepy that Hank Aaron said "We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts."
ReplyDeleteAnd the boys over at the crematorium got so, so angry because...sputter, sputter...Democrats were the racists and conservatives weren't or some bullshit? And how dare Hammerin' Hank dare to lump in Republicans with Klansmen and I do declare!
Yeah. That was a long time ago.
I tend to think he plays rapey plantation owner...
ReplyDeleteI totally disagree with this. You are utterly overlooking an extremely important aspect of this issue. White people must also be able to take away everything from everyone else.
ReplyDeleteThey should be able to take your land for their cattle and your life if you need a human shield. Also your freedom and labor, for your own good of course.
THANKS OBAMA!
ReplyDeleteHow about being energized by non-[insert inevitably horrible Republican nominee here]
ReplyDeleteMmmmm, tacos!
ReplyDeleteI second that emotion!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMe too. But then again I identify as social democrat or democratic socialist (take your pick). A lot of people in the dem coalition are to my right and would not only gladly vote for Clinton but be excited at the opportunity to punch some hippies.
ReplyDeleteYup, the Republicans will double down again in the next election.
ReplyDeleteIf it comes to it I'll pull the lever for Hills. And she'll probably be fine. Can't pretend I'm enthused, however.
ReplyDeleteYeah, pretty much. I'm sure they'd just hear the name "Romanov" and write them off as a buncha commies.
ReplyDeleteExactly. They aren't imaginative enough to take the other side of an argument for five seconds to pretend like they actually give a shit about free speech in general.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you're one of us poors if you think $2.5M is a massive fine in Sterling's eyes. The same share of my own net worth is, well, a few hours' pay.
ReplyDeleteWell, duh. I mean, it isn't like blahs and broads can actually own anything. They're just holding it for their betters.
ReplyDeleteRemind us, why would a racist dickhead dress up like a fictional black man?
ReplyDeleteAlso, which Aunt Jemima?
Like the 50 greatest Liberal Rock Songs list. And believe it or not, self extinguishing cigarettes are liberal because... blah blah blah something or other. I tend to tune out my right wing loved ones.
ReplyDeleteOne of his girlfriends doesn't seem to like him very much either.
ReplyDeletePas devant les domestiques...
ReplyDelete"Miami Turpitude"
ReplyDeleteIf only...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't I buy it. OK, it is not "the left," whatever that means, that is responsible for Striling and Deen and so on losing their gigs. But it is hardly the case that organized activists and other members of the offended group are not the real cause either. Sure, the NBA owners and commissioner, and the executives at the network involved with Deen, made the final, formal decisions, but it is not as if those decisions were made in a vacuum.
ReplyDelete-----The narrative being floated here gives the ownership and power structure too much credit (while denying the credit to those to whom it belongs, ie outraged Black folks, their supporters, and their advocates). NBA owners don't care if Stirling is a racist. Neither does the Commissioner. Neither do Food Network big wigs viz a viz Deen. They are merely responding, as you say, to market pressure, to an incipient boycott, to horrible PR, to bad press, and to a possible revolt on the part of the most important members of their work force. And all of that DOES come, if not from "the left," per se, then from the spit upon group, its members, activists, organizations and their supporters. And all of that sure ain't "the right" either.
----Same with advertiser and sponsor pressure. The ad agencies and the companies they represent don't "care" about racism. As you say, all they care about is the bottom line. And the bottom line is threatened, again, precisely because of the organized response, including the possibility of a secondary boycott.
------And I say good on those who are responsible. You wanna be racist? You wanna make racist comments and engage in racist practices? Well then, you are going to be subjected to non violent, non coercive, but concerted, sustained, organized and extremely vocal attack. Your ostracism is going to be demanded of the Boards of Directors, executives, owners, commissioners, and so on who run your show, or else THEIR oxen will be gored next. Behave this way and get canned. Or, if you don't, your company will get badmouthed, boycotted, shunned and so on.
-----That's the real "message" here. That folks aren't going to take this kinda crap anymore. And the higher ups know it, and actually have to self police their own because of that resolve.
-----(I leave Eich out of it because it seems as if there really was genuine, non monetary motivated, pro gay marriage, anti Eich feeling on the Board of Directors itself....otherwise, though, all of the above applies.)
------Dreher, et al, complain that racists and sexists and homophobes are being "driven from the public square." I say would that he were right. They SHOULD be driven from the public square. Their vile hatred SHOULD earn them nothing but trouble, and, if they are answerable to anyone (a B of D's, other owners, a commissioner, network executives, advertisers and sponsors), those persons SHOULD be pressured (including by "the left") to fire them, take them off the air, make them sell their franchise, and otherwise crawl back into the hole where they belong.
"Little Rock Sister-Fuckers"
ReplyDelete"One thing I found amusing, in a bitter-enough-to-gag-on sort of way, is
ReplyDeletethat one of the black people Sterling didn't wish to associate with was
Magic Johnson..."
I haven't read the extended transcript of Sterling's... umm... remarks, but what I gathered from the preliminary account wasn't exactly that HE didn't want to associate with black people, it's that he didn't want his GIRLFRIEND associating with them. As in: "Your MY girlfriend,,, so don't go hanging around with black guys and making me look like I'm not man enough for you." This speaks to the atavistic fear that white males have when they see a black man with a white woman, especially when the white man in question is 80 years old and his girlfriend is a smokin' hot and in her early twenties. Sorry, Don... ain't enough Viagra and Axiron in the world to help you keep up.
Hey, I'd pay to see THEM play the Heat...
ReplyDeleteThe choice will, as usual, be bologna on cornbread with ranch dressing versus shit on pumpernickel with shit cheese and shit slaw on the side.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather see a full-length feature film. Every time I see the phrase "The Left is Attacking the City," I get images of the original Godzilla.
ReplyDeleteHey now!
ReplyDeleteHard line breaks are the real racists.
ReplyDeleteWha?
ReplyDelete"Miami Turpitude"
ReplyDeleteCoached by Melvin Turpin, who didn't play for the Maryland Terrapins.
Roy should open a shop.
ReplyDeleteUPDATE. Inevitably, in libertarian land: Statists are the real racists!
ReplyDeleteHuh. "3 policies that are more racist than" Don Sterling, eh? Good work, Reason Squad. Now, since they're much more your kind of people than mine, maybe you should forward that list to the billionaire NBA team owners so they can get right on it.
I'm wondering if what's really getting under their skin is the fact that some rich fuck has been subjected to an extreme degree of public shaming, to which rich fucks are supposed to be immune. One rich fuck gets shamed publicly for saying some stupid racist shit and pretty soon another rich fuck gets publicly shamed for hiding billions in an off-shore bank account. Then another rich fuck gets publicly shamed when his corporation destroys an ecosystem by dumping poison in some river. Pretty soon you have a situation where some rich fuck goes to prison for war crimes. Then everything will be out of control!
ReplyDeletePretty soon you have a situation where some rich fuck goes to prison for war crimes.
ReplyDeleteIf "pretty soon" is being used in the cosmological sense, then yes.
But they might be terrified by the Molotovs.
ReplyDeleteAtlanta Pickup-drivin' Cousinfuckers.
ReplyDeleteGodzilla a Democrat; who knew?
ReplyDeleteI want to sit at a segregated lunch counter with this comment and not give a shit when stupid white crackers pour water on our heads.
ReplyDeleteThis is the best encapsulation of the argument for affirmative action I've seen since it became an issue. Well said, d.
Word. (As teh kids used to say, back when people who are now 30 were "teh kids.")
ReplyDeleteNow, everybody go over to Lawyers, Guns & Money and read BSpencer on this exquisitely quintessential Straight Male White Whine.
"I can't tolerate your intolerance of my intolerance."
ReplyDeleteLike a softcore version of the Running Man, basically. Is Micheal Fassbender available?
ReplyDeleteEh. Republicans could not have wanted any harder to beat Obama in 2012 and look where that got them. Not that they'll be any less ragey over Clinton, but it doesn't matter how outraged your side is if you don't have the votes.
ReplyDeletePresidential elections are where liberals should feel best about their chances. The Republicans have to win every last swing state and will soon enough be playing defense in Texas, Georgia, etc., while the Dems by virtue of California, New York, Illinois, and such, almost crack 270 by default. Not saying something horrible couldn't happen, it just seems less likely. This year's midterms could be qutie disastrous, though.
If you want to nod out and burn you house down you should be able too, this is common freedom sense. Anything else is totalitarian liberalizing.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, even if he is a Democrat (I'm not really convinced) what he said is awful. We eat our own if need be and this would be one of those times. D's don't need racists or misogynists or homophobes or any other kind of bigot. They need to go.
ReplyDeleteAh, the winds of change.
ReplyDeleteI recall, like it was yesterday,when the winds blew the RWNJ's way, and it was just dandy to pillory the Dixie Chicks and harangue their management for some benign utterance.
So clearly, it's not the wind that vexes them, it's that it's become a headwind. Poor dears.
.
Axiron
ReplyDeleteThis is, like, a real drug? Is it for what I think it is? Are they fucking kidding us?
"Battlefield Earth"?
ReplyDeleteDogs sleeping with cats!
ReplyDeleteYes, but the case for that hypocrisy is compromised if we do not own up to the fact that "management" is merely a conduit.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly because what conservatives think of as being lefty liberal stuff is what normal people think of as being basic human decency, especially on issues like this.
ReplyDeleteWell sure. I think for a lot of them it's not even that they're defending the guy's statements (although I'm sure plenty of them agree) just that they instinctively worship and kiss up to the powerful, and when one of them gets brought down it throws their whole world into chaos.
ReplyDeleteA slightly smarter, yet worse in some ways, group is the one that sees it all as a big chess match, and that people are protesting Sterling not because they're genuinely hurt or outraged, but because it's their "move", and now the conservatives have to counter with a move of their own, i.e. mobius-strip logic that proves that Sterling is innocent, or exposing some hypocrisy on the part of his critics. Because they're usually libertarians, they do their fair share of kissing up to power themselves, but the number one goal for these guys is maintaining their armor of smug self-righteousness. Other people are just props.
For more discussion on this particular mango see http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/04/citation-needed
ReplyDeleteAlex Jones was JAQing off in this vein. Apparently HAARP can be used to send Hurricanes up the East Coast and Obama did it because reasons.
ReplyDeleteTypical Statist, cracking the whip on the Demoncrat plantation. Will no one think of the Billionaire jerkoffs? The great thing is the fines and ban all come out of a private contract between billionaires, pretty much the libertarian dream and yet they still whine. It's almost like they are totally sincere in their beliefs!
ReplyDeleteOK, but that's not quite the claim being made though, is it?
ReplyDelete----Rather, the theory seems to go, Stirling's fellow billionaires fired him, so don't blame anyone else for that action. But, again, that action, and the responsibility for it, is not something that "the left" should even want to run away from. Decent people, including "the left," ARE responsible, and should be proud of it. And think of it in those terms, ie a thing to be proud of, NOT "blame" to be avoided or foisted on someone else.
-----WE THE DECENT PEOPLE will not accept this kinda crap anymore. And WE will make the powers that be know how we feel about it. And when the powers that be do what we want, we will not pretend that is was all their idea in the first place.
As their bigotries are made socially unacceptable, one by one, they'll cling harder and harder to whatever they have left. And the shrieking gets higher, and the spittle flies farther, and the (white) faces get redder. It's almost fun to watch...
ReplyDeleteIllegal immigrant, refuses to assimilate, it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteIncluding funhouse mirrors and wasting good LSD on spiders.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll take ell the rest of the south-of-the-Mason-Dixon teams and just call 'em all the Rednecks, and let the fans fight it out...
ReplyDeleteIts the horror story the 1 percent tells around the campfire at night: The tapes are coming from inside the house
ReplyDeleteAnd I do so hope we're in on the ground floor of a genuine Trend...
I agree 100 percent. I was going to tell him that but it's safer not to look them in the eye. I just kind of sidle away.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Jimmy read The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross...
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I'll never understand letting the perfect be the sworn, mortal, Hatfields v McCoys enemy of the imperfect but perfectly good.
ReplyDeleteThe spiders don't think it was a waste.
ReplyDeletea cautionary tale about a lifetime of alchohol, cocaine, Viagra and money
ReplyDeleteUm, are you looking for any other guineapigs for your research?
Webs got a bit scary though.
ReplyDeletehttp://farm9.staticflickr.com/8378/8485787065_0610af308c_b.jpg
And when the powers that be do what we want, we will not pretend that is was all their idea in the first place.
ReplyDeleteYou're arguing against a position that I don't think a lot of people hold. I've seen some pretty establishment people (ESPN writers and such) explicitly pointing out that any attempt for Adam Silver and the owners to pat themselves on the back for this would be laughable, because they broke bread with this guy for 30 years and only got around to kicking him out when it became unavoidable. Before he got banned, in fact, conventional wisdom was that he'd get a slap on the wrist because the commissioner's office is a tool of ownership and that's that, so obviously people weren't running to kiss Silver's ass after the fact.
Caress me...
ReplyDelete"Rather, the theory seems to go, Stirling's fellow billionaires fired him, so don't blame anyone else for that action."
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly the theory; it's called common sense. If I punch Sterling in the nose, I'm not going to get off the assault charge by saying I only did it because liberals and black people taught me to hate.
Liberals and black people did change the society they (I guess we) live in, and the direction of the wind into which the rich fucks stuck their wet fingers. If it had blown the other way, as it did in the days of Bertrand Russell, Sterling would have walked, and maybe someone else would have caught his tit in that wringer. We who have free souls, it touches us not. I'm not taking the rap for their crimes. As a liberal I believe in personal responsibility.
Ima need a cigarette and shower after reading that. Thanks, Roy!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite response by far has been Allen West. The shorter version is: "Yeah Sterling said bad things, but BENGHAZI!"
ReplyDeletehttp://allenbwest.com/2014/04/folks-youre-missing-point-donald-sterling/
What the fuck.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this I don't even... It's an impressive rant, something you'd expect to see in blood on the wall of crime scene.
ReplyDeleteYeah my brain isn't happy with me either for subjecting myself to it. I came across the link because a facebook friend had liked it (I'm hoping accidentally). It's not only mind-numbingly stupid and crazy, but also poorly written, and it's by a guy who was an elected US Congressman just a couple of years ago. I mean I know what Allen West is about, but that still didn't prepare me for this.
ReplyDeleteAlternate shorter: "Yeah Sterling hates black people, but he didn't criticize Israel."
ReplyDeleteI have to say that nobody has come out of this sordid mess completely clean. Sterling didn't say that he didn't want black people coming to his games; he told his concubine that he didn't want her bringing her black friends to his games. Sure, it showed him to be a racist, but Illicit relationships between stupid people result in stupid consequences. And apparently his racism was already a very open secret.
ReplyDeleteA few people wielding pitchforks were all over Kareem Abdul Jabbar (yes, Kareem Abdul Jabbar) in the comments at TPM Monday because they thought he was blaming the girlfriend for setting Sterling up. It was a sickening display. So I guess that's why this whole thing makes me rather sick.
Well, it seems, both from the OP and the post above yours, to me that Edroso holds the position that I am arguing against.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we can have it both ways...take credit for getting the racist kicked out, but then, when criticized for so doing, turn around and say that the others and the commish kicked him out, not us.
------I think that's a huge fudge and a terrible analogy. Criminal responsibility for an act of personal violence is not the same kind of thing as a ownership group or Board of Directors making a decision based on public outcry, threat of boycott etc. Criminal responsibility cannot be thrown onto a third party, short of duress or physical coercion. Of course, third party instigators or money men can be also incur criminal liability for the same act as the direct assailant (as aiders or abettors, conspirators, or even as co principals).
ReplyDelete-------But we are not talking criminal liability here, or, indeed legal liability of any kind, criminal or civil. We are talking about political and social responsibility. And that is always a larger question.
-------Was it "common sense" that many Western corporations, after threat of boycott, closed down their South African operations, did so on their own nickel? Don't the folks who organized and threatened the boycott and spread the word and so on deserve the bulk of the responsibility (credit or blame, depending on how you look at it, but I see it as a credit) for the Board of Directors' decisions? Or should all of that go to the Board itself?
------As you say, liberals and Black people have changed society. It is no longer permissible for the Sterlings of the world to do what they once routinely did. Well, again, why should "we" (the liberals, the decent people), be ashamed of that? Why should we duck the responsibility (blame/credit, but again, I see it as a credit)?
----I feel that I am a free man too (though I don't believe in "souls"). I also believe in personal responsibility. But decisions in society, again, don't take place in a vacuum. And I see no reason for those on the right side of the issue who have pressured the indifferent and those concerned only about the bottom line into doing the right thing to pretend that they did not so pressure, or that their pressure was irrelevant.
-----And I'm not sure what is gained for the good guys by so pretending. Every one knows that, yes, in the end, it was the commish, the B of Ds, the owners, the executives, etc who took the formal actions, but it is just as true that everyone knows who applied the pressure that led to those formal actions.
How the hell are all the many and varied absurd licensing laws--and there are lots--"a policy". Most of these laws are enacted at the behest of the bigger members
ReplyDeleteof the subject businesses that can afford lobbyists to work the refs and
have the smaller members legally excluded to whatever extent possible. If it's a policy, its name would be "do the bidding of whichever special interest group lobbies us the most lavishly". Oh, yeah, if the Glibertarians ever got in power, I'm sure that'd be the first one on the chopping block...
And I love the map. Most of the states in red are also in red on the "Red & Blue" political map, and run by the Glibs' default political party.
They must have been in a hurry to get something--anything--out about this, because it's borderline incoherent. I'll give them the Drug War as policy, but it was begun by Poppy Bush, and perpetuated by both parties since, so who's he going after with that one?
And the bit about "The Education Monopoly" was...what was that, anyway?
"owners and the commish"
ReplyDeletenot "others and the commish"
One, I am not talking about things I "keep hearing," I am talking about what I have actually seen over the course of fifteen years of hanging around liberals. Those overzealous types who spend all their time looking for tell-tale signs of less than total commitment to the progressive cause so that they can attack it and tear it to pieces? They exist. Not just a few, but hordes of them.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, we're all stupid. All of us. The entire sorry human race. And I don't know about "evil," but we're certainly all decidedly self-involved. Remembering that we all kinda suck is, I believe, the key to not turning into a self-righteous fanatic. It doesn't mean we have to ignore the obvious fact that our adversaries suck more. In fact, I find that accepting that human beings don't amount to much as far as morality goes makes it all the more astonishing how much worse than the default conservative pundits and politicians manage to be.
If the NSA is doing nothing wrong it has nothing to hide, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised I haven't seen any arguments that this affair proves we no longer need anti-discrimination laws.
ReplyDeleteAnd your body for their children.
ReplyDeleteOK, so she was seeing a guy on the side. Really, can you blame her? Even if Sterling was a GQ model his personality would be enough to make any sane woman run screaming. (Of course, that doesn't excuse her for latching on to ol' Moneybags in the first place, but if it's a battle of moral stakes between a standard-issue gold digger and a racist slumlord, I'll side with the former.)
ReplyDeleteLook: If someone shot his girlfriend, and said he did it because she was a racist, should I take responsibility for that because I'm against racism? Then why should I take credit for the board's Sterling vote?
ReplyDeleteI understand being proud as you are of the social effects of standing against racism, but it doesn't make you or me responsible for every action performed under the name of anti-racism.
I watched and enjoyed the "Sun City" video on MTV, but I don't take credit for corporate divestiture in South Africa, either.
"You rang?"
ReplyDelete"Look: If someone shot his girlfriend, and said he did it because she was a racist, should I take responsibility for that because I'm against racism? Then why should I take credit for the board's Sterling vote?"
ReplyDeleteHow about because in the latter instance you were part of a concerted, organized campaign of pressure, with implicit threats of boycotts, that led to the commissioner's and the board of owners' actions, while in the former case you had absolutely nothing to do with the guy's decision to shoot his GF?
Seems to me that the difference is fairly obvious, and you are just rewriting your last hypothetical analogy about punching Sterling in the nose. Again, criminal acts, judged in court, can't be fobbed off on instigators (although, again, criminal liability may well attach to instigators in addition to the principal actor). But we are not talking about criminal acts nor about legal liability. No one on the right is saying that Sterling should take liberals to court for getting him kicked out of the NBA. Rather, the claim is that liberals (and Blacks, and so on) are responsible in a political/moral sense for Sterling getting the ax.
And they are responsible for it, and yes,they should be proud of it, too. Not run away from that "blame," nor try to pretend the powers that be decided to do the right thing on their own initiative, which is both untrue, and gives them too much credit.
Your Sun City example is a reduction ad absurdum, but the folks who watched that video can take more credit (or blame, depending on how you look at it) for corporate divestiture in SA than the Board member, who only reacted to things like that video because of their impact on the bottom line. And, moving away from the absurdum, the folks who made the video, and the other folks who helped organize and publicize the divestiture campaign, and even those who supported in any way, however small, can surely take more of the legitimate credit for its success than that Board member.
Will there be pie?
ReplyDeleteYes, the real Al Lewis.
ReplyDeleteI wish he was still around, writing good stuff.
And your argument has never been made with such detail or such care. To the dismay of many on the Left. Also.
ReplyDeleteI wanna sit with this comment in my Monza by the streetlight while listening to Aunt Jemima all night.
ReplyDeleteLast month.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad to be reminded of it.
ReplyDeleteThanks.