Mornin’ Kids,
I hate “Duck Dynasty”.
Not the Robertson’s mind you; just the show. The show bores me to tears, by the end of an episode I want to throw my television into the Bayou outside of my house and get on with my life. Now, that hatred has nothing to do with the people on the show, or their beliefs. Seems like a good natured, happy Louisiana family that made a fortune doing what they loved and the show just follows them through their day to day lives. I don’t hate them in the slightest; I just can’t stand television shows like this that seem to have no purpose other than to watch these people live. In my own estimation, that’s a waste of everyone’s time. I’ve got my own life, so watching other people go about theirs isn’t necessarily intriguing television to me.
So, imagine my interest when I’ve woken up two days in a row, checked my Twitter feed, and have seen an outpouring of both anger and support for Phil Robertson after his GQ interview went awry. This chalks up to the most I’ve thought about anyone involved with Duck Dynasty in… well ever. People are screaming to boycott A&E channels over his apparent firing, and a new Southern uprising might be on our hands. But, let’s calm down a bit here folks. In my head this situation is a real life version of those old books by Lemony Snicket called “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” that were huge when I was in Middle School. This whole thing is one snowball that got flipped down a mountain side and just couldn’t be stopped. So, let’s see where this snowball was born shall we.
Unfortunate Event #1: Phil Robertson’s interview with GQ
Now I’m not even going to question why Phil was interviewed by GQ magazine in the first place. Not even gonna touch it. But let’s just deal with the interview itself. In the interview, Phil said (and I’m paraphrasing because I really don’t want to cite my sources here) that this country’s tolerance for sin was out of control; from homosexuality, to bestiality, to people sleeping around with multiple women. Later on, he paraphrased a verse from Corinthians which says that neither the adulterers, idolaters, nor homosexuals would enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Ok, let’s preface this right off the bat. I do not agree with Phil’s stance on the sinfulness of being Gay. I just don’t kids; to me being Gay is no more a choice than it was for me to be born a guy. It’s a psychological trait that we are either born with or without. Punishing a person for being Gay, as in infringing upon their rights to the same privileges that we “straight” folks have is archaic and barbaric; no different than infringing upon the rights of any group of people to get married based upon their skin color. That’s my stance and as you can tell I don’t take the Bible as word for word literally; mostly because it’s a book written from the Middle East over 2000 years ago. We’ve kinda grown up a bit since then so think to use an ancient text as the basis for our current legislation when it comes to current citizens’ rights is kinda silly. But that’s just me.
Do I think Phil Robertson did anything wrong? Nope, because we as Americans have a right to free speech to say whatever, whenever we want. Phil has that right, as well as the right of practicing and preaching his religion. Those are foundational rights that we as Americans have and rights that should be celebrated. I do not support Phil’s stance, but I do celebrate his right to say as he pleases. Now, that doesn’t mean that he should not have known better. There are certain things that you should know inherently will get people royally pissed off. Using the Bible to spin homosexuality as sinful is one of those things. Now I doubt Phil really cares, I’m sure he subconsciously knew the possible repercussions of his actions. But, when I read this story I immediately cringed because I knew exactly what was going to happen next.
Unfortunate Event #2: The Good Folks at GLAAD Got Involved
This is what shot things into the stratosphere. If these morons had just let this go, nothing would have happened. But no, every special interest group in this entire country can’t wait to pounce on anyone who just so happens to disagree with them. That’s the problem with these groups. Is Phil Robertson a bad guy because he believes that homosexual behavior is sinful? Absolutely not. But does anyone really give two shits about that? Absolutely not. I don’t know Phil, but I do know people like him. They don’t have a malicious bone in their bodies. He’s the kind’ve person who would never do anything to hurt another person. But does GLAAD care about that? Absolutely not. Does taking down this guy benefit the Gay cause? Does it further the rights of Gay people in anyway? Absolutely not. Its simple bashing to bash because they just so happen to disagree and it makes GLAAD feel all big and powerful. Even if they believe they are on the moral high ground, is it worth ruining this guy’s life for it? Absolutely not.
Unfortunate Event #3: A&E Suspends Phil
C’mon guys, there’s no way this took anyone by surprise. Again, do I agree that Phil should be fired? Nope. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t characteristic of the network to cover its own ass when it comes to the show. “Duck Dynasty” is the second highest rated television show on Cable under “The Walking Dead”. D’you what that means kids? That means A LOT of money coming into the network. And when one of your stars goes off in a very popular magazine about his negative views on the homosexual community, it’s going to shake them up a little bit because most times sponsors don’t want to have ads in front of a show that is labeled as “Gay Bashing”. But even if they do not believe in Phil on a philosophical level, they could have stood behind his right to say what he believes. A&E jumped ship to save itself from sinking, it’s a big company and in their eyes throwing one man under the bus and letting him drown is just good business.
So where do we go from here kids? I don’t know. I wake up this morning and before I even get out’ve bed I see BOYCOTT plastered all over my Twitter Feed. Bobby Jindal has put in his two cents and both sides of the issue seem to be sharpening their blades. Again, I’m 100% behind Phil’s right to say whatever pleases, while I also do not agree with his stance. The point of this whole thing is that we as a country love a distraction like this. We love to take sides against “Those Damn Liberals” or those “Idiot Republicans”. And both sides are screaming for the same rights, but because we are on opposite sides we fight one another instead of fighting with each other so that we can truly have the rights that we have bled for. I wish I knew how to wrap this up, because I wish I had an answer. But I don’t. This kind’ve thing just happens, and it’ll keep on happening until we stop this moronic bickering between Americans. Phil Robertson is a good man, he doesn’t deserve this bullshit but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go tear assing around screaming in anger over this. In my eyes, that only causes more problems than good.
Besides, I can’t boycott A&E because I’m hooked on “Shipping Wars”. Now THAT’S some quality Television.
Until next time kids, thanks for reading.
Jeremy
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