Unless you’re fortunate enough to prefer reading or still be avoiding the Facebook trend, you’ve been bombarded with arguments over Duck Dynasty‘s Phil Robertson’s statements regarding homosexuality published in the most recent edition of GQ magazine. For the record, here’s what the guy actually said after being prompted by the GQ reporter with the question, “What, in your mind, is sinful?”
“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”
… “We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?”
Bottom line: The nomenklatura outcry is over a man who quoted a Bible verse and backed it up with the philosophy that anyone is as free to live his life as he is to live his own and we should all love each other. The nomenklatura supports Obama, who prefers to negotiate nuclear war with Iran, a country that openly persecutes homosexuals as “diseased.” Yet, the nomenklatura denies a maker of duck calls the right to free speech. According to openly gay Camille Paglia, the culture war erupting here is a battle between freedom of speech and the return of the Soviet empire on American soil:
“I speak with authority here because I was openly gay before the ‘Stonewall Rebellion,’ when it cost you something to be so,” she said. “And I personally feel as a libertarian that people have the right to free thought and free speech. In a democratic country, people have the right to be homophobic as they have the right to support homosexuality — as I 100 percent do. If people are basing their views against gays on the Bible, again they have a right to religious freedom there … to express yourself in a magazine in an interview -– this is the level of punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist, OK, that my liberal colleagues in the Democratic party and on college campuses have supported and promoted over the last several decades. It’s the whole legacy of the free speech 1960’s that have been lost by my own party.”
In the ultimate example of framing, the American nomeklatura is using one man’s words as a weapon against him in the war over what is constitutionally permitted versus what is nomenklaturally popular. Interestingly, this battle in the culture war is illustrating what history has already proven true: The best weapon to defeat the Stalinist nomenklatura is the free market.
After bowing to nomenklatura-fueled outrage, Cracker Barrel pulled all Duck Dynasty merchandise from their shelves, only to restock it two days later, tweeting, “We made a mistake, we listened to you, and we apologize. #DuckDynasty products are back in our stores.” According to Entertainment Weekly, A&E has no intention of pulling the beloved Duck Patriarch from the show. Footage with Phil will be included in new episodes to be aired beginning January 15, after everyone simmers down.
But the nomenklatura aren’t blind to the power of capitalism. Steve Tobak over at the Fox Business Network provides the smartest and scariest take on the scenario. For Tobak, the “growing chasm between political correctness and free speech in America” is directly linked to potentially show-threatening financial ramifications:
Minority and special interest groups have learned how to effectively threaten, bully, lobby, and extort corporations, small businesses, educational institutions, government entities, and non-profits. And they get away with it because incompetent, weak-minded, self-interested executives and business leaders let them. …in this case, it’s more about executives and leaders wanting to appear to do the politically correct thing and cover their behinds while throwing their stakeholders under the bus.
…The Duck Dynasty controversy is the result of the growing power of self-serving minority and special-interest activists that ruthlessly bully and extort those who say or do something they don’t agree with. They become more powerful and emboldened every time their efforts pay off. The way to stop them is to never give in to their threats and demands. Never.
You may not agree with the Duck Dynasty folks, but that’s not the point. The point is you could be next.
The nomenklatura believe in the power of the people …to be swayed. Appreciate your constitutional rights? Start by thinking twice before jumping on the nomenklatura bandwagon.
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