Dennis Kneale

  • Home
  • What’s Bugging Me
  • Dennis Kneale Media
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

The Brigade: At it Again

March 28, 2014 By Dennis Kneale

COLBERT PIXThe Outrage Brigade is at it again, this time drawing a target on—and missing the entire point of—the satire of Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report.”

It’s now trending on Twitter: #CancelColbert.  Good Variety story on it this morning, here: http://bit.ly/1eXxMhG

Oddly, it is a mere 140-character (max) tweet, rather than the Colbert TV bit that spawned the message, that has outraged the ever-predictable Outrage Brigade.  That’s my term for this online band of fingerwagging moralists who get their knickers in a twist over politically incorrect comments that may malign one group or another.  First wrote about it here: http://bit.ly/1maAdis

Actually helping, say, impoverished Native Americans who live on a reservation would take too much effort.  So much easier to bash any offender for uttering a few words; it won’t help the situation, but it sure makes members of the Outrage Brigade feel so much better about themselves.

Colbert was riffing off real news:  Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, has created a foundation to assist Indian tribes. (Omigod: did I use the “I-word”??? Horrors!) Colbert’s funny bit on it is here: http://bit.ly/1gI5zxI

Snyder has been under fire for the supposedly racist name of his NFL team.  Never mind that a survey shows 90% of Native Americans themselves have no problem with the name.  (I did a “What’s Bugging Me” rant on this on FoxBiz: http://bit.ly/1hAS1iL

Then came the offending tweet, at 6:02 p.m. NY time last night, from the account @ColbertReport:  “I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.”

Now, if I wanted to grandstand, I could go ballistic on Colbert’s politically incorrect joke: My daughter, Jing Jing, is Chinese.  How DARE you make fun of Asians!  How DARE you call them “Orientals”!  But it’s a joke, and not even a mean joke.  It didn’t criticize Asians or perpetuate some negative stereotype.  It was aimed at lampooning Dan Snyder’s response to the name-game.  Doesn’t the intent of a joke matter at all anymore?

Some people got it.  The Colbert tweet instantly it got 193 retweets, 255 “favorites.”  “Do the Mexican American community next,” said one tweet from (maybe Latino?) Fernando aka @fedmex.  But the Outrage Brigade descended.  “There is a line between satire & offense that ‪@StephenatHome cannot dance over. He tramples it. For transphobia & racism, ‪#cancelcolbert,” intones @GrimalkinRN.  “You think that Colbert’s satire is OK?  Um, no.  It’s disgusting & devalues the lives of Asian & trans folks. ‪#cancelcolbert,” chimed in @christocarbone.

Oh, wow, aren’t they so moral, such crusaders for good?

The comedian himself—you get the guys?  Comedian?—puckishly weighed in with a tweet of his own: “I share your rage.  Who is that, though? I’m @StephenAtHome.”  The show itself answered him:  “For the record @ColbertReport is not controlled by Stephen Colbert or his show.”  And both tweets used the hashtag #CancelColbert, only too happy to surf the outrage-wave.

Whyizzit that liberals, when they don’t like a silly JOKE made by someone, seek to wipe the comment—and the person who said it—from the face of the Earth?  Cancel the entire show because of one line?   Liberals used to champion the First Amendment’s right of free expression.  Now they just want to stamp out any disagreement.  Why don’t they just get a life?  And focus on real deeds, real fixes, and not just the war-of-words?

Filed Under: Top Story

Dennis Kneale

Dennis Kneale covers media & tech, healthcare & science, business vs. government and other pursuits in the realm where creative destruction collides with wealth creation.
  • View All Posts
Dennis Kneale

Dennis Kneale
25-year inkstained wretch (WSJ, Forbes) goes TV: ex-CNBC, ex-Fox. Here's the bio...

Sign Up for Email Alerts

Latest Tweets

  • Witty of you, and what I said was accurate and true about a federal court order forcing separation of kids & adults… https://t.co/6vwp0ueCNy About 3 hours ago
  • Just finished my 445th workout on the great @8fit app. First meal of the day up now. #BreakfastofChampions https://t.co/59DyYlrrSF About 3 hours ago
  • Well summarized and succinctly put. https://t.co/azfh0c9Gwr About 4 hours ago
  • Trenchant observation. @McKaylaRoseJ https://t.co/Ja6yxBXisN About 5 hours ago
  • It is a rather stunning admission by the @Demwits that they doubt the mental comoetency of their “President.”… https://t.co/Y7mGuVopyv About 5 hours ago
  • So stupid. If you are that fearful, cancel the class. https://t.co/cB0uA7Wrjf About 5 hours ago
  • Searing. https://t.co/gm6z51I318 About 6 hours ago
  • Because someone authorized it. https://t.co/cjwINw0oCy About 6 hours ago
  • That is entirely, factually wrong, thanks to slipshod media coverage. In FACT, a federal judge’s order required sep… https://t.co/5nDkDdY1Va About 7 hours ago
  • Way too true. @megynkelly https://t.co/RWkhQ44Ef4 About 18 hours ago
  • “I’ll bet you do, sweet thing.” https://t.co/i2nwBKikA2 About 19 hours ago
  • Tge Times is a national embarrassment even to its own subscribers. Freshmen liberalism at its finest. https://t.co/WnFdOlJ59K Yesterday at 10:39 pm
  • Whoops, sorry about that. The driver stayed a gentleman, good on him. https://t.co/cpszBlYaEP February 24, 2021 9:37 pm
  • Searing and stinging. https://t.co/gT052icrih February 24, 2021 7:10 pm
  • Where is this all coming from? And who controls it? A month ago Cuomo was adored by #Demwits & media as presidentia… https://t.co/DWD4xoc24y February 24, 2021 7:09 pm

Copyright © 2021 Dennis Kneale