The controversy over the suspension of Phil Robertson by A&E from "Duck Dynasty" for making remarks about homosexuals and African Americans that were 'unenlightened' to say the least, has become a cause celebre among the Right and the Left, though for differing reasons. Somewhere in the kerfuffle over the First Amendment, traditional values, religious freedom, hypocrisy etc. etc. the uglier reality is being ignored.
As it happens, I'm right in the middle of a book which makes a great deal of sense about what's going on, and not in a comfortable way. It's a book that's been out for a while, by the inimitable Charles P. Pierce: Idiot America - How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free.
Follow me past the Orange Omnilepticon for more...
Let's be very up front about one thing here. A&E did not take the steps they did because of concerns about hate speech, religious freedom, or any of those other bothersome old rights and mores. Anyone who thinks the business of business has anything to do with morality of any kind in this day and age or protecting our civil liberties is either very uninformed or a shameless idolator of the Gods of the Marketplace.
It was and is all about "The Brand", and Robertson's views - once they became public - have damaged it. And that's the real concern for A&E.
What is "The Brand" you ask? Pierce discusses it in his book in the context of Talk Radio, which these days is almost entirely the domain of conservatism and other atavistic phenomenon.
...A host is not judged a success by his command of the issues, but purely by whether what he says moves the ratings needle. (First Great Premise: Any theory is valid if it moves units.) If the needle moves enough, then the host is adjudged an expert (Second Great Premise: Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough) and, if the host seems to argue passionately enough, then what he is saying is judged to be true simply because of how many people are listening to him say it (Third Great Premise: Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is measured by how fervently they believe it).
Pierce, Charles P. (2009-05-29). Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free (pp. 103-104). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Of course, while A&E has its brand to worry about, the GOP has a somewhat different brand to defend.
In the normal course of events (normal being one of those theoretical concepts more honored in the breach than in actuality in America), Robertson's remarks would have been taken for what they were: the views of person of a certain generation and upbringing and a particular ignorance speaking from "The Gut". And that's the problem. "The Gut" has become paramount in our national discourse. Again, from Idiot America:
For an unobtrusive little bookworm, Mr. [James] Madison understood the Gut and what it could do better than most of his peers did. He saw it for what it was—a moron, to be sure, but more than that, too. The Gut is democratic. It is the repository of fears so dark and ancient and general that we reflexively dress up the Gut as good ol’ common sense, which we define as “whatever the Gut tells us.” The Gut inevitably tells so many different people so many different things at so many different times that it causes them to choose up sides. Good ol’ common sense is almost never common and it often fails to make sense. Because of this, Madison was wary of the Gut from the start, and he tried to devise a system within which the Gut could be channeled and controlled, as by the locks in a canal. “So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities,” he wrote in Federalist 10, “that when no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions.”
Pierce, Charles P. (2009-05-29). Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free (p. 95). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Think of any issue, and these days the roaring of The Gut drowns out reasonable discourse and fact-based decision making; climate change, Obamacare, Iran, Syria, energy policy, etc. etc. Not for nothing does Pierce title his weekly summary of the Sunday Talking Head Shows "What Are the Gobshites Saying These Days?" Duck Dynasty is useful as a demonstration of Idiot America at its most inane.
We have bigger problems than an aging bigot on a 'reality' TV show.
For more Pierce, here's a link to ten of his best columns at Esquire this year.