In a bizarre rant titled “The Conversation We Won’t Have”, Red State pundit Erick Erickson suggested that accepting transgender people means America can no longer distinguish between “good” and “evil”. Erickson chastises other media personalities, especially those on the left, for making partisan arguments about the South Carolina shooting, and for blaming everything on the mass shooting except assigning blame to the shooter himself. Then after erecting his straw man argument, Erickson proceeds to launch into a partisan diatribe where, with no sense of irony, he seems to blame the South Carolina murders on America’s acceptance of transgenderism.
Everyone and everything gets blamed while ignoring the actual person who killed.
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I realize now why that is. I realize why we will never have the conversation we should have.
A society that looks at a 65 year old male Olympian and, with a straight face, declares him a her and “a new normal” cannot have a conversation about mental health or evil because that society no longer distinguishes normal from crazy and evil from good. Our American society has a mental illness — overwhelming narcissism and delusion — and so cannot recognize what crazy or evil looks like.
Actually perhaps the reason this is a conversation “we won’t have” is because their is absolutely no connection whatsoever between Caitlyn Jenner identifying as a woman, and Dylann Storm Roof murdering nine African-Americans in a South Carolina church. Furthermore, in what world does Erickson live in, where he can discuss the “evil” of transgender identity in the same context as the evil of slaughtering nine people in a church?
While Erick Erickson is still treated as a legitimate political pundit on FOX News, his rant is almost on par with extremist conservatives who blamed the 9/11 2001 terrorist attacks on gays and lesbians. We can’t have a national conversation on important issues when conservatives like Erick Erickson insist on injecting their pet phobias or prejudices into a debate that has nothing to do with gender identity, sexual orientation or any of the other things that might make Erick Erickson uncomfortable.
Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.
