American Wingnut, Stay Away From Me

Great Britain has spoken, and they don't want Michael Savage in their country. I wish we didn't have to put up with him here, either. His complaints are amusing, coming from someone whose slogan is Border, Language, Culture, or as a friend of mine put it, "Keep the wetbacks out of my country, keep their language out of my ears, and tell them to eat a fucking cheeseburger." I guess in his world, a sovereign nation is only allowed to keep people out if they aren't white.

That he's mentioned in some of the articles on this story merely as a "conservative commentator" highlights once again the utter failure of Objectivity in journalism. That the same phrase be equally applicable to the likes of WIlliam F Buckley and the man who said this

...when you bring immigrants in from Europe -- whether they be Irish, whether they be Italian, whether they be English, whether they be Romanian, whether they be Czechoslovakian, whether they be Yugoslavian, whether they be German -- they're from Europe, and there is a melting pot possibility...When you start bringing in masses of immigrants from everywhere on Earth, you don't have a melting pot; they cannot be melted into an American, and that's what's going on in the country today. We're bringing in millions of people from countries that have no compatibility with the values of Europe, not any values whatsoever. And I will argue with you as long as you want on this, if you want. There was no history of the liberation of people in China for example, to choose one nation, there was no Magna Carta, there was no evolution. There's been no Middle Ages for the Muslims coming into America.

If you're the sort of person who gets a hard-on every time you hear phrases like "Fair and Balanced," or "No Bias, No Bull," referring to him as a lipstick-smeared white supremacist is out of the question. But if you're in the business of Truth, calling him anything less severe is a filthy fucking LIE. That we've come to hail these liars as moderates, and praise them for their sober commentary is a scandal. By not referring to Savage as what he is, they are implicitly defending his racism and xenophobia. By not calling our politicians liars when they pollute the public discourse with utter bullshit, they are short-selling the Truth.

Fuck this shit.

For the record, as a matter of practice I disagree with the tactic being used here. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak before Columbia University despite being easily worse an offender than Savage in terms of hate speech. And he was laughed off the stage. Fred Phelps tours the country with his God Hates Fags crowd, and by so doing shines a spotlight on an ugly and hateful side of our body politic. Silencing the hater turns him into a martyr in the eyes of his followers. Letting him speak shows the world that he is a fool.

But Great Britain was right to put him under the same heading as the others. The Klansmen, the extremists, the hatemongers. He is Scum, and we shouldn't be afraid to say it.