{"id":145,"date":"2011-11-30T15:51:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T20:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godscomic\/?p=145"},"modified":"2011-11-30T15:51:10","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T20:51:10","slug":"midget-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html","title":{"rendered":"Midget Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Because I believe in the 1st amendment, I believe all ideas and words are up for discussion. That is what free speech (and thought) actually is. I bring this up because a group of midgets have decided they want the word midget banned from public airwaves. They find the word offensive. Problem? I don\u2019t, so now what? To be a group that suddenly decides a word is offensive makes that group more important than everyone else, and more important than free speech. Because I am such an advocate for the death of political correctness it is my duty to expose this foolishness.<br \/>\nWe need a consensus from now on where we as a democratic process get to vote on whether a word is offensive or not. If the majority of the people don\u2019t think so then that becomes law. I realize that there are offensive words. The word \u201cnigger\u201d for one has been eliminated from even use in discussion of it on T.V. If I am not mistaken the first time I heard the word called the \u201cN\u201d word was by Johnnie Cochran at the O J Simpson trial.<br \/>\nThat word by the way didn\u2019t start offensive either. It was a slang term when referring to Africans on American soil. There were many from the south that knew no other term and even used it in normal conversation. The problem came into existence when slaves were emancipated and consequently expected, rightfully so, to the full protection of the Constitution and the laws of the land. Because there was such a difficulty of assimilation amongst the whites who considered African-Americans less human than themselves the term \u201cnigger\u201d went from descriptive to demeaning.<br \/>\nThat word has been eliminated from T.V. programs now. Ironically I once saw a show where the word \u201cnigger\u201d was bleeped out but the word \u201cJesus Christ\u201d and goddammit were not. Offending a race in America is sin and forbidden. Offending the judge of sin is not.<br \/>\nAs far as the midget word goes I know no one in my 40 plus years on earth that has ever considered the word midget offensive at all. What is most important by the way is the actual meaning of the word. In other words if a Midget said I find that word offensive and I say I find it describing someone who is disproportionally small in stature than the norm but having all appendages in proportion to their height than what is the problem? As a matter of fact Websters dictionary describes midgets as \u201cone perfect of form and normal in function but like a tiny replica of the ordinary species\u201d. It defines the word as a compliment.<br \/>\nIs it possible that you have actually created a notorious word where one did not previously exist? Are there no guidelines or absolutes we can all refer to in order to not be further restricted in speech in our society?<br \/>\nWhat if I was offended because you called me a man? Since man has always been used as a prefix to humanity as a whole (as in MAN-kind) couldn\u2019t we declare it sexist and elitist? Though we couldn\u2019t use the word woman anymore as well as it contains the word man thus proving our theory correct. Not to mention all the trans-gendered humans, (oops, there\u2019s that evil word again) that really believe any reference to a specific gender is exclusionary and outmoded.<br \/>\nAs much as I wish that were a humorous exercise sadly it is not. This is exactly what is happening daily thanks to liberal i.e. postmodern thought in America. So I for one will do what I can, while I can, to keep free speech alive, and welcome as many freethinking midgets as possible to join my cause. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because I believe in the 1st amendment, I believe all ideas and words are up for discussion. That is what free speech (and thought) actually is. I bring this up because a group of midgets have decided they want the word midget banned from public airwaves. They find the word offensive. Problem? I don\u2019t, so&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","tag-political-correctness-free-speech-censorship-1st-amendment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Midget Minds - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Midget Minds - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Because I believe in the 1st amendment, I believe all ideas and words are up for discussion. That is what free speech (and thought) actually is. I bring this up because a group of midgets have decided they want the word midget banned from public airwaves. They find the word offensive. Problem? I don\u2019t, so&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-30T20:51:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Midget Minds - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Midget Minds - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"Because I believe in the 1st amendment, I believe all ideas and words are up for discussion. That is what free speech (and thought) actually is. I bring this up because a group of midgets have decided they want the word midget banned from public airwaves. They find the word offensive. Problem? I don\u2019t, so&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2011-11-30T20:51:10+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html","name":"Midget Minds - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-30T20:51:10+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-30T20:51:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2011\/11\/midget-minds.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Midget Minds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}