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Wednesday 8 June 2011

Let them eat Twitter...

So I was pissing my life away on sports websites this morning when I re-came across the whole Damian Goddard fiasco. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, here's a link 

The first time I heard about this, I didn't really give it much notice. This happens all the time; some dumb meathead says something xenophobic and the cokeheads in PR push head office to axe him before some internet troll gets too butthurt. As much as it runs against my Voltaire sensibilities, it's gotten to the point where I've stopped giving a shit about defending their right to free speech. The mentality seems to be, if you're a public figure, don't do anything to piss the public off, or you risk losing your job.

However, when I revisited Goddard's case, the overt assertion of political correctness made me think about a bigger issue.

Look, even if we all know Goddard's opinion is backwards and feeble-minded, the fact of the matter is, the guy didn't really say anything worth being fired over. There was no hate-speech or calls for violence against gays. He didn't even use any pejorative terminology, or mention the gay community at all for that matter. All Goddard did was espouse an irrelevant political ideology on his unaffiliated Twitter account at a (seemingly) bad time. Ask yourself this. If Goddard had said “I believe life begins at conception,” “Osama got the justice he deserved, fair trial be damned” or some other completely meaningless right-wing talking point, would he have been fired?

Probably not. So why was Goddard fired for going after gay marriage? Rogers said it was just the last straw, and that Goddard was a shitty anchor who had it coming. However, if you watch Sportsnet, you'd know that if Rogers held some kind of broadcast quality standards, most of their staff would be unemployed. IMO, Goddard was fired because of political correctness.

Over the last few years, PC has become the left wing's answer to the us vs. them mentality of the right. Essentially, it's a fascism of inclusion, where tolerance is enforced with an iron fist. I agree with political correctness in essence, as I believe everyone's differences should be tolerated and included. However, I think it's a dangerous idea to get behind. The issues I have with it are as follows: 1) It patronizes minorities by refusing to let them stand up for themselves, 2) It stifles free thought and discourages dissent, and 3) it inspires a legion of asshats to feel alienated and oppressed for being white.

Any social norm is bound to have people who disagree with it, and any enforcement of that norm makes those people feel oppressed, whether or not they actually are. In North America (and perhaps elsewhere), there's a fairly large contingent of white men who believe tolerance and equality are direct threats to their lifestyle. These are the kinds of people who believe there is such a thing as a “gay agenda”, and post Facebook statuses whining because somebody said “Happy Holidays” to them. They're the kinds of people who forward you e-mails about the lack of God in schools. These people exist, and the more PC-freaks try to eliminate the Damian Goddards of the world, the larger and more vocal this contingent grows.

So, let Goddard have his tweets. Who cares? Gay people have all heard worse-- they've been to high school, after all. Damian Goddard is wrong, but he has every right to be wrong, and if we try and stop him, the army of trolls will only grow larger and angrier. It's like that scene in Lord of the Rings where they create Super-orcs with the body parts of dead orcs. All we're doing by cutting up Damian Goddard is providing fuel to the fire.

Peace,

Vince

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