Thicker Skins

One of the aims of “Better Discourse” is to elevate everyone’s game.  When you’re better able to articulate a point without resorting to bad rhetoric, strongarm tactics, emotional appeals or distoritions you stand a better chance of reaching someone who is undecided. The posture of the speaker has as much to do with the success of a message, and playing ‘the victim’ is not a posture of strength.

Here’s an example I see playing out right now:

Saturday Night Live did a skit this past weekend which clearly lampooned the New York Times.  A large gathering of Times staff was brainstorming about possible stories about Sarah Palin, and the need to send a large contingent to Alaska to “dig up” whatever they could. Playing off the notion that Times reporters are clueless about Alaskan culture, guns, snowmobiles, or life without a nearby therapist, the skit was downright funny.  (Upon seeing a picture of a shotgun, a know-it-all reporter proving his mastery of Middle America spouted ‘that is clearly a derringer, also known as a Saturday Night Special’, or something to that effect.)

However, some on the right are howling mad that a fake reporter – in a sketch about how overboard the media might be in finding dirt on Sarah Palin – suggests following “rumors” that Todd Palin molests his daughters.  The way in which this is described is clearly a parody, and the target of the humor is the mainstream media, not the Palin family.

By whining about something that has never been alleged – and was served up as an absurd counterpoint to skewer the mainstream media – those on the right diminish their ability to be taken seriously on any assertion of media bias.

Grow a thicker skin, and show that you can at least comprehend a joke before reflexively flailing away at every possible grievance.  It makes for a better discourse.

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