And lives up to his/her handle each and every day:
When O’Reilly declared that “overwhelmingly, America is Christian. And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus,” all the Rude Pundit could wonder is where the fuck’s Plato’s holiday? Or Kierkegaard’s? Or perhaps John Locke’s, considering his influence on, say, the actual creation of the country? And on Christmas, when people are heading to work at Wal-Mart and Denny’s and all the other places that stay open so that Bill O’Reilly can have a merry Christmas, we’ll all be thankful that even more overwhelmingly, in this America, cash, not Christ, is king. Is that insulting enough to O’Reilly’s “majority”?
And then folks go on rants when schools try to teach the kiddos a tiny little bit about Ramadan…
It’s amazing to me how many Christians feel like they’re being persecuted just because they’re Christian (I asked on a homeschool board once), while non-Christians feel like they’re getting the symbols of Christianity shoved at them everywhere they turn.
I don’t know what the solution is, but at the moment it seems like we aren’t making anyone happy.
The Christian persecution thing has worked pretty darn well for them over the past few centuries. If they didn’t whine about being persecuted, they might have to admit that they’re in charge and any screw-ups might be their fault. So much for taking responsibility.
This is exactly the kind of thing Thomas Frank alluded to in “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”. Conservatives manufacture these surrogate cultural issues in order to divert attention away from more pressing concerns. As long as they keep their base fired up about some perceived threat to the moral fabric of the country, these right-wing hacks can skate by without addressing the situation in Iraq, the Bush administration’s disastrous environmental record, the long-term economic implications of privatized Social Security, etc., etc. And as long as they’re able to play up the victimhood angle–which, let’s not forget, is the same angle conservatives hate hearing liberals play up–they’ll continue to appeal to their audience’s completely irrational persecution complex.
It seems to me that if anybody’s being marginalized, it’s that segment of the population that doesn’t subscribe to the theo-con party line.
AMEN, Sister! And by the way, you ain’t missing much by not seeing the Kill Bill Volume 2 finale.
Bill O’Reilly is headed for more grief. His obvious lack of judgement is going to bite him in the arse soon. I’ll be laughing out loud next time he gets caught and dragged into court. Had to settle this time, dinnit ya Billy? You’re a thug.