Posted on 04/29/2018 2:13:42 PM PDT by ethom
On Saturday night, one Washington crowd tried to give President Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, while another Washington crowd stood up against some of the most offensive "jokes" a "comedian" has ever uttered. When Michelle Wolf spoke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, her monologue descended into an x-rated tirade most infamous for attacks on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Wolf's attacks on Sanders proved disgusting from about every angle, but only those familiar with the Hulu series "The Handmaid's Tale" — or the Margaret Atwood novel on which it is based — could understand the worst aspect of this tirade.
The "comedian" described Sarah Huckabee Sanders as "Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women," and this wasn't even the most offensive thing she said. Wolf started her attacks against Sanders with an "inside joke."
"I love you as Aunt Lydia on 'The Handmaid's Tale,'" Wolf said.
With this quip, Wolf played on the tired leftist motif that President Donald Trump's regime mimics the dystopian setting of "The Handmaid's Tale." In the novel and TV show, the United States has been coopted by a movement known as "Gilead," which removes all autonomy from women. The regime removes women's property, fires them from their jobs, and forces them into a stratified society based extremely loosely on one specific Bible passage.
Since the calamity that gave birth to "Gilead" made most women infertile, the big government solution is to assign fertile women the position of "handmaids," silent servants who are systematically raped in order to bear children.
Last year, anti-Trump activists seized on "The Handmaid's Tale" as a political cudgel, suggesting that the slightest limitation on abortion would equate to a regime of systematized rape of women.
In May, Hillary Clinton warned that if the United States government defunded Planned Parenthood, "The Handmaid's Tale" would not be far behind. Abortion activists in Ohio, Texas, and Missouri have all dressed up like handmaids to protest pro-life legislation. When the Republicans came out with a bill to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare, SJWs on Twitter compared it to "The Handmaid's Tale." To make matters worse, the cast and crew of the series declared that they had "joined the resistance" against Trump, suggesting that they also think Trump is implementing this dystopian future.
The premise of "The Handmaid's Tale," and the suggestion that Trump or anyone associated with him would ever countenance such a hateful submission of women, is bad enough, but Wolf arguably compared Sarah Huckabee Sanders to the worst character in the novel and show.
No, Hillary Clinton Fans, Evangelicals Are Not Secretly Planning a 'Handmaid's Tale' Future Aunt Lydia, played excellently by Ann Dowd, is not just part of the oppressive regime — she is the enforcer. She patrols the quarters of the "handmaids" to ensure silence, she assigns handmaids to watch one another, and she leads the handmaids to carry out brutal punishments to anyone who steps out of line. In one chilling scene, she orders the other handmaids to stone one of their sisters to death.
Comparing Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Aunt Lydia is arguably worse than calling her an "Uncle Tom," even though that phrase is much more offensive to black people. Perhaps knowing just how harsh this was, Michelle Wolf immediately moved on — to attack Vice President Mike Pence.
Of "The Handmaid's Tale," this "comedian" said, "Mike Pence, if you haven't seen it, you would love it!"
In another short phrase, Michelle Wolf echoed the disgusting suggestion that evangelical Christians — and Pence in particular — are fundamentally oppressive. LGBT activists harbor a special hatred for the vice president, throwing a "queer dance party" at his house on the eve of the inauguration and throwing a "pride parade" mocking him explicitly in Pence's hometown. Margaret Atwood, the novel's author, said that Pence was the "model" of her forced-birth dystopia.
Such suggestions are absurd, because "Gilead" is based on a Bible passage often cited by Christians as a cautionary tale against polygamy. In Genesis 30, Jacob's wives Leah and Rachel, anxious for children, tell their handmaids to have sex with Jacob, claiming the resultant children for their own.
The Bible serves multiple functions. While Christians believe it is the inspired Word of God, the book (it is actually more a library) records many stories meant more as cautionary tales than moral suggestions. The story of the dueling wives, besides being history, is most likely recorded to suggest the fundamental social problems with polygamy. The general theme of the Bible — from Genesis to Jesus' words in the gospels — suggests that human beings were designed for marriage between one man and one woman.
No evangelical would advocate for "The Handmaid's Tale," and the left's susceptibility to this offensive comparison suggests that far too many liberals have no idea what Christians really believe, and simply stigmatize them as oppressive and hateful with no basis (like the Southern Poverty Law Center frequently does).
Wolf said that she didn't want President Trump impeached, because Pence would become president. She attacked Pence as "the kind of guy that brushes his teeth and then drinks Orange juice and thinks MMM!"
Compounding this weird ad hominem attack, the "comedian" went on to advocate for abortion. She noted that Pence "is also very anti-choice. He thinks abortion is murder, which first of all, don’t knock it till you try it. And when you do try it, really knock it. You know, you’ve got to get that baby out of there."
Michelle Wolf delivered offensive line after offensive line, verging into the anatomical correctness of "pussy hats," insinuations that House Speaker Paul Ryan got too much snipped off at his circumcision, and multiple masturbation and orgasm jokes. While she was occasionally correct, her disgusting diatribe even put off many members of the liberal media.
Peter Baker, an MSNBC analyst and chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, put it well: "Unfortunately, I don't think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight."
Peter Baker ✔ @peterbakernyt Unfortunately, I don't think we advanced the cause of journalism tonight.
In a better world, the liberal media attacking Michelle Wolf for her attacks would mark the high point of anti-Trump hysteria. Even left-wing journalists saw these attacks as a bridge too far, but Wolf is likely to become a hero in many "progressive" circles nonetheless. Do not expect the "Handmaid's Tale" attacks on Trump, Pence, or Sarah Huckabee Sanders to end any time soon.
Play it over and over
In commerce als this fall
Lower than low
Stupider than stupid
Completely degenerate
Perfect democratic example
A black woman to boot so none of them can criticize her
I love it
So... you expected pro-Trump material?
What do you expect from a woman who looks like a donkey’s ass..too bad her mother didn’t abort her, would have driven her to the clinic myself..see, Michelle, just making a lil joke there
Past time to end the antiquated WH Correspondents dinner. Let ‘em pay for their own venue to exchange their venom. I don’t want the people’s White House to be used for Heinrich Hitlery’s butch Ilsas to slander and verbally assault others.
Let ‘em pound sand. Their own sand. Not ours.
Advancing the validity of referencing the Left as some pretty sick people.
Projection, I’ve never seen more obvious attempts to trash others for supposedly doing what today’s Left wants to do.
If folks think freedoms will flourish under a full on Leftist United States, they know nothing at all of history.
So after jeering that Pence thinks abortion is murder it then confirms that he is exactly right.
I wonder if these critters ever listen to themselves.
Can’t be real. Can it?
great minds think alike! :)
Don’t know -Twitter poster appears to be known to some of the posters there. Maybe someone is spreading a rumor about her because of her vile comments.
Tit for tat?
Considering she accused the President of loving Nazis.....she deserves to to slimed.
The Handmaid's Tale is an eighties feminist fever dream of some dystopian society. That's it! Yet idiots on the left take it seriously. Gawd these people are STUPID!
The event is not held in the White House and it is not paid for by taxpayers.
The left is working hard to expose itself as the party of bigotry, rudeness, and hypocritical open mindedness (Not)....
Everyone knows the story of “The Emperor and His New Clothes”
Slowly the left is learning they are naked in a much deeper sense....
Keep giving these idiots the microphone so they can be filmed and recorded for the fools they are.
It’s nothing new for them....
Wanda Sykes from the 2009 WHCD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2t-Hi-HDqg
The day and the date don’t match
She might be going the way of Kathy Griffin. Both of them are vile so called comics.
See how easy it is to spread a rumor Michelle?
Comparing and Contrasting the Handmaid's Tale with Islam is far more a legitimate exercise in reality than Comparing and Contrasting the Handmaid's Tale with Christianity which is more an exercise in delusion...
Oh, my. Lived up to her name.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.