Sunday, November 17, 2013

Right-wing Pundit + "Satire" = Ignorant Asshole

"Why do you Christians always throw the Bible in my face?" seems to have been a rather feeble attempt at lampooning secularism. All Matt Walsh manages to accomplish is to show what an ill-informed malicious dick head he is. There are many instances where genuine satire does use exaggeration/hyperbole and tries to reveal at least a few absurd aspects of a given topic, event, or individual. What Walsh doesn't seem to comprehend is that there has to be at least a tiny grain of truth for the attempt at satire to build on. His whole piece is built around myths and misrepresentations. This is by no means surprising if you've read any other pieces on The Matt Walsh Blog website.

One of the most blatant examples of this dumb-fuck's mentality can be found in the third paragraph. "If it comes from RELIGION, as a secularist, I must hate it. If it’s been heavily influenced or transformed by RELIGION or RELIGIOUS people, I must hate it." That's not secularism! It isn't even close. There is nothing in "secularism" that says you have to hate anything. The basic premise is that since religion is completely subjective and potentially derisive it should be kept out of government/public policy as much as possible. That is not anti-religious let alone hateful. Unfortunately, like many of Walsh's brand of conservatism anything that does not fit his preferences must be evil and ruthlessly attacked. It is also alien to such a mindset that anything can ever be more complex than a soundbite or stereotype.

Even though it is true that some who support secularism are hostile to religion (myself included) that does not necessarily have anything to do with secularism itself. It should be noted that one of the most prominent secularist organizations, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State*, is run by a Christian reverend. Anti-religious sentiment is not innate to secularism. Many secularist happen to either be religious themselves or have respect for religion as a whole. Personally, I do not but that has very little to do with why I am a secularist. I firmly believe in equality and freedom. As a libertarian, Walsh also likes to claim that he believes in such things. Too bad he doesn't behave in a manner consist with such views.

*for the sake of disclosure I feel it necessary to point out that I have been a member of American United for quite some time.


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