On Politics, We Can Always See the Whites of Their Eyes.
Self-Righteous Indignation over Letterman's Sarah Palin Top 10 List
by: Scott Martin posted: 2009-06-09 17:28:00
Viewed 1006 times. 12 Comments.
UPDATE: This story was posted before I knew there was a disturbing monologue comment about Alex Rodriguez and Sarah Palin's 14-year old daughter. As the mentioned blogger Allahpundit was already up-in-arms over the Top Ten List, my opinion of the reaction the that list remains the same.
Some conservative bloggers were needlessly offended by David Letterman's Top Ten List last night, "Highlight's of Sarah Palin's Trip to New York." Rush Limbaugh has a rule that I try to live by, which is not to be offended by anything. Sometimes it's difficult, but allowing someone to offend you gives that person a power over your emotions that one should only grant to loved ones.
Letterman's list didn't even make me think of that rule - it was nothing. Typically Letterman: arrogant and condescending, occasionally funny, rarely accurate. Self-righteous moral indignation from people like Conservatives4Palin is to be expected (David Letterman is a Sexist Pervert; UPDATE: Gov. Palin Responds). Now, I am a conservative, and in many respects I am "4" Palin. But I would never align myself with a group called Conservatives4Palin, because I know exactly what type of person makes up much of its ranks. Not exactly a barrel of laughs, most of these people.
What I don't expect is people like Allahpundit of Hot Air to let Letterman get to him.
I guess if you can’t make ‘em laugh anymore, you might as well make ‘em wince. You missed your calling as a writer for Playboy, Dave.
We poke fun at a certain type of hyper-serious feminist on the left, the one for whom nothing is simply a joke and everything is an affront to all women. And yet we have on our side a similar group of laid-back, down-home women for whom nothing is simply a joke and everything is an affront to all women. I like our ladies a heckuva lot more, but the act is tired on both sides.
Letterman did what he does. He ridicules everything except liberalism and its practitioners. That's his job, and he's made a good, long career off it. And this was Letterman at his tamest. Only one line, the "slutty flight attendant" quip, would likely be considered offensive to Palin herself. Now I love Palin, I think she's exactly what the Republican Party needs, and I laughed most at that line.
I don't agree with Letterman's point of view, but I agree wholeheartedly with what he does. I wish we had more people mocking government leaders. I wish we had even more people mocking government. The result of government intervention in civil society is hilarious, as long as it is mostly theoretical.
When people get the idea that politicians are something other than a mockery to real human beings, and that politicians can really help them, we get screwed. When people aren't reminded that government is nothing more than a perpetual failure to be avoided whenever possible, we get things like Medicare, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Barack Obama. We need less mocking of government and its leaders like we need more self-righteous moral indignation. Enough already.
I laughed at most of his list. Laughing beats the hell out of self-righteousness, is more productive, and makes you look less like a weenie.
What comes closest to offending me is that no comedian with an audience worth talking about has found anything funny about Barack Obama. Except for his ears. I have an idea for SNL that they would love in sane, politically-incorrect times. I'd have two actors playing Obama in every sketch: one white, one black. It would be hilarious, and it would be their biggest hit since the Church Lady. You know it, I know it, they know it. And it will never happen.
Update: While it's quiet over here, this post set off a bit of a shit-storm in the comments at Free Republic that you may find interesting.
Oh, here's the Letterman clip:
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Comments 12
Yes, we covered that in the comments at Free Republic. I had only seen the Letterman Top 10, and that was all Allahpundit had up when I linked to him. Add the comment that I watched later about the rape, and this post would not have been made. But I feel it was worth making at the time that I did so.
You know, color me prude, but I stopped listening to Letterman a long time ago because he lost the line of appropriate behavior.
Rape is never a topic to speak casually of. Never. Anyone that does has never been close to it, never seen the damage, never witnessed or experienced the horror.
What an asshole he is.
So, in other words, you're just a smartmouth who is self-righteous about his lack of self-righteousness. Not at all like those self-righteous squats over at C4P. No sir, not you. You are a "Classy" conservative, who thinks it's cool when accomplished women are categorized as 'Sluts" and mocked relentlessly. Well good on you, Bucko! Here's hoping someones around to defend you when the Libs come calling. Which they inevitably will, once all the "bitter clingers" and other barbarians are out of the way!
Yo, Steve, nice shooting, Tex! Here's the drill on blogging, bub ... and I assume you're aiming at Scott and not me, because if you are aiming at me, please tell me. We blog now - not a weekly magazine or an end-of-the-day thing, but now. And when something develops, we don't pull our posts. In fact, if you look over my posts you may see a commenter correcting me on a fact, so instead of rewriting, I strikeout the inaccuracy and correct - preserving the record. Unlike AP that tries to wash the record.
Welcome to the fast-paced life of blogging, Steve. Glad to have you on board!
Yet another reason why Letterman never came out on top in late night TV.
In one sense I agree with you. I also think that the "outrage" over Obama's Special Olypmics remark on Leno falls into this category.
However, I believe in applying the same standards. The progressive left is consistent: They believe in applying two standards, one for themselves and their mascots, and another for their opponents, targets, everyone else.
For a fairly long time we tacitly accepted this, being "bigger people", and some still do: We know that in a sane world we shouldn't get outraged over small beer, petty remarks made by hostile comedians, and what not.
But we don't live in a sane world at the moment, and the only way to make the other side see that is to hoist them on their own petard.
This is unlikely to work, I conceed. They will act put out, claim a new blacklist mentality of censorship stalks the land (I fully expect Letterman will essentially retract his apology within six months and will be treated as the victim of all this). See also the fates, such as they were, of Bill Maher and the Dixie Chicks
However, accepting the double standard is guaranteed to not work, while there is a chance - however slim - that if they are hit over the head enough with the ramifications of their own standards, the one they apply to others, they might - or at least some of them might - in a generation or two figure out how lame it is.
My real outraged could be sumarized in the fact that if the shoe were on the other foot - if a comedian made a sleezy, degrading joke about Chelsey Clinton even (a full adult now) if she and Hillary went to a ball game, it would not be allowed to stand, the outrage would be near universal, the condemnation of Imus-level intensity.
Thanks for the comment. I just want to clarify again, for those who missed it, that I wrote this before I knew of his comment about Palin's daughter.
Blah, blah, blah, she is a public person. Letterman's his ratings went up. He won, she made a stink. NO ONE CARES!
You are a bloody idiot. Stop and look yourself in the mirror and say this crap. No wait don't...you probably are in your pajamas and haven't shaved for a month!
To whom are you speaking, CM? If you have a problem with someone's comments, you might want to consider actually framing what your problem is, and not just throwing out daggers. I don't care who you are addressing, but name-calling is not how we prefer people to handle things here. Won't tell you again.
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The comment about the stewardess joke was not the one that I found offensive. It was his comment that Palin's 14 year old daughter Willow would be raped by one of the baseball players during the 7th inning stretch.
That goes beyond the pale.
And don't try to counter that he was referring to the older daughter, Bristol. It was Sarah and Willow who attended the game.