The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

So, Justine Finally Landed …

Posted on | December 22, 2013 | 141 Comments

The unfortunate Justine Sacco, whose Friday tweet inspired the hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet, went into full grovel mode:

Today Sacco spoke to ABC News, saying, “My greatest concern was this statement reach South Africa first.” After sending her statement to South African newspaper The Star, Sacco shared the following apology:
“Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet,” Sacco said. “There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.
“For being insensitive to this crisis — which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly — and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed.
“This is my father’s country, and I was born here. I cherish my ties to South Africa and my frequent visits, but I am in anguish knowing that my remarks have caused pain to so many people here; my family, friends and fellow South Africans. I am very sorry for the pain I caused.”

As Ace accurately observed Friday, Sacco is a liberal, and her joke was actually a self-deprecating reference to white privilege. No one can deny that it was tasteless and, as she says, “insensitive,” but it scarcely justified her public crucifixion. Her apology, while no doubt sincere, is also a signifier: “I get it! I’m a liberal, too!”

But her liberalism (like all liberalism) is misguided, assuming as it does that the problem of AIDS in Africa (or any similar social problem) results from a shortage of caring. This is a species of Magic Thinking: “We could solve this problem, if only we cared enough.” And from this delusion, we get a lot of empty gestures that do nothing to solve problems, but make people feel good about themselves.

Thomas Sowell wrote an entire book about this, The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy — a book that no liberal has ever bothered to read, because if they bothered to read it, they wouldn’t be liberals anymore.

If you think that every problem of black people can be explained by racism, or that every problem of gay people can be explained by homophobia, certain conclusions are inherent in those premises, no matter how you construct your syllogism. One example is the way in which we monitor speech for “proof” that others secretly harbor forbidden sentiments, and immediately pounce upon anything that looks like such “proof,” like Justine’s tweet:

“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS.
Just kidding. I’m white!”

Twelve words, and let’s get her fired from her job for making a bad joke on Twitter, as if getting her fired will purge the world of racism and thereby end AIDS in Africa. The Daily Mail reports.

The PR executive who was summarily dismissed after her racist Tweet sparked a revolt on social media has apologised – as her own father called her a ‘f****** idiot’.
Justine Sacco said that she was ‘ashamed’ over her actions and said she had been ‘cavalier’ in making her tasteless joke about the AIDS crisis in Africa.
But her father, who has not been publicly named, was more forthright and said that what she did was ‘unforgivable’.
He also apparently backed the campaign to name and shame his daughter as, in an ironic twist, it emerged he moved his family from Cape Town to the US in 1994 to escape racism at the end of Apartheid. . . .
Losing her job as a communications director could also mean losing her US work visa -potentially forcing her to leave America.

Well, I’m sure we’re all glad Justine’s father called her a “f**king idiot,” but did you notice something about that article?

So pervasive is what Sowell called The Vision of the Anointed that most people didn’t even notice this dishonest assumption. To say her tweet was “offensive” is one thing, but to label it “racist” is to assume to know Sacco’s intent when, as seems evident, her actual intent was anti-racist: “Sacco is a young, professional, New York woman. Chances are about 99.9% that she’s a BuzzFeed-loving, Obama-voting, MSNBC addict.”

If anything, Sacco’s tweet betokened the arrogance of a young liberal who assumes that all her friends (and she had fewer than 200 Twitter followers before Friday) understand she is not racist, whereas if she were a Fox-watching, Limbaugh-listening conservative Republican, she would understand that she is constantly suspected of secretly hating everyone who is not rich, white and heterosexual. Remember when Rush Limbaugh got kicked off ESPN? Even I have forgotten exactly what he said, but it was something about a black quarterback and the lesson was obvious: No Republican is ever allowed to criticize a black person, which has worked out rather nicely for Democrats since 2008, eh?

Apologies for contradicting bad ideas are never going fix any problem, especially not problems caused by liberalism itself.

NAACP investigating sheriff who
refused to lower flag for Mandela’s death

The Thought Police are always watching, aren’t they?

 

 

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! I liked this from the comments:

There was a time when even the Left considered Lord of the Flies a cautionary tale. Now they treat it like an instruction manual.

And finally someone got the allusion!

Ah yes, If the author of Justine were alive today he most certainly would be heading a modern media organization rather than staging his plays inside an insane asylum.

 


Category: Culture, Racism

Comments

141 Responses to “So, Justine Finally Landed …”

  1. mikesixes
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:13 pm

    Her tweet sounded like something Sarah Silverman would say. But Sarah Silverman is a proven lefty, so she wouldn’t catch any flak for it. Lefties are vicious assholes.

  2. McKinleyPitts
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:20 pm

    The Thought Police are always watching, aren’t they? http://t.co/RN32rDBIxr

  3. cmdr358
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:30 pm

    You’re kidding with that question right?

  4. thatMrGguy
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:34 pm

    So, Justine Finally Landed … http://t.co/KlQBrTvFeA

  5. cmdr358
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:35 pm

    Thanks for taking care of mine.

  6. Bill R
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:38 pm

    She said “Jehovah” poor girl. She must be stoned to death.

  7. cmdr358
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:38 pm

    “…..1 mistake and you’re done, forever.” Unless your last name ends in Clinton.

  8. ihazconservative
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:41 pm

    There was never a time in this country when people were free to say anything free of consequences. Just ask Martin Bashir.

  9. ihazconservative
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:44 pm

    People have always been free to criticize the consequences people suffer for things they say. Dixie Chicks are a great example. But it’s not a freedom of speech issue.

  10. DaveO
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:46 pm

    The Clintons have never made a mistake, in the eyes of the Prognazis. Being a serial rapist (on Bill’s part) or a murderous paranoic (on Hillary’s part) are hailed as strengths.

  11. ihazconservative
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 8:52 pm

    Very mature.

  12. Robard
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 9:05 pm

    You sure he was tortured?

  13. DaveO
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 9:18 pm

    I wonder why Sacco’s father waited until the end of apartheid to move his family to escape racism. One would thought he’d’ve understood it was wrong before then. Unless it was black on white racism he was escaping.

  14. cloud_buster
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 9:20 pm

    What an awful man her father is. A father should be one person a daughter can count on in life, through thick and thin. To publicly turn on her over a joke, that’s just horrible.

  15. cloud_buster
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 9:21 pm

    “If we started firing everyone who says stupid things we would be looking for a new President and VP right now.”

    OK, now you’re making me reconsider firing everyone who says stupid things! 😉

  16. m1shu
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 9:39 pm

    Hope people don’t think I’m a douche. Just kidding! I don’t work for Buzzfeed!

  17. xbox361
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 9:58 pm

    I say hang her for being a liberal moron, like Obama supporter Paula Deen.
    Support the Duck Dynasty, screw the dross of the liberal world.

  18. Steve Skubinna
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:20 pm

    So long as she votes Democrat, she gets to vote, h8er. And she will continue to vote Democrat long after she’s dead.

  19. CruisingTroll
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:26 pm

    Yes, it is. Freedom of speech is a PRINCIPLE. The limiting application of Freedom of Speech to the government is the First Amendment. The principle is MORE than simply the First Amendment.

  20. ClydeS
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 10:32 pm

    The Airing of Grievances around their Festivus pole will be epic.

  21. disqus_MHw7a2dXsU
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:23 pm

    You clearly need to learn history. Mandela was a muderous Marxist terrorist. That’s why he was in jail. The left loved him because he was black, Marxist, knew the right way to say things to white liberals, and only sort of bad as a wannabe dictator. After the collosal failure of Muagabe and the gushing of the left when became ruler of Zimbabwe, the left utterly adored Mandela for only being somewhat ferocious and only somewhat evil, rather than to the core like Mugabe.

  22. Steve Skubinna
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:26 pm

    It angered progressives.

    Ergo, it was racist.

  23. Steve Skubinna
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:28 pm

    Not acceptable – mandatory. Anyone not joining the full throated chorus of damnation is himself damned.

    Odd thing is, I definitely remember leftist hoots of derision when Dubya said, regarding Islamist terrorists, that you’re either with us or against us.

  24. PeterP
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:42 pm

    Here’s the statement Justine Sacco should have given:

    “Yesterday, before I jumped on a flight to South Africa, I sent a Tweet that made a joke about AIDS and black people. As stupid and as insensitive as it was, it was intended to be a joke.

    I am not happy that people have AIDS. I am not happy that black people have AIDS. I do not wish AIDS on anyone.

    I have reread my Tweet a hundred times since I sent it and I still can’t believe I wrote it. But I did. Nobody made me do it. Nobody suggested I do it. I did all on my own and I take full responsibility for it. I am sorry for it.

    Again, my Tweet was intended to be a joke. It does not express what is in my heart. It was an impulsive, stupid attempt at humor made from my iPhone to my one hundred followers who know me and know that I sometimes say outrageous things just for a laugh. AIDS is not funny. I should not have told the joke.

    Sorry again. I hope to do better in the future.”

  25. PeterP
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:48 pm

    She would be forgiven if all she did was falsely accuse six white cops and a white prosecutor of raping a black teenager ala Al Sharpton. Heck, the left might even give her own TV show.

  26. PeterP
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:50 pm

    He still forgave his captors. Today’s left can’t forgive a twelve word tweet.

  27. PeterP
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:51 pm

    Hard labor.

  28. PeterP
    December 22nd, 2013 @ 11:52 pm

    The other Sacco was guilty, this one, not so much.

  29. ComradeArthur
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 12:41 am

    last tweet from http://t.co/dChPQyC6l5 ht via http://t.co/tmhIWnphwP

  30. Steve Skubinna
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 1:38 am

    Maybe. But the sad truth is, once BuzzFeed nominated her for the Two Minutes Hate she was doomed.

  31. Adjoran
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 2:54 am

    There was a time when you could quote the New Testament when asked what you believe without being threatened with your job, though.

  32. Adjoran
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 2:57 am

    Leftists are “Christians” to roughly the same extent they are “patriotic Americans” – which is to say, just as long as paying lip service is seen to help them in some way, and not a second longer.

  33. Adjoran
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 3:00 am

    I don’t disagree in principle, but will save my energy for defending conservatives who are targeted. Only after this crap takes down enough liberals will it ever be beaten back.

  34. Robard
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 6:07 am

    It couldn’t have been too hard if he survived 27 years in rather good health and even had time and energy to enroll in a university.

  35. J.J. Sefton
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 6:30 am

    He also apparently backed the campaign to name and shame his daughter as, in an ironic twist, it emerged he moved his family from Cape Town to the US in 1994 to escape racism at the end of Apartheid. . . .

    Now here’s an interesting nugget that should have gotten the father the wrong end of the rope – Fleeing racism in POST-APARTHEID South Africa????

  36. DYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » Adventures of the Anointed: Justine Sacco
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 6:43 am

    […] The Other McCain is on the case. […]

  37. SDN
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 7:31 am

    What the liar ihazconservative neglects to mention is that in a legal climate where multiple government bureaucracies can be enlisted in lawfare (EEOC, IRS, etc.) there is no such thing as a private sphere. EVERYTHING is a First Amendment question.

  38. werewife
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 7:41 am

    Obviously, he is forswearing his own child in order to expiate that particular sin. The god of the leftists is Moloch.

  39. Alessandra
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:04 am

    Will they try to climb the pole while singing to celebrate?

  40. Alessandra
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:05 am

    shame is many people think the same way she does, they just don’t tweet it out in the open…

  41. Coondawg68
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:15 am

    So, Justine Finally Landed …Magical Thinking and the Vision of the Anointed http://t.co/3GNN90RuwF #tcot #p2

  42. puj_rit
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:34 am

    RT @Coondawg68: So, Justine Finally Landed …Magical Thinking and the Vision of the Anointed http://t.co/3GNN90RuwF #tcot #p2

  43. Nick
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:37 am

    Exactomundo. The New Testament is not equivalent to what Martin Bashir said, although the left insists it is. We truly are living in the world of Newspeak.

  44. MikeWelborn
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:37 am

    RT @Coondawg68: So, Justine Finally Landed …Magical Thinking and the Vision of the Anointed http://t.co/3GNN90RuwF #tcot #p2

  45. notpilgrims2
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:43 am

    It seems you have an alternate viewpoint of what her tweet meant. It is true–based on past tweets about abortion and gay marriage–that she appears to be a liberal. After deducing she’s a liberal, you then appear to think that she can’t be racist. Or maybe it’s all the more likely that she is because of that.

  46. Nick
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:44 am

    There is an eye for an eye issue here though. The ancients knew it as let the punishment fit the crime. How exactly is the punishment of loosing your livelihood an appropriate punishment?

    In an ironic twist, remember this news?

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/late-victim-blaming-admits-rape-sentence-mistake-article-1.1446531

    And this?

    http://jezebel.com/5803378/defense-says-elizabeth-smart-isnt-that-damaged-pushes-for-lighter-sentence

    I can find lots of examples where the true justice system seeks to undermine punishment. And under liberal Newspeak, this sort of thing has accelerated.

    So what has justice become?

  47. notpilgrims2
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 8:45 am

    Who cares if her “intent” was to mock conservatives? Isn’t that intent bad enough? Not only was the liberal in the picture racist, she also was trying to smear conservatives. She SHOULD have been roasted alive.

  48. timmaguire
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 9:26 am

    Seriously Rob? I’m carrying a pitchfork because I think that an employer has every right to fire an employee who publicly embarrasses them? Did you not think before you posted? Or are you clueless about how the business world works?

  49. jakee308
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 9:43 am

    It was a joke. A sick dark humored joke but a joke nonetheless.

    And btw, saying bad things or criticizing black people isn’t racism. Racism is when you think your race is intrinsically superior to another race. Bigotry is having intolerance for those who have a differing opinion or belief than yours (you know like liberals).

    Nothing she said was racist or bigoted.

    Let’s all try to agree on definitions shall we? Like maybe use a dictionary instead of following the habits of the ill informed and disreputable idiots on TV.

  50. McGehee
    December 23rd, 2013 @ 9:44 am

    Something tells me you’re new here.