I have been accused in days gone by of being too harsh on and re: people who do mind-blowingly foolish things and then suffer the altogether too predictable slings and arrows of their choices. I prefer the perspective that I am a realist who does his best to call things as they truly are, free of spin and excuses. This is not to say that I have never messed up or chosen a poor course of action, because I have done so more often than I would care to admit. The point is that I acknowledge the old saying "But for the grace of God go I", and that I attempt to correct past foolishness moving forward. More than that, whether society likes it or not, people who have been there and done that and who then try to advise others against it are not being "judgmental" or "hypocritical", but rather trying to prevent someone else whom they likely care about from going through any given situation learning things the hard way. I am glad Ann Coulter and Steve from the blog "Hog on Ice" had the courage to call a spade a spade and lay the smack down on PC junkies making excuses for people who, while they did not "deserve" what they did, were at a minimum substantial contributors to the calamities the befell/are befalling them...I normally just link to things, but this is important enough to repost almost in its entirety, and pay special attention to the stuff highlighted in bold and/or underlined, because those were the thoughts that had me nodding my head and saying "Amen!"
Money quotes from Ann's column, "LIE DOWN WITH STRIPPERS, WAKE UP WITH PLEAS" from April 19, 2006
"However the Duke lacrosse rape case turns out, one lesson that absolutely will not be learned is this: You can severely reduce your chances of having a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don't hire strange women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money. Also, you can severely reduce your chances of being raped if you do not go to strange men's houses and take your clothes off for money. (Does anyone else detect a common thread here?) And if you are a girl in Aruba or New York City, among the best ways to avoid being the victim of a horrible crime is to not get drunk in public or go off in a car with men you just met. While we're on the subject of things every 5-year-old should know, I also recommend against dousing yourself in gasoline and striking a match."
"Everyone makes mistakes, especially young people, but the outpouring of support for the victims and their families is obscuring what ought to be a flashing neon warning for potential future victims. Whenever a gun is used in a crime, there are never-ending news stories about how dangerous guns are. But these girls go out alone, late at night, drunk off their butts, and there's nary a peep about the dangers of drunk women on their own in public. It's their "right." Yes, of course no one "deserves" to die for a mistake, or to be raped or falsely accused of rape for a mistake. I have always been unabashedly anti-murder, anti-rape and anti-false accusation and I don't care who knows about it! But these statements would roll off the tongue more easily in a world that so much as tacitly acknowledged that all these messy turns of fate followed behavior that your mother could have told you was tacky."...
The liberal charge of "hypocrisy" has so permeated the public consciousness that no one is willing to condemn any behavior anymore, no matter how seedy. The unstated rule is: If you've done it, you can't ever criticize it. In no area except morality would a sane person believe he can't criticize something stupid because he's done it. How about: If you've ever forgotten to fill up your car and run out of gas, you must forevermore defend a person's right to ignore the gas gauge. Or if you've ever forgotten to wear a coat in cold weather and caught a cold, henceforth you are obliged to encourage others not to dress appropriately in the winter.
This deep-seated societal fear of being accused of "hypocrisy" applies only to behavior touching on morals, but we're all sinners, incapable of redemption on our own. The liberal answer to sin is to say: I can never pay this back, so my argument will be I didn't do anything wrong. The Religion of Peace's answer is: I've just beheaded an innocent man I'm off to meet Allah! I don't know what the Jewish answer is, but I'm sure it's something other than, "therefore, what I did is no longer bad behavior" or the Talmud could be a lot shorter. The Christian answer is: I can never pay this back, but luckily that Christ fellow has already paid my debt."
And for dessert, Steve, from "Hog on Ice" blog:
"The basic message of Ann's column is: Don't be a dumbass. And the corollary is: it's okay to tell someone else when he's being a dumbass, even if you're not perfect."
"The Duke players may be guilty. Or not. But one thing is for sure. They wouldn't be in this situation if they hadn't hired a sleazy, gutter-trash woman to come to their house and drop her pants. And the stripper may or may not have been raped. But she would be a lot less likely to be raped if she didn't show up alone in buildings full of drunken idiots and remove her clothing and do her best to get them sexually aroused. That's what Ann says, more or less. And she's obviously right. And she also says something no one in the press has the cojones to say. Referring to the Holloway case, she says it's a bad idea for a weak little girl to get drunk in casinos with horny young men she doesn't know very well. I'm paraphrasing loosely, but I am giving you the essence of the column."
"Why isn't everyone on the news saying these things? Why isn't Bill "Who's Looking Out for You?" O'Reilly pointing his finger at the camera and saying, "Do NOT go to foreign countries and get drunk alone with horny morons"? Maybe he is, but I haven't seen it. Isn't that the single most important lesson of the Holloway case? Morons are always going to be morons. You can't change them. You can whine and PMS about your rights all you want. They'll still rape you if they can. And if you're a weak, defenseless woman, they CAN. People on the news should be saying, "Look what happened to this girl! You could be next!"
Maybe the authorities will find her. Maybe someone will be punished. Who cares? She's still DEAD, and her parents are torn apart, and they'll never get over it. Obviously, the situation would be better if she had never gone out alone with a bunch of hormone-driven assholes. See if you can complete this sentence: "An ounce of prevention is worth _ _____ __ ____."
Natalie Holloway died because she did something unbelievably dumb. She wasn't struck by lightning while she sat in her hotel reading the Bible. She went out alone with three lust-crazed idiots and got drunk. Other girls are doing the same thing this very second. Some of them are going to be raped, or worse. I think it's okay to tell them, "Look what happened to Natalie Holloway when she did what you're doing." Who could be against that?
Ann is right about hypocrisy, too. We live in a country where mouth-breathers and slackjaws accuse people of hypocrisy whenever they criticize any action they themselves have taken in the past. It's sad that the average person has a tiny brain, and that such stupidity passes for logic. Ann tears that argument apart pretty well this week.
An accusation of hypocrisy is a tool a sub-par mind uses to excuse bad or stupid behavior. If I jumped off the Empire State Building, does that mean I lose the right to tell other people not to jump? Of course not. It may seem otherwise to you, if you move your lips when you read and you find butterfly ballots confusing, but to an intelligent person, it's obvious that it's ALWAYS okay for ANYONE to advise you to avoid stupid behavior.
In 2006 America, only Jesus Christ is allowed to criticize a person's immorality or stupidity. He alone is perfect. The rest of us have to grin like primitive apes and say, "Oooh, I don't want to be JUDGMENTAL." You know what? I've done a lot of stupid things, and many times, I've paid a price. That doesn't make me a hypocrite. That makes me an AUTHORITY on what not to do.
True hypocrisy involves an element of dishonesty. Falling short of perfection does not make you a hypocrite. If you want to do something stupid or immoral, don't be a whiny little boy and say, "You're not perfect, either." Be a man and say, "I know I shouldn't do this, but I'm doing it anyway, because I don't care if it's right.", or "because I'm weak.", or "because I'm an addict." Don't hide behind a child's favorite lame argument."
