Ridiculing the Ridiculous, Politically Correctly

ITS ALMOST AN "Only in America" thing. Except, they do it in other countries too. IN fact, they do it everywhere. They distort history, grotesquely, to serve some political agenda, or to make some lame point or express some lame pet peeve. The Jews are destroying Germany. Uncle Joe Stalin was our benevolent protector. The founding fathers of America were all Christians; that sort of thing. Distortions. Lies. But the idea that African-Americans were happy before the civil rights movement, as recently put forth by a long bearded American television celebrity, is so crazy that its hilarious. Of course there's actually a kernel of truth to it. A very very small kernel. Hell, for the most part, give a human being food, clothing, and shelter, decent health, a friend or two, and something to do, and its reasonably content. People who have spent decades in prison stop wanting to be released in many cases. "Habit is our only comfort. We dislike doing without even those unpleasant things to which we have become accustomed", said the oft quoted and spot on Goethe. Folks may be reasonably content, reasonably free of misery, but that don't mean that they are "happy" with their station in life. Not by a long shot. Before civil rights, African-Americans were not happy with their station in life. Every American television star has the sacred right to tell grotesquely distorted history, and the rest of us have the sacred right to ignore the ridiculous, or ridicule the ridiculous, or to oppose and seek to correct the ridiculous. The last thing we need in America is a tyranny of political correctness, in which even the slightest perceived lack of respect in referring to a person or an ethnic group is treated as a vicious and horrible crime, and those who commit such verbal slights are treated as criminals. But neither do we want an America in which those who respond to anti-gay or anti-black or anti anybody slurs in a negative way is labeled a politically correct tyrant trying to abridge our freedom of speech. It may well be that anyone who thinks homosexuality is an evil sin or that blacks were happy before civil rights is an idiot and a liar. Maybe, maybe not. Bad history will always be, and should be, corrected. But those of us who think the those who distort history for foolish reasons are liars and fools certainly need not mind that they believe foolish things. If nothing else, its revealing, and entertaining.