This has been bothering me since Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson's racist and heterosexist remarks in his recent GQ interview came to light -- the inevitable "we're not all like that" backlash. Obviously not all white Americans living in conservative parts of the US are bigoted, but you know what? I'm tired of feeling like I owe anyone the benefit of the doubt. If you're not actively working against it, I'm going to assume you have no problem with racist or heteosexist bullshit. I live in a conservative state, too, albeit in a moderate-to-liberal city, and I don't make any excuses for my state's asshatery. I'm not going to cry "we're not all like that," because obviously we're not, but I'm not going to sweep it under the rug either and pretend there's not serious, long-standing, systemic racism and homophobia particular to red parts of the US. If you live in of those places, you have to work that much harder.
Then this happened.
I'm still waiting for the punchline.
Because I seriously can't believe that Jon Stewart doesn't understand that free speech does not equal freedom from consequences. Am I the only person really disappointed in this? Phil Robertson has every right to spew hateful garbage in a magazine interview, and A&E has every right to respond by suspending him.
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