Cheap Seats 2022 By Rich Trzupek

It's Pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove

By Raymond Luxury Yacht
  The gap between reality and perception continues to grow ever larger in the modern world. This is particularly the case among the leftist intelligentsia. Objective reality is fading away among our progressive brothers and sisters. For them, there’s an increasing fluidity in the way they consider issues that involve gender, beneficial public safety policies, racial discrimination, etc.
  Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of The View, was suspended by ABC for claiming on air that The Holocaust had nothing to do with race. In my not at all humble opinion, the Holocaust was all about race, because that’s what the author of The Holocaust, Adolf-What’s-His-Name, actually identified as his motivation for attempting to wipe out a particular race. On the other hand, I think Whoopi and every other human being on planet earth has the right to their opinion, even when I think it’s moronic. Denying her a platform to express an unpopular opinion because the honchos at ABC perceive that the public disagree with that opinion is counter-productive, shallow and stupid.
  The democratic ideal, which our republic attempts to approach if not wholly fulfill, welcomes – nay, encourages – alternate points of view that are often in opposition to conventional thinking. We enjoy the protections of the First Amendment because the founders knew that for valuable ideas to thrive, they must be able to survive the high temperature smelter that includes dissenting ideas and theories. Free speech is not about protecting opinions one agrees with. It’s about protecting opinions one finds distasteful, hurtful and uniformed.
  Goldberg, in her naivete, expressed a point of view that is painfully prevalent among some Americans who have limited experience with life beyond the shores of the US of A. She thinks about race in terms of skin color and skin color alone. That ridiculously simplistic viewpoint may attract Goldberg’s friends on the far left and may ring true to their compatriots on the extreme right, but for the rest of us who are actually capable of rational thought in 2022, the idea that race = skin pigmentation is ridiculous.
  As previously noted on these pages, I am darker skinned than my half-Hispanic daughter or her 100 percent Hispanic mother. There are Hispanics with very dark skins and Hispanics with very light skins. There are darker-skinned people who can trace their origins to Africa, to the Middle East, to the Caribbean Islands, to South America, to Asia, etc. One can find light-skinned folk in all of those places as well. Not only that, but if you take a little more time to search, you’ll find that there are plenty of ethnic Hebrews who are darker skinned as well. “Black” is not a race. Neither is “white.”
  We find the same good-think when we look at the reaction on the left to podcaster Joe Rogan. He leans left, if not crazy left, but he committed an unpardonable sin against progressive thought. Rogan had the temerity to have someone opposed to mandatory COVID vaccinations on his show and to – you may want to sit down for this – ASK THEM QUESTIONS!
  Like yours truly Rogan is not against the COVID vaccines himself, he’s just a curious guy who believes in giving all sorts of opinions a chance. How horrible! Two of the more annoying rockers from the seventies, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell Joni (aka: “Art Nouveau”) pulled their music from Spotify in protest of Rogan’s reckless behavior. Whether Rogan will be awarded a medal for public service in causing this to happen is yet to be determined.
  I never thought I’d live to see freedom of expression under attack the way it is today. Between Big Tech and liberals in power, one wonders how soon Big Brother will take over for once and all.
  Email: richtrzupek@gmail.com