Posted on 07/04/2015 5:28:26 AM PDT by lifeofgrace
The conservative world exploded in outrage over George Takei's blatantly racist remark calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas "a clown in blackface," but they all got this story wrong. Takei is a very rare bird: an intellectually honest liberal.
I'm not going to cover in detail what Takei said and what Justice Thomas wrote. You can read about it here, here, and here.
To sum up, Justice Thomas wrote in his dissent on Obergefell v. Hodges (the gay marriage case, for those who have hid their heads in a bag for the last two weeks) that the government doesn't bestow dignity and humanity upon humans--that's something reserved to God. He cited two examples, American slavery and Japanese internment camps.
Let's look at Takei's reaction from an actor's point of view, shall we?
Any actor playing a character wants to know the character's motivation--it's a first principle of acting. So what's Takei's motivation here?
Conservative Sean Davis at The Federalist claimed that Takei is "a simple man with a simple mind incapable of basic reading comprehension, Takei took this to mean that Thomas was denying the indignity of slavery."
Jim Treacher wrote in the Daily Caller, "Not that I doubt Takei means what he says. He really is a huge racist."
Front page contributor streiff at RedState wrote, "George Takei is a racist. There is no other way to put it. He might as well have his valet send his white robe to the cleaners to have it pressed and starched while his gardener makes a nice, flammable cross."
William Shatner who has worked with Takei for four decades, crossed swords with him many times, and overall probably knows the man as well as anyone in Hollywood, tweeted:
I am positive that George is not a racist. Let's stop the spin doctoring. https://t.co/LiolPBqufN — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) July 2, 2015
So either Takei's a racist and has always been a racist, or his motivation is something else. First a clarification, you'll get no argument from me that what Takei said was racist, and I won't defend it. He should check his heart. It was hurtful, and as offensive as invoking any other black racial imagery, or Nazi imagery to a Jew (saying "to the ovens," for example). Though he apologized, I doubt he'll really change his mind.
I spoke in the heat of anger, and uncivilly. For that I am sorry. My full remarks regarding Justice Thomas here: https://t.co/FmyX9oQvlD— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 3, 2015
But not because he's a racist.
Back to motivation: when Takei was five years old, he and his parents were removed from their home by the U.S. government, and forced to live in various internment camps until the end of World War II. George is a "Nisei," a second generation Japanese immigrant to America, the first generation ("Issei") having immigrated from Japan. He was born in the United States, and has full citizenship here.
Imagine a life-defining event where from the age of 5 until the age of 8-years-old, you lived in the only country you knew, which was at war with the country of your parents, treated as a prisoner. Whether the Japanese internment was moral, immoral, practical, or legal (and I'm not engaging in argument of any position), the results include a large number of Nisei who share a defining period in their youth, framing their view of America.
Takei is also openly gay, and openly liberal. He's also openly political, and even ran for California assemblyman in the 1980's.
One thing Takei isn't, is stupid. He's got a Masters of Arts in theater from UCLA, and studied architecture at UC Berkeley. Let's put out the fire burning the "stupid liberal" straw man. Takei knows his positions.
If there was anything that would push all the buttons for a gay, liberal, political Nisei, it's a black, conservative Supreme Court justice writing a dissent on a case about gay marriage rights and invoking slavery and Japanese internment during World War II.
Takei, at 78 years old, is way beyond yelling "get off my lawn" and being curmudgeonly, and also well past caring what anyone thinks about what he says. So he blew his stack and called it like he saw it.
A Buddhist, it's very likely that not a single Christian has ever had a meaningful impact on Takei's life, although I can't say that with any assurance other than speculation. If you take a Buddhist with liberal political leanings and try to apply a Christian argument of dignity as God-given (the Judeo-Christian God), how can a non-Christian living in a country he's seen as biased against so many integrate that into his psyche?
From Takei's point of view, everything in his life points to Justice Thomas' remarks as cover for Christian oppression of minorities in the U.S. It's just how he sees it.
And for that, George Takei is an intellectually honest liberal.
This explains a lot, really.
It explains why the liberal press is unwilling to cover Takei's remarks. They can't defend it. They can't publicly support Takei, but they can't attack him either, because he thinks like they do. The Huffington Post covered it as straight news, giving Takei a hall pass of sorts: this happened, let's move on.
It's like taking a genuine Rolex (though caked with excrement and in need of some cleaning) and giving it to a street vendor who sells only obvious cheap fakes on a street corner. Do you think the vendor would put the real Rolex on the table and charge a fair price for it (as a real item)? No. He'd hide it away, because it would immediately show how terrible the watches he sells every day truly are.
George Takei's racist rant, although repugnant, represents a real feeling, a real opinion based on a lifetime of experience. It's genuine and raw. It's got the same quality as another old warrior in the culture war (who's also on TV): Phil Robertson. Phil's remarks are off-the-cuff, unfiltered, and at times, completely inappropriate, but they are the truth as Phil sees it.
The left loves to pounce hard on Phil Robertson for saying things that are many times less offensive than what Takei uttered, but conservatives defend him without hesitation, because although he may say it poorly, Robertson is clearly not a stupid man, and is speaking from a lifetime of real experience--which aligns with conservative thought.
Takei will be given a pass by the left, because they know that even if they condemn calling a Supreme Court justice "a clown in blackface," it exposes their own positions on playing the race card, the equality card, and the I-hate-America card as fatuous and duplicitous.
In other words, Takei's honest remarks make the rest of the left look like the loony hypocrites they are.
For that, I thank George Takei. I know he is genuinely offended, and I'm okay with that. At 78, he can be offended. I will still watch Star Trek, and I'll still enjoy Takei's Twitter feed.
Racist comments aside, and without giving him a pass (and with him now in my prayers), I wish for Takei only that he live long and prosper.
You’re correct. I believe Mr. Berman mistook being an intellectually candid liberal (saying what he really thinks without the PC filter) for being an “intellectually honest liberal” (of which the only accurate term is liberal).
Absolutely.
Pimping his blog?
Not technically, since he's posted the whole thing and isn't driving traffic to his foul blog.
This is an apology for what Takei clearly believes
I figure most bloggers have at least a touch of queerness in 'em.
"Intellectually honest" doesn't necessarily mean "intellectual". One can be intellectually honest, and still be dumber than a box of rocks. It simply means that you are consistent with your beliefs. Many liberals have been brainwashed from an early age and are not exposed to the truth, ever. It's also possible that many of them are too dumb to learn anything better. It seems to me that Takei might fit that category (in spite of what the author of this article thinks).
What has Takei’s life been like SINCE the internment? 2 post grad degrees, a cushy pretend life as an actor, unlimited prosperity in America the Beautiful, and he’s still nursing a case of Red Butt nearly 70 years later? To quote the sailors singing about Bloody Mary in South Pacific, “Now ain’t that too damn bad?!”
The sheer fact that Berman tries to walk-back Takie's screed puts him in the same category as any liberal, Hollywood weeny that can't tolerate an opinion that differs from their own. Trying to polish this turd into something edible isn't going to happen and Berman might find himself in the same toilet that Takie dove into.
Oh I read every word of it. You might wish to reread it and count the mistaken assumptions he makes to base the entire argument on. Because there’s a metric ton of them.
So either he’s a pathetic columnist or a propagandist. Pick one.
If I were a NA activist I would push for banning the stars and stripes which is a symbol of evilness to my people.
How long will it be til the Redskins strike?
It says right here that anyone who claims outrage at something a known clown like Takei says is both grandstanding and pretending.
Agree and LOL! “Talkie Talkie” comes to mind,too. Dude was successful in any reckoning. And “Red Butt” (too funny) more centrally located and voluntarily caused by those who choose to have their exit used as an entrance.
Takei may be smart, I never meet the man but an Arts degree of any kind doesn't make you smart, Bachelor or Master. And anybody can "study" architecture. Sounds like the author isn't one of those "intellectually honest" people he admires so much.
There's not much mystery here. Takei is a flaming homo and takes issue with the dissenting opinion. There you go, explained in one sentence rather than an entire article.
I had never heard of George Takei until he made that Clarence Thomas remark. Looks like he’s another Hollywood airhead.
If I spit on and curse at a homeless person, does that reduce his dignity, or mine? The answer to that question tells you how right Justice Thomas was in his dissent in regard to dignity. He was dead right.
Just to hammer the point home...
___________
“The conservative world exploded in outrage over George Takei’s blatantly racist remark calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “a clown in blackface,” but they all got this story wrong. Takei is a very rare bird: an intellectually honest liberal.”
___________
First, any conservative knows that an intellectually honest liberal is an impossibility. they react on emotion not logic and honesty is anathema to the philosophy of liberal/marxism. So right off the bat the opening statement shows the author is either clueless or propagandizing
____________
“So either Takei’s a racist and has always been a racist, or his motivation is something else. ... ... ...
But not because he’s a racist.”
_____________
No because he’s a textbook liberal that hates.
____________
“Imagine a life-defining event where from the age of 5 until the age of 8-years-old, you lived in the only country you knew, which was at war with the country of your parents, treated as a prisoner.”
_______________
Imagine that none of that matters when you do the exact thing you hold against white Christian America.
_______________
“One thing Takei isn’t, is stupid. He’s got a Masters of Arts in theater from UCLA, and studied architecture at UC Berkeley. Let’s put out the fire burning the “stupid liberal” straw man. Takei knows his positions.”
________________
Each of which matches up perfectly with one of the rules Saul Alynski listed in Rules for Radicals. And it isn’t a coincidence
__________________
‘If there was anything that would push all the buttons for a gay, liberal, political Nisei, it’s a black, conservative Supreme Court justice writing a dissent on a case about gay marriage rights and invoking slavery and Japanese internment during World War II.”
______________
Why? That makes zero sense. It wasn’t blacks that interred Japanese people. What DOES make sense is that he followed the path of countless libs before him attacking a black man for holding a non liberal position because they see him as unintelligent and an easy target. They know that attacking him will win liberal points.Why did he not attack other non blacks on the court? Are non blacks not the source of Japanese interrment? What is the point of attacking him culturally?
Keeping them on the plantation, harming an enemy of liberalism and making an example of him just as they have since day 1.
___________________
“Takei, at 78 years old, is way beyond yelling “get off my lawn” and being curmudgeonly, and also well past caring what anyone thinks about what he says. So he blew his stack and called it like he saw it.”
___________________
So did Hitler, Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin and Dave Duke. The point, other than excuses, being what?
___________________________
“A Buddhist, it’s very likely that not a single Christian has ever had a meaningful impact on Takei’s life, although I can’t say that with any assurance other than speculation. If you take a Buddhist with liberal political leanings and try to apply a Christian argument of dignity as God-given (the Judeo-Christian God), how can a non-Christian living in a country he’s seen as biased against so many integrate that into his psyche?”
___________________
Most Bhuddists I know are neither gay nor anti-christian. Again, diversionary excusing.
__________________
“From Takei’s point of view, everything in his life points to Justice Thomas’ remarks as cover for Christian oppression of minorities in the U.S. It’s just how he sees it.”
________________
Too stupid to comment on.
_____________________
“And for that, George Takei is an intellectually honest liberal.”
_____________________
Again, Unicorn.
_____________________
“This explains a lot, really.”
_____________________
Oh it does. It explains that many liberal writers work for supposedly conservative outlets.
____________________
“It explains why the liberal press is unwilling to cover Takei’s remarks. They can’t defend it.”
____________________
But this columnist did all that for them, thus saving them the trouble. See above.
A Useful Idiot in tribe of Useful Idiots.
Takei may well live to see Christian internment camps.
Wonder what he’ll think about those.
He is a bigoted moron that supports the party that put him in an internment camp. any questions?
He opened his mouth and blew it.
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