Fairness Is For Suckers

Posted by streiff
Saturday, March 17th at 7:16AM EDT

Red State:

Every once in a while, despite our political differences, people of good faith can come together in agreement on major issues. Exhibit A is this New York Times op-ed by the unfortunately named Stanley Fish whom Wikipedia assures me is someone of some import though for what reason I really can’t tell.

From Professor Fish:

If we think about the Rush Limbaugh dust-up from the non-liberal — that is, non-formal — perspective, the similarity between what he did and what Schultz and Maher did disappears. Schultz and Maher are the good guys; they are on the side of truth and justice. Limbaugh is the bad guy; he is on the side of every nefarious force that threatens our democracy. Why should he get an even break?

There is no answer to that question once you step outside of the liberal calculus in which all persons, no matter what their moral status as you see it, are weighed in an equal balance. Rather than relaxing or soft-pedaling your convictions about what is right and wrong, stay with them, and treat people you see as morally different differently. Condemn Limbaugh and say that Schultz and Maher may have gone a bit too far but that they’re basically O.K. If you do that you will not be displaying a double standard; you will be affirming a single standard, and moreover it will be a moral one because you will be going with what you think is good rather than what you think is fair. “Fair” is a weak virtue; it is not even a virtue at all because it insists on a withdrawal from moral judgment.

If there is one good thing that has come out of this dust-up over the bovine Sandra Fluke and her insatiable need for free contraceptives (I’ve seen the pictures of her and her boyfriend, so I have my doubts) it has clearly exposed what Dr. Fish is talking about.

True, Fluke, who interjected herself into a public policy debate with 1) no expertise at all in the subject area outside a second X chromosome she arguably possesses and 2) hysterically spouting wildly implausible stories about the difficulties facing a Georgetown Law student in obtaining birth control pills not paid for by someone else, was roughed up a little. However, it was nothing compared to the abuse heaped upon Sarah Palin and other conservative women as a matter of routine.

No one called Fluke a derogatory Anglo-Saxon term for female genitalia as Bill Maher did Sarah Palin. And no one on the Left condemned Maher or even expressed mild consternation. Lefty politicos still trample each other in eagerness to appear on his obscure television program. Had someone on our side called Nancy Pelosi that, or even Bill Maher whose picture appears in the dictionary beside that word, we would still be getting demands to denounce it from the Left.

To a certain extent this isn’t news. Famous commie lawyer William Kunstler, who is now firmly ensconced in either the 8th or 9th Circle, used to say “I do not believe in public attacks on socialist countries, even where violations of human rights may occur.” Or rather, “what’s a little genocide between friends.” But it is significant because now the rules going forward are clearly defined.

I will not “denounce” anyone on my side because nothing anyone on my side says can come close to comparing to what the Left tosses about every day. And when saying whatever it is that gets the left’s panties in a wad, the people on my side are not trying to destroy the culture of this nation and pervert (quite literally in many cases) our laws and traditions. These people are trying to destroy Christianity itself.

How anyone can claim Rush Limbaugh calling Fluke a “slut” is even in same league with the Randi Rhodes, maybe drunk maybe not, discoursing on the religion of Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley? It isn’t. Not even close.

So I join with Dr. Fish in affirming that “fairness” is for suckers and that our first loyalty is to our allies.

Many moons ago, the inestimable Thomas Crown wrote:

Should the entire American Left fall over dead tomorrow, I would rejoice, and order pizza to celebrate. They are not my countrymen; they are animals who happen to walk upright and make noises that approximate speech. They are below human. I look forward to seeing each and every one in Hell.

That is my philosophy moving forward from today.