It's not funny anymore

The Plaid Adder broke from hiatus to post an excellent piece over at Democratic Underground:

It's one thing for a crazy man to make an ass of himself in public by frothing about the subversive dangers of cartoon miscreants. Spelling's missive to PBS proves that under the Bush administration, this minority has accumulated enough political and social clout to dictate to the rest of the country. "Many parents" may object to this episode, but many other parents don't, and still others are deeply offended and bitterly angry about the fact that the head of a government department funded with their tax money has just ordered PBS, on pain of losing federal funding, to pretend that either they don't exist or they exude a radioactive toxicity that will blight and destroy any child exposed to them.

The "many parents" who win are the "many parents" who support Dobson's view of Christianity and of the world. A friend of mine called up her local PBS affiliate to complain about their refusal to air the episode, and was told by a trembling lackey, "We don't want to offend anyone." That doesn't make any sense; they are offending large numbers of people by caving in to Spelling on this issue. What he really meant was, "We don't want to offend anyone powerful." They have their orders: reproduce the world view Bush's backers want, or suffer the consequences of the king's displeasure.

I have to admit I do my best to laugh at Dobson and the like. I even picked up a SpongeBob mouse pad for my desk at work because the idea of that little yellow sponge representing some sort of gay agenda is so ridiculous that it must be made fun of. But there is something more sinister, much less amusing going on with groups like Focus on the Family and, unfortunatly, the US Department of Education.

These people aren't suggesting that we fear SpongeBob or a little mouse that visit the home of two mommies. They are promoting the idea that acceptance, tolerance of others different from us, is a dirty thing that should never, ever be taught to children. It doesn't matter if children come from homes that are not fundamentalist Christians. ALL children should be taught that you have the God given right to discriminate and judge those that do not fit the Christian ideal.

The worst part about this MINORITY of religious fanatics is that, while we joke and blow them off for being the nutbags they are, THEY ARE WINNING! That man in the White House? He's their president. He might not fight as hard as they would like to make discrimination an official part of our Constitution, but he agrees with them and he appoints people like Margaret Spellings to positions of great power. These people also have their fingers in every corner of the media. PBS bowed to their pressure, as have CBS, ABC, FOX, etc. This small, supposed minority of people is pushing their agenda while we sit back and shake our heads at how nutty they are and ha ha ha, they must be cracked if they think they can change anything.

Well they are changing things. And the longer we sit back and laugh and dismiss them, the more they get changed, until suddenly, we are watching The 700 Club every night and wondering where the hell Desperate Housewives went.

It's just not funny anymore.