Just Thinking Out Loud: The comedian effect

Allowing professional jesters to dictate our social and geopolitical tenets has never seemed like a good idea in my modest estimation.  This is not to imply that some of those who contribute to the national conversation, as it were, don't possess a certain validity (Dennis Miller comes to mind).  Yet all too often we substitute logical criticisms for snappy one-liners, essentially yielding to jokes and mean spirited name-calling out of concern of being falsely labeled if one is bold enough to stand in opposition.

Perhaps nobody typifies such devices more than The View co-host Joy Behar.  Always the firebrand, no matter how untenable her position(s), Behar took another shot at Conservatives recently by referring to them as "mental midgets."  The fact that little people strongly object to the term midget would have made headlines had Behar not been so strongly aligned with those of a Left-leaning orientation.  That said, there is a clear irony in her comment, as it appears that Behar, despite her well-known disdain of the Right, holds Conservatives in a higher regard than they will ever hold her.

It has become increasingly evident that a Liberal can barely tie his or her shoes without launching an attack of some kind against a perceived foe.  While cheap shots are rarely necessary (and never welcome), such things are nevertheless par for the course when dealing with the Left, which is why buying in to such tactics -- while giving little consideration to its veracity for as long as we are offered the fleeting benefit of a good chuckle -- grants the sanctimonious aggressor more legitimacy than they deserve.  Consequently, referring to Behar herself as a midget is far more insulting to an actual little person of any leaning.