First, he cried. In May, Jimmy Kimmel came on his late-night network show and spoke movingly about his newborn son’s open heart surgery. He then used the genuinely touching emotional moment to attack President Trump’s proposed budget cuts and to push Obamacare. A few nights ago, instead of delivering anything that looked anything like comedy, he doubled down by humorlessly hectoring Senate Republicans for their latest attempt to reform the collapsing O-Care system. The next day, Fox and Friends‘ Brian Kilmeade criticized Kimmel for the tirade:
“Sunday’s politically charged Emmys may have been the lowest rated in history, but that’s not stopping Hollywood elites like comedian Jimmy Kimmel from pushing their politics on the rest of the country.”
Not exactly fighting words. In fact, sort of a typical slap against a man like Kimmel, who makes ten million dollars a year presumably to be funny on the public’s airwaves, but instead, like every other late-night comedian, uses the network’s time to insult and deride the over sixty million potential audience members who voted for Donald Trump. Sure, those voters might like to watch some comedy at the end of the day too, but sorry, Hollywood has sent them a message loud and clear: “We hate you; we despise you; we don’t want you watching our movies, our comedy shows or our award shows; get stuffed.” That a guy like Kilmeade on a channel like Fox might occasionally think to fight back might seem only fair to you.
But that’s because you’re not an overpaid, arrogant, entitled multi-millionaire like Kimmel. Kimmel responded to the criticism with a personal attack that ended with a threat of violence.
“The only reason he’s not a member of the Hollywood elite is because no one will hire him to be one. And you know, the reason I’m talking about this is because my son had an open-heart surgery and is gonna have to have two more… I don’t get anything out of this, Brian, you phony little creep. Oh, I’ll pound you when I see you!”
I don’t bring this up because Kimmel’s important. I bring it up because Kimmel’s behavior represents the left perfectly. To push a big government agenda — an agenda that weakens the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution (a document meant to limit government’s size and power) — they always begin with emotion. Oh, the poor uninsured! Oh, the poor women! Oh our poor Mother Earth, how she is dying!
And hey, I feel for people who are left out or left back or treated unfairly. I think most of us do. And I want the environment to be clean. But I can’t help noticing that all this emotion masks some inconvenient truths. Like, say, the lives of black Americans were actually improving faster before the leftist programs of the Great Society went into effect. I notice women report being less happy now that feminism is in full swing. And I notice the climate isn’t changing anywhere near as fast as the hysterics tell me it is. So, in the name of freedom, I resist the government programs that have made life worse. I resist having power-mad incompetents run my health care or dictate my personal life or my hiring policies. I resist having them lay their heavy hands on our energy production.
And that’s when the hectoring starts. Kimmel Step Number Two. You’re racist. You’re sexist. You’re a climate denier. And when that doesn’t work? Step Three. Violence and violent rhetoric in response to speech.
Because of leftist communicators like Kimmel — like much of Hollywood and the news media too — some 51 percent of college students now think it’s fine to shout down those you disagree with. A whopping 19 percent think violence is a moral response to speech. And more than 40 percent believe the First Amendment doesn’t protect speech they deem hateful.
Kimmel doesn’t matter. He’s just another half-smart big mouth Hollywood multi-millionaire. But they’re all Kimmel, all the left. They’re all doing the Kimmel Three-Step: 1. Emotion. 2. Hectoring. 3. Violence. Trying to get you to give them and their government your money and your freedom.
Well, screw em.
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