Can anyone honestly say they're surprised by the most recent Donald Trump fallout?
All of us at one time or another have said something or done supremely stupid ... but most of us aren't proposing to lead the country.
Politicians seem to spend so much time with their feet in their mouths that I wonder how words ever come out at all. For a time when one of my nephews was a baby, I feared he'd become a politician since it seemed he always had a foot in his mouth (apparently his right foot was quite tasty).
Still, these people do take their feet out just long enough to embarrass their mamas and tick off entire segments of the population ... except for those people who feel that they "tell it like it is" and are "politically incorrect."
But if "telling it like it is" includes falsehoods, how is that "like it is"? Have you checked out the many fact-checks on Trump's statements? Not seeing a lot of "true" among the verdicts ... Oh, wait ... fact-checking is a communist plot, right?
The latest fact-check I noticed was one by PolitiFact, after an NBC interview in which Trump told Chuck Todd that he hadn't said the things Megyn Kelly had asked him about in last week's debate. Surprise, surprise, he did actually refer to women (and not just Rosie O'Donnell) as fat pigs, dogs, and slobs ... and more. So yes, Kelly's question was accurate, and Trump's response has been anything but. He's now even demanding that Kelly apologize to him for asking him a question about his past statements (because that's just not done ... how dare she do her job!).
Gosh, it's like everybody's picking on him just because he says things that aren't true, reveals no actual policy positions, and balks at questions that other candidates have had to face, calling it unfair if he gets questions he doesn't like. How horrible!
Like a few others in the public eye, Trump is big on hyperbole, but very thin-skinned. In his mind, he's being strong and politically incorrect. In reality, his apparent inability to take criticism belies all his boasting and reveals a very small man.
And now I'll just prepare myself to be called a fat pig by The Donald.
There's always that other possibility: He's not being politically incorrect; he's just rude, entitled, and out of touch with how real people behave.
Nah, couldn't be that.
I've yet to meet anyone who isn't offended by something, but some are more quick to take offense than others ... sometimes before the words even trip off the tongue ... mainly because they had already decided to be offended before anything was said.
No, that doesn't happen, I hear some of you say, except on the other side.
Yet it does, and on all sides.
Some people are far too concerned about labels, but much of the concern is wildly overblown. Most of the time, those complaining of censorship, for example, have had no experience with actual censorship, like that which happens in places like North Korea, Turkmenistan and Equatorial Guinea.
What usually sets my eyes a-rollin' in accusations of political correctness are mentions of the Thought Police or Newspeak, often accompanied by the quote or variant, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act," supposedly by George Orwell in 1984. Quote Investigator and other researchers could find no evidence of Orwell saying this in 1984 or anywhere else. The earliest evidence Quote Investigator found was in a 1982 book, Partners in Ecocide: Australia's Complicity in the Uranium Cartel, by Venturino Giorgio Venturini, with no source material listed for the quote.
I find it hard to put much stock in what purveyors of fake quotes say, so when they profess great offense, perhaps at the very concept of truth (you know, things that are really true, rather than what you or your crazy uncle want to be true), I tend to tune out. I know, terribly fact-ist of me ...
Is the problem here political correctness gone wild, or is it that a thin-skinned blowhard just can't take criticism? Now that the Twitterverse is taking him to task over his remarks, I'm wondering how long it will take before there's another implosion.
Feeling empathy for your fellow man isn't weak or politically correct, nor is being kind and following the social niceties. Being brash and boorish isn't truth-telling; telling the truth is.
On Twitter after the debate, Trump crowed: "So many 'politically correct' fools in our country. We have to all get back to work and stop wasting time and energy on nonsense!"
I agree. Donald, you're fired. You can sure dish it out, but ...
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Assistant Editor Brenda Looper is editor of the Voices page. Read her blog at blooper0223.wordpress.com.
Editorial on 08/12/2015