I have not had the joy of writing a short piece in response to our current political climate lately, nor have I scrolled through my Twitter feed in quite some time. I’m preoccupied with writing a book at the moment. It’s true that I find myself wanting to comment many times a week, but I calm myself down and set it aside. I have a goal, and I must focus on that right now.
But not today.
Today I woke to the feigned disgust of those who did not find Michelle Wolf’s performance at the White House Correspondence Dinner funny and/or found it offensive. I am only aware of this because my wife was filling me in on the Twitter tirades, and I saw a piece on MSNBC about it. So, I decided to watch her performance for myself.
And you know what? Much of it was harsh. Many jokes were offensive. Some weren't even funny. But that wasn’t my main takeaway from the performance. It wasn’t what Michelle was saying that made me, personally uncomfortable. It was the audience’s reaction. It was offensive that they could not take a joke; that they laughed when it was aimed at others but not themselves.
Then came the day after: how predictable to see this group of professionals claiming to believe in the freedom of speech turn around the following day and use their access to media to rail against her for exercising those very rights. According to these hypocrites, Michelle should apologize for offending Sarah Huckabee-Sanders. Really? What was so offensive? The truth? Since Huckabee-Sanders does lie every time she addresses the press, I can only assume they were offended because Michelle pointed out the truth.
Or maybe like Chris Cizzilla of CNN, they were mortified by her abortion joke. “Does anyone find this joke funny?” Yeah actually some of us did. I found it fucking hilarious. Mika Brzezinski and Maggie Haberman were apparently under the impression that Sarah’s looks were being made fun of. Ummmm….no. That is not the case. She did not make fun of her looks. Not at all. I suggest you watch the video again.
No, the problem wasn’t what Michelle said, it was who she said it about. It was the fact that she held a mirror up to the press and challenged them. It was that she called out their blatantly biased coverage of Trump and his administration. I noted that hardly any of them were squawking about her liberal/Democrat jokes. And yes, the majority of the jokes were aimed at the current administration, but that would be because they ARE the current administration.
It wasn’t just what was being said though, it’s who was saying it. Just like the election, the press has chosen to vilify a woman speaking the truth. Had she been a man, a white man, there would still be groaning but not to the extent Michelle got. They were literally whining and complaining about her jokes while Trump, the current President of the Untied States, was at the exact same time holding one of his dictatorial, choking his chicken rallies. Trump did his normal attack on the government, liberals, Russia, blah blah blah…and even got his fluffers to chant ‘Nobel.”
If you think about it, nothing has changed. Men, white men, can still say and do whatever they want, but God forbid a woman open her mouth and offend someone. The press now considers Trump’s rally normal. He’s allowed to blatantly lie while the press falls all over themselves trying not to call him or his staff liars. They “stretch the truth” or “have alternative facts,” but they’re never liars. He’s given a pass time and time again when supporting pedophiles for candidates, Nazis, subverting our intelligence communities, sexually assaulting and harassing women, joking about people with disabilities and so on.
Our country has no assured access to healthcare for its citizens, our education system is being turned into a segregationist’s wet dream, our president has failed to defend the country against the attacks perpetrated by the Russian government, Republicans are stealing from the poor and giving to the rich, women’s rights are being obliterated, immigrants are being rounded up and jailed, people of color are being shot by police without cause, Puerto Rico has not recovered …. and Flint, Michigan still does not have drinking water.
But yeah, let’s all be pissed at Michelle Wolf.
