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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Watch What You Believe


Watch What You Believe
 

A cranky opinion for

CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY

The following is the opinion of a cranky old man.  Opposing views are welcome…they are wrong but still welcome and please no name calling; that means you, you big stupid head!

 

I’ve never watched “Duck Dynasty.”  Well I have watched bits and pieces, but I never got into the show.  I like reality TV, but to me this show is way too staged, and these crazy rednecks are crazy like foxes.

“Duck Dynasty” is a show about a family of good old boys who had the business acumen to turn their passion for hunting into a million dollar industry.  The show is a real life “Beverly Hillbillies.” 

The head of the clan, Phil Robertson, has been suspended from the show for answering a reporter’s questions.  Phil Robertson is a religious man who believes the Bible is the strict word of God.  Many people believe this.

When Phil Robertson was asked what he considered sin, he mentioned homosexuality and used the Bible to back up his opinion.

Should anyone be surprised by this answer?  If he answered anything else would you believe him?  His whole persona is that of a straight shooting in your face, here I am, I am what I am kinda guy.

Please don’t boycott me.  I don’t think homosexuality is a sin.  It is a part of nature found in all creatures including Man.  As a heterosexual, I do agree with some of what Phil Robertson said,  "I do not understand how a man’s anus can be more sexually interesting than a vagina."  I don’t think it is a sin, I just do not understand it.  

Would you believe me if I said, “Gee, a man’s anus sounds delightful, but most of the time, for some reason, I prefer vagina.”  

So now the show “Duck Dynasty” will be censured by the A+E network.  It is censured because of a characters belief.  The belief is that a vagina is more sexually interesting than a man’s anus.  What a concept!

What worries me about this case is that it is another instance of a person being shut out for his opinion.  It is becoming all too common.  It is the right of the A+E network to do so, but it is worrisome to me.

Scientists who are skeptical about Global Warming are not called skeptics; they are shamed in their community by the name “Global Warming Denier.”

Express the belief that drilling for oil is desirable, and you are an “anti-environment sellout” and are shunned by intellectuals.

Voice a conservative point of view in school these days, and your grades suffer.

Shouting down, censuring and shunning will not defeat ideas.  Truth and debate is the way to win over your position.  When you shout down a position, you show weakness, you demonstrate that the opposing view if given traction may prevail.  It is a tactic used by dictators and totalitarian states.  It has no place in our country.

The Uncle of Kim Jong-un the North Korean Dictator was recently put to death for among other crimes, "Gnawing at the unity and cohesion of the party" and "dreaming different dreams."  Do we want to become a society so wrapped up in “right thinking” that we persecute someone for “dreaming different dreams” or thinking different thoughts?

Phil Robertson’s position on homosexuals is probably a minority position.  His opinion that it is a sin is his religious belief.  It offers little threat to rights of the gay community.

Where is the ACLU when his rights and the rights of others not marching in lock step to the “main stream” are trampled?

I want to see gay people win the same rights in this country as straight people, but the change should come from enlightenment, not from fear and suppression of opinion.

I am concerned about GLOBAL WARMING, and support well-reasoned measures to reduce those gases believed responsible, but I don’t want scientists with opposing ideas to be ignored because of fear; fear of losing jobs, or fear of losing federal grants.  When you suppress thought, science suffers.

Students should not be afraid to express ideas which are counter to a liberal faculty, in fact they should be encouraged to explore and discuss all ideas from all points of view.  When I went to college the professors taught you how to think, not what to think.

In the world of ideas, might does not make right, might distorts and narrows thinking; right makes right.

When you discourage opinions and thoughts, even minority thoughts or misguided opinions, you stifle thinking, you eliminate new ideas, and you diminish progress.

The preceding opinion was from a cranky old man and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky.

22 comments:

  1. I do not stop any one from thinking what they want to think or saying from what they want to say ( not that I could anyway) .
    Will I agree? It depends on what is being said.

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  2. i believe everyone has a right to their opinion as long as they do not persecute others for it. i don't watch duck dynasty and don't plan to. phil has been re-instated to the show, btw. people have the right to view or not view.

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  3. I absolutely despise censorship! No one has the right to stop you from thinking or saying what you want - and they don't have the right to stop you from watching what you want. If they don't like it - they are welcome to switch off the telly!

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  4. I absolutely agree with you. It has become increasingly worrying in the UK where it can be illegal to say things that are considered racial slurs now but weren't in the past. My husband calls it political correctness gone mad...

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  5. Excellent post Cranky, and spot on. What Phil Robertson says in his own time, off camera, should be his business. Just like what Barbara Streisand says/does outside of a recording studio is her business. I'll censor for myself what I don't want to hear/read, but I'm not going to censor anyone else from hearing/reading what they want.

    I read....don't know if it's true....that the Robertson empire is worth $400M. If that's so, I wonder why they didn't just BUY
    A&E? ;)

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  6. Absolutely--I agree with you completely!!

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  7. I agree with most of what you say and this fellow, who I've never watched, is certainly entitled to his beliefs, but what he said is, to my way of thinking, much worse than what Paula Deen said and she was thrown under the bus just for being honest about something she said twenty years ago during a deposition for a case that was thrown out for not having merit. I'm not a Paula Deen fan but fair is fair. It saddens me to realize that once again big money is calling the shots here.

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  8. I don't watch Duck Dynasty, but I also believe people have a right to their opinion. Personally, I accept one and all and I try not to judge.

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  9. I despise censorship, too. I believe in the right to free speech.

    Luckily, what happened in the case of Phil Robertson was neither censorship or infringement on his right to free speech. Nobody from the government came after him, nobody told him he couldn't say what he wanted to say.

    If I have a party at my house and one of the invited guests starts telling people that people with red hair are evil and of the devil, I will just calmly look at my red-haired sister and aunt and I will exercise my right to free speech and tell this invited guest to leave my house. And should this guest later apologize, it will also be my right to invite him back to another party at my house.

    :-p

    I don't understand the big hoopla.

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  10. As long as he is not standing outside a soldier's funeral, berating God for not uninventing homosexuality, I don't care what he says. I do reserve the right to think he's a horse's ass.

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  11. I have a friend who says he, "...talks way too much about way too little."

    I kinda think there's lots of folks who worry way too much about what others think and do, and not quite enough about any of what they really have control.

    There are already too many folks trying to control what others think and do.

    We need way less of that.

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  12. Peeper....You're correct, this is not GOVERNMENT censorship, but should a company have the right to tell an employee what they can say or do or who they can see in their off hours? I've heard of a few employment contracts that have a "morality clause" that says an employee can be removed for committing a crime (murder, rape, child molestation, etc), but that wasn't the issue here. There's a gray area for sure.

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  13. Fine post. I do think Pixel Peeper is spot on. He should have the right to express his opinion but it's A&E's house and A&E's rules. Money talks.. and so do fans. That's why he is back. I suspect that A&E is more concerned with their bottom line than with defending the gay community.

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  14. Good post, Cranky, and I see you have a SWMBO, too.

    But the despicable Phil has come back to the show rather promptly. I have never seen any of the show except what the newscasts have been showing. Not my type of "entertainment".

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  15. @Lowandslow - I agree, it's a gray area and somewhat of a slippery slope. I always assumed that A&E had a fairly large gay audience, and if an employee says or does something to hurt the company, they certainly have the right to take action.

    I used to work for a grocery store chain in a town where other grocery stores existed. We weren't exactly told we'd be fired, but we were told that they better not ever catch us shopping in the competitor's stores, no matter how much better their prices were.

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  16. Some men prefer vaginas, some men prefer other men's anuses. They are both free to expound upon their beliefs until the cows come home.

    Neither should be a protected species over the other.

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  17. " .... and are shunned by intellectuals. "

    That, sir, is the true central crux of the matter. In my opinion, naturally.

    I have never met and/or witnessed a so-called intellectual who was not an exceptional over-achiever when it came to ignorance. If there ever was such a thing as a zealot it would be defined by those who take an unyielding stand.

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  18. I agree 100% with Val. I still don't understand it...then I never understood calculus either.

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  19. Your last two paragraphs said it well, in reality the issue was never about PC or not-PC comments, it was about the right to express your own beliefs and opinions without anyone or everyone else feeling threatened. When we give up those freedoms, what America once stood for will no longer exist.

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  20. Put to death for dreaming different dreams??
    Bloody hell that's harsh!
    Freedoms are being eroded by political correctness I fear.

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  21. I enjoy the show. It's entertaining and the family values they highlight in the show are wonderful. However, one man's view on homosexuality isn't concerning to me. There are many people who believe that same way.

    I'm not Christian, so the bible isn't really something I'm familiar with and so I refrain from commenting on any of its stories or revelations, whatever they call them. It won't keep me from watching.

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  22. I am a few days late in reading this because the holidays have messed up my entire schedule so I apologize for not reading this sooner. I definitely agree on what you say about our freedoms of speech. I am a fan of the Duck both the show and eating one. :) This is in fact the only reality TV I do watch. This reality show is about the only one out there that every other word isn't beeped out and I'm a hillbilly. I'd rather watch Duck Dynasty because they are down to earth people and they like to hunt like we do. It's much better than watching Honey Boo Boo's mother stuff lard in her mouth! I just don't go off the deep end when others say they hate the show because everyone is free to like or dislike whatever they want. Great post btw!

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