The price we pay

Usually, I'm a big believer in providing at least some evidence before making a bold proclamation. In this case though, can we all just take it as a given that Michael Savage is a total moron? Either that, or he's doing satire and he's just pretending to be a total moron. Either way, the character of "Michael Savage" is even dumber than the guy that Stephen Colbert pretends to be. I mean, there are "conservatives" who'll defend Ann Coulter but draw the line at that guy.

So, instead of giving countless examples, I'll just comment on his current blunder. According to him, autism is a "fraud" and a "racket". Not only that, but "99%" of the kids who are diagnosed with autism just needed their parents to tell them to stop "the act".

Yeesh. My wife, who works with many autistic kids, is understandably more outraged than I am. As for myself, I've worked with a few, and based on my experience, I can say that Michael Savage is 99% dipshit - the other 1% is a combination of nuts, stupid, poo-head, and outofhisfuckingmind.

Of course, he later backpedeled on his statement, saying that he was just trying to "alert parents" that oftentimes there are false diagnoses based on other conditions like "having a high I.Q." and "talking late in childhood." Are you still with me? Did your head just explode? Don't worry, I'm sure that Michael Savage has done extensive research on this issue and is basing it on a close dissection of the facts. I mean, it's not like "conservative" (forgive my quotes, but what the hell is conservative about people like this?) pundits ever just totally make stuff up or completely blow things out of proportion - is it? (Actually, yes, it is like that.)

I'll admit that I'm certainly not an expert, but I do have a bit of experience, and one thing that I do know about autism is that it covers a really wide range of behaviors and conditions. I suppose I could see how somebody might look at the wide variety of people with autism and think that perhaps too many people are being diagnosed. However, if you're going to make a statement like that, you'd better have some facts to back it up.

Something that was interesting to me though, was that when I watched the news story (see below) on YouTube about this incident, there's this one woman who rightfully calls what he said "hate speech." She then loses me though when she says that "We don't allow hate speech in this country."

Ummm...yeah we do. All speech is protected in this country. You can say whatever stupid thing you want. However, since this is a free country, we can combat it by protesting, boycotting, etc.

And that's the thing. I hate stupid cliches like "freedom isn't free" but there is some truth to that. If we're going to have a free country where people are allowed to speak, then we're bound to be offended every now and then. Unfortunately, you don't have the right to never be offended. Because after all, what is hate speech? Somebody could accuse this blog of promoting hate speech since I often criticize the religious (and I referred to a person as a "dipshit" - not exactly an act of love).

If we won't allow hate speech, who will decide what it is and what it isn't? I say, let the Michael Savages of the world announce their idiocy to the world. We all have the power to point out how stupid he is, so let's use that.