[This blast from the past touches upon one of today’s central issues from the Tea Baggers, Fox News, talk radio and the Republican Party, that Black people are the racists and White people their victims. Another example of that "false moral equivalency" the Right must dwell upon to cover their intolerant bigotry.]
Those Intolerant of Intolerance are More Intolerant Than Those They Accuse of Being Intolerant!
The above convoluted semantic argument is often used to berate liberals for accusing conservatives of various forms of prejudice, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and racism. Though so absurd it seems unworthy of comment, it is still a debate they are winning through every area of the media, for this is the central theme regarding the issue of political correctness. Years before political correctness had a name, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. arrived at a way of expressing the absurdity it all. I paraphrase…
Intolerance was an important issue of debate between my parents. Father was of course, a good fascist, and was intolerant of just about everything, except of course, Nazi’s. Mother would ask that he not bring any of the uniformed, swastika laden soldiers into her home. My father would then accuse her of gross intolerance. My mother, rather than play the semantic game, would get out pencil and paper and begin writing:
Things Mother is intolerant of:
Nazis
Things Father is Intolerant of:
Jews
Communists
Queers
Buddhists
Lesbians
Chinamen
Negroes
Hindus
Japs
Muslims
Unionists
Pollocks
Environmentalists
Arabs
Catholics
Mexicans
Moslems
Liberals
Socialists
Feminists
Albanians
Russians
Then Mother would search around for more paper. Mother always made a big thing out of searching around for more paper.