The suppression of dissent
One of the most comic themes to dominate some of the discussion over the last few years in the West has been the notion that there is some widespread suppression of dissent in the US. I wager most people from countries where there is serious suppression of dissent find this laughable.The degree of freedom that does exist is well reflected in the rant in this video, on mainstream network television, out of the mouth of an apparently popular celebrity, on what I take to be a much-watched show (I have glanced by it from time to time and cannot figure out why anyone would watch it).
The centerpiece of the rant is a wonderful combination of what I take to be wilful ignorance and also stupidity, the theory about the implosion of the World Trade towers by way of explosives. She says utterly stupid things - for example, that it is impossible to melt steel. Popular Mechanics wasted little time in correcting her stupidities; they are doing yeoman work battling so much nonsense about 9/11.
Personally, I think ABC should fire her, not because she is expressing dissent, but because she is giving ABC a very bad name among anyone halfway intelligent, especially as ABC try to give the show in question thee cachet of a news show, by including some of their news personnel. But it is their choice and if they do, she still has her podium.
The good news for me is that I never held this celebrity in any regard, so I don't have to suffer the disappointments that have come so frequently over the last few years. (Her comments on the Iranian situation are no more enlightening.)
(h/t LGF and HotAir)
Labels: dissent Rosie O'Donnell
posted by Alan Adamson @ 9:28 AM
2 Comments:
I feel really sorry for Elisabeth Hasselbeck when I watch this show, because she is the only one who talks sense, but she is polite and always shouted down by Rosie.
That's who that was! I don't watch much news on TV except on Sunday morning so don't know who these players are, in general.
I did feel sorry for her as well. But I don't think O'Donnell has the intelligence to engage in actual argument - bullying is her only hope. And I can hardly wait for her physicist to come - although there too, it is her ignorance showing through; you really want a civil engineer (who may rely on physicists).
Post a Comment
<< Home