I’m used to Keith Olbermann being a fiery, partisan figure. I’ve even grown accustomed to him making a number of very nasty statements. He clearly has his point of view, and a small but dedicated group of followers. But apparently, on last night’s broadcast Keith felt as if he needed to take his rhetoric to a whole new level.
I really don’t know what to say about this, other than stating the obvious. It is a sad commentary on the state of political discourse in this country that this type of thing is even pondered. As Joe Scarborough tweeted in response last night, “It is no longer enough to simply disagree with someone. These days some feel the need to call opponents evil.” This is indeed true on both sides, but I find this specific incident to be especially egregious.
For one, you can take any one of the insults Olbermann lobs at Brown and take it apart easily. The accusations of being “homophobic” and “racist” are laughable, yet they have become almost reflexive when liberals talk about those on the right. As for “teabagging,” that little trope warrants a separate discussion of its own – short story is, it’s a vulgar sexual reference that is the province of adolescents, not adults. For all of these, they can be forgiven as language that is ugly, but nothing unexpected from those on the left.
But the final part, “supporter of violence against women,” is where this goes from overblown political opinion to near-slander. There’s nothing at all that even comes CLOSE to supporting this. This is simply taking things to an entire new level, to the point of actually accusing a politician of being PRO-RAPE. I cannot see any way that this can even be remotely considered a legitimate criticism.
Does Keith actually believe Scott Brown is in favor of women being violated? No one can know other than him. But one fact does stand out to me – this man is very popular among liberals. They watch him daily and for them, this type of thing is basically normal. The right also has its more fervent members, though I don’t know if any of them ever accused an opponent of supporting rape. If they have, then they should be condemned too. But at least in the case of Mr. Olbermann, discourse has truly sunk to a new low.
I’m waiting for mainstream liberals to denounce this. Something tells me I’ll be waiting for a while.