Interview with Mark Steyn (Linda Frum, National Post)
The man who likes to poke the world in the eye: Journalist Mark Steyn says being offensive has its merits (Linda Frum, National Post)
L[inda Frum]: One of your best qualities is that you're so insensitive. For example, when writing about what you call the most important fact of our time -- the explosion of the Muslim global population -- you say: "Those self-detonating Islamists in London and Gaza are a literal baby boom." Making offensive jokes like that takes guts. Where do you get the courage?M[ark Steyn]: Being offensive actually has its merits. An excessive deference to sensitivity is very harmful, particularly when you're dealing with people so ready to take offence. I didn't really think of it in an Islamist context until the fall of 2002, when I said in the National Post, something like: "Is it just me, or does Ramadan seem to come around quicker every year?" The point is Ramadan is every eleven and a half months. And of course I immediately got all these humourless letters from people saying, "Oh, you complete idiot! Are you not aware that under the Islamic calendar Ramadan comes..." Of course I'm aware! I'm making a cheap joke about it! It's my standard Ramadan joke, and I'm going to do it every 11-point-however-many-months for as long as I live. I seriously do believe that it's very hard to have a functioning society if you can't make cheap jokes about each other all the time. One of the key signs of a shared culture is if you can all cheerfully abuse each other. In the space of the last five years the multiculturalists seem to have internalized the psychology whereby it's taken for granted that you make whatever abusive jokes you want about Christians, but none of those same jokes can be made about Muslims. Well, the minute you accept that, I think you're doomed.
Steyn's combination of humor and intelligence can be devastating.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/14/06 14:25 | Books/Culture | Technorati
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Last week a caller to the Chris Baker show made a great point about how the media is controlling much of the debate (any debate) by labeling those who disagree with any liberal/progressive position as uncivilized. For example, if you oppose gay marriage, you are uncivilized (homophobic). If you oppose open borders, you are uncivilized (racist). If a conservative speaker goes to UT or Columbia, he or she is uncivilized (and therefore must be shouted down.)
Mark Steyn is delightfully uncivilized.
Posted by anne @ 10:26 on 10/15/06
To flip it around a little -- think of the sorts of jokes you can make without offending the PC police.
The (terrible) opener for Baker/Sneed the other night was reduced to making fun of NASCAR and President Bush. He didn't make fun of Christians, but that's the other usual safe culprit. And that's all he had. It was SO BAD. Baker/Sneed were good, tho. :)
Thankfully, Mark Steyn doesn't feel constricted by such political correctness and makes fun of everyone.
Posted by Kevin @ 10:30 on 10/15/06
Devastating, indeed:
http://www.suntimes.com/new...
Posted by anne @ 10:37 on 10/15/06
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