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.
Just one actually. Why are so many people who claim to be on the right willing to remain silent about such a simple reality? Because they do it all the time whether it’s Georgie’s idiocy, Sharpton, Jessie or any of a thousand white libs.
If one looks at any problem in America, the Lib/Democrats are the cause of it. EVERY One.
You mentioned an aspect I had not thought of; the sodomite misuse of a bodily orifice. The thought of which makes me question the sanity of those who practice it; Bibically one of the most heinous sins enumerated.
From a still different angle, I recall seeing a tag on the back of the sissybar on a Harley at a HOG rally years ago: “If you think sex is a pain in the ass, you’re doing it wrong.”
No sale. Regardless of the difficulties of his past, his current words and actions are corrupt and, yet, racist.
Apparently to you “liberal” means “anybody who disagrees with me.”
Good point. He got what he wanted and was angry because someone else who is brilliant, articulate and BLACK happened to disagree with him. Add Anti-freedom TYRANT to his list of offenses.
OUCH!
Happy Independence Day!
FMCDH(BITS)
He may have a liberal education, but that does not make him smart. He sides with vile political positions, makes his entire identity about — ahem — a nasty perverted act, and has no self control when he wins a court case because he HATES that anyone else has the freedom to disagree with him. So steeped in emotion he makes a racist comment. I would not call that even close to smart.
Furthermore: It just dawned on me that Takei is the Richard Cranium who did the Sharp TV commercials a while back. No wonder he turned my stomach!
I hasten to add that, having spent 3 years in Nippon, courtesy of Uncle Sam, I loved the Japanese people. After MacArthur knocked that Bushido crap out of their heads they were really nice, friendly people. As a Nisei, Takei missed that learning experience because he was here in the States. And he obviously gleaned nothing positive or elevating from the internment, either. Waste.
Bullshit, pure and simple! There is not such thing as an honest Liberal.
Yea all those points I typed were completely without merit.
How about addressing them one by one. Think you’re up to it?
Blah blah blah. Leftists are bigots. Everyone knows this. The microparsing in this article is complete horse hockey.
Use of said orifice in that fashion, is said by certain schools of psychiatry,to be the result of infantile “exploration”. When it persists as a choice into adulthood, the said adults are said to be in a state of infantilism. That is, childish acting.
When examining either male or female queers, and their screaming about minutiae of their minority and their concocted self absorbed “rights”, it is hard not to think of all of them (ALL of them) as children. To which they would demand of us-— “so what, what’s wrong with that?” Answer- everything, and is so when heteros act like children. Bad outcomes for the rest of society either way.
Educated and stupid are not mutually exclusive. It occurs frequently.
How can the faggot be honest when he votes for the Democrat Party that placed him into the internment camp he complains about?
Just waiting for someone to put up the picture of Mr. Sulu with a sword.
The answer to your question is that liberals are not consistent in their outrage. Their patron saint, FDR, put Japanese-Americans in internment camps. But since he’s their patron saint, they can’t call him out on that terrible action.
Liberals have selective outrage.
Yes, there are intellectually honest liberals. It is a vanishing species, but it once flourished and still clings to existence. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that much of their misplaced compassion is born of stupidity, but there are still a few - a VERY few - Hubert Humphreys, Scoop Jackson’s and Sam Nunn out there.
“This suggests - as if it weren’t already obvious - that legal enforcement of homosexual “marriage” isn’t what they want. What they want is the elimination of anyone who disagrees with them in any way.”
And there folks, we have real issue.
Yes, we do. See this article by Daniel Greenfield, one of our very best commentators:
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2015/06/no-truce-with-left.html
Takie has made a lucrative living in Hollywoods pretend world. Clarence Thomas, brilliant and black SC Justice, voted against homosexual marriage and Takie had to go back to his parents FDR mandated internment camp days to find an excuse to be mad at him. Perhaps this is because Takie is a homosexual who can now marry another male but probably does not want to share his wealth. Homosexuals themselves are not satisfied with their new credentials, knowing that their sex remains male or female even tho they pretend to be whatever else.
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