On Wednesday, left-wing social justice warriors had another meltdown when conservative pundit Erick Erickson rejected their transgender identity narrative.
Hi @jack, can Twitter get rid of this transphobic trash once and for all?
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) November 8, 2017
In that proud clamor to ban Erickson, we see the far Left’s almost Shakespearean, total-war mentality on this issue.
“I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start,” they tell each other. “The game’s afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry political correctness for you, your neighbors, and the world!”
Don’t get me wrong, I recognize why some find Erickson’s comment upsetting. My issue is that too many of these individuals put their emotions before the natural right of Erickson and others to say what they think. Put simply, the social-justice Left is now so absorbed by their self-perception of moral righteousness that they believe even debating certain political issues is wrong.
Of course, Erickson’s incident is just one of many examples of this dynamic. Take what happened last weekend, when Larry David made an appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” David’s sin was his decision to make a concentration camp joke.
“I’ve often wondered if I grew up in Poland when Hitler came to power, and was sent to a concentration camp,” David posited, “would I still be checking out women in the camp? I think I would … of course, the problem is there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp: How’s it going? They treating you okay?”
Predictably though, many on the Left freaked out and began crying on Twitter.
Not feeling Larry David’s concentration camp jokes @nbcSNL. Nothing about the holocaust will ever be funny. #majorfail #notfunny
— Cindi Avila (@ChefCindi) November 5, 2017
A tedious sounding individual named Michael Bauer explained to the New York Times that “Mr. David’s comments were completely unfunny and embarrassing, not only to Mr. David but also to the show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, and everyone associated with ‘Saturday Night Live.'”
The media, many of whom regards themselves as the last bastion of freedom in an age of authoritarianism, offered similarly pathetic responses. The Washington Post headline asked, “Bad taste, or just bad comedy?”
At The Atlantic, Professor Jeremy Dauber wailed that David thought comedy was acceptable “after Charlottesville.” Dauber continued, “David’s invocation of the concentration camp on Saturday as a kind of peekaboo provocation … might ring particularly hollow in an America where neo-Nazis march openly on the streets and white-nationalist memes proliferate online.”
“Might ring particularly hollow” are the operative words there. Dauber encapsulates the Left’s new reflex that if some words might offend someone somewhere, they should not be said.
I believe the opposite is true. Humor is supposed to be unrestrained and, if a comedian so desires, uncomfortable. Whatever our particular personal views, we’re lucky to live in a society in which humor is defined by the humorist not the humorless hordes. So yes, some might be offended to see Larry David make concentration camp jokes or urinate on a picture of Jesus (that one made me uncomfortable) or have a Jewish boy knit a swastika.
I say too bad. The beauty of humor in a democracy is that it’s always those who laugh who matter most.
