Hank Williams Jr. Controversy

Plus, the obvious solution to make this all better is to stop using Hank Williams Jr. songs on CNN. That'll show him!

 

Well, ESPN actually DID pull the Hank Williams opening from Monday Night Football. For those who don't watch MNF, Hank Williams sings the opening with a version (with changed lyrics) of a song he wrote a couple decades ago, "All My Rowdy Friends".

 

Yeah BTA I was astounded by the idiots interviewing him, their comprehension skills were nil (but then they may have had problems with his accent) -- Hank was only guilty of exaggeration.

 

I would say that referencing Hitler on live TV is always a remarkably bad idea. Unless you're on the History channel.

It was a really dumb thing for him to say, and ESPN is right to be pissed off. Comprehending what he meant to say isn't really the issue.

 

The flaw in the analogy is that Obama is not a dictator, and he's not trying to gas all the Republicans and kill them all. Nor is Boehner trying to do that to Democrats. The Nazi-Jew divide is about genocide. Lack of political progress and discourse doesn't even come close. Viewed in the best possible light, Williams' comments would still be extreme hyperbole, and certainly wouldn't count as a good and valid analogy for his position, unless he has a very skewed view of history, the current political climate, or both.

 

No BTA, I get the point he was trying to make. The same point could have been made by saying "it's like a nun and a stripper playing golf together." Or "cat and dog" or "Batman and The Joker." But for some reason he decided to go with Hitler. On TV. That was really, really dumb.

And I disagree that it was a valid analogy - I think it was downright stupid. President Obama and speaker Boehner disagree politically but are otherwise expected to work together and be civil. Adolf Hitler and Benjamin Netanyahu would literally kill one another had they the opportunity (and, apparantly, a time machine ); their entire worldviews are built on the extermination of the other. The fact that sh*theads like Hank Williams think them being at each other's throats is the natural order of things is a big part of why political debate in this country is so toxic and counter-productive.

 

"But so what?" Jesus.

Because it's Adolph Hitler, BTA. He's only the most vile, evil and reviled person of the last century of world history. For a long time it was considered the very height of bad taste to compare people to him; so beyond the pale that the mere invoking of his name in a discussion would end it. But for some reason ever since Obama's election it somehow has a place in valid discussion. Somebody's going to have to explain that one to me.

Thank you for demonstrating my problem with politics in America. Referencing Adolph Hitler is so overdone and hyperbolic as to be no big deal anymore to some people. I'm frankly surprised and disappointed this is coming from you, BTA.

 

Perhaps you can quantify that please (I'm with BTA and really haven't heard an increase in use). Just because a country singer who has self-admittedly lost half his brain cells from drugs and alcohol invokes Adolph doesn't mean it's an epidemic or acceptable. But then most reasonable people I know see through such a comment and realize the person uttering it is going overboard in the extreme (obviously I don't include many journalists in the 'reasonable people' category).

 

On the request to quantify the uptick in Hitler comparisons in the last 3 years, I honestly don't know what to say. If neither of you watch Fox News or listen to conservative talk radio (or any of the criticism thereof) that's the only possible way I could conceive of you not noticing the frequency with which such comparisons are regularly made in conservative media and tea party rhetoric these days, and with a straight face no less. It's even happening on the extreme left with the idiot Lyndon LaRouche Democrats who think it's cute to put on goofy costumes and stand around in public squares with posters of Obama in a Hitler mustache. I never, ever saw that in public before his election outside of the occasional oddball protester at a rally. And believe me, I would have remembered.

Second - whom you choose to highlight as an example when making an analogy actually matters, believe it or not, depending on the context of who you are and what you're discussing. When you compare a situation involving certain people or ideas to another where you see a similarity, you are also comparing the subjects – if secondarily – as you can't help but invoke those examples in the minds of those to whom you are speaking. After all, that's precisely how an analogy works. If when I was a kid and my mom told me to clean my room and I said "Mom, stop being such a Hitler" - that's one thing. Stupid, hyperbolic, and considering the subjects in the comparison I'm making, pretty meaningless.

But it's like this – Hank Williams is a die-hard conservative who supports the nation of Israel. This is not a guess on my part - this is common knowledge. Nothing wrong with either of those things. So when he effectively says "so this guy I can't stand and believe is actively intent on ruining our country, and this other guy who is the leader of the political party I belong to and appear at rallies for - yeah, those two going golfing is like the biggest mass murdering dictator ever who was a real person who really did try to destroy our country going golfing with this other dude who is a key ally of the U.S. whose politics and country I support and is also a real person" – I'd like to think he could have chosen a less extreme and offensive example off the top of his head with which to compare if his sole point was "those two sure don't get along."

Unless, of course, he's an idiot.

 

I'm with you on that, BTA. I too heard the full audio before making a judgment and understood perfectly the point he was trying to make. I still came away thinking it was a really dumb thing to say. You can't use an analogy comparing a situation involving the President of the United States and one like it involving Adolf Hitler without pissing a lot of people off, regardless of their political leanings or the point you were trying to make. ESPN, imo, is more than justified in taking the action they did. It's not a permanent ban and I'm sure it will blow over. In all likelyhood William's song will grace MNF again eventually. For my part I actually like his music and especially "My Roudy Friends" - it just seems to make an NFL game even better - like fancy mustard on a great burger.

But dumb is dumb.

 

Dumb is dumb, true enough, and as I have argued before privately owned companies have every right to refuse to play any artist's material for whatever reason they want -- it's not censorship.

To me, though, this is beyond partisanship -- it's another example of douchebags making mountains out of molehills and kicking up a fuss about irrelevant crap. The professional offendees at work again. And let me repeat, it's the left doing it this time but there's plenty of instances of the right doing it. It's sheer douche-baggery no matter who is doing it.

 

I certainly won't disagree DR -- I actually think getting the "enemy" together ina more relaxing and neutral environment is probably a good thing.

BTA -- I remember "KFI in the sky." I used to listen to them every morning on the way to work.

 

ESPN should be ashamed of themselves. Everyone knows you don't do anything until Rev Al or Jesse weigh in and tell you if it was racist.

 

I'm not sure if this is entirely relevant, but the decision to pull the plug on Williams' song supposedly came from the very top - Disney CEO Robert Iger. (Disney owns ESPN and ABC along with a ton of other things.) Robert Iger is Jewish, and that certainly didn't help the situation - at the least Mr. Iger isn't going to have any sense of humor about such a comment. I imagine making references to Hitler is the #2 no-no, right after the #1 "Don't dis the mouse."

The point I was trying to make (which DR made much better) is that of all the analogies you could have made that would have served the purpose equally, he chose to go with Hitler. The only thing I could think of that would have possibly been as inflammatory would have been if he said it's like Strom Thurmond and Martin Luther King going golfing together.

I'm not sure I understand the context here - are you referring to ESPN? Disney is a publicly traded company btw.