Activist Angler Versus Angry Liberal: Defending Hank Part II

Continued from Journal Page

Want to meet an angry liberal in the fishing business? I have one for you.

Awhile back, he asked to connect with me via LinkedIn, and I agreed. He lists himself as owner of The Paranoid Lure Co., and I’ll leave it to you to pass judgment about that as you read our correspondence.

Yesterday, he was one of 50 LinkedIn contacts to whom I sent a link to my post about Hank Williams Jr. What follows is our correspondence, starting with him. His comments appear exactly as he wrote them.

Angry Liberal: Defending someone who uses such a blatent, horrible and inacurate analogy shows a lack of compassion and understanding on your part. Any employer or contractor has the right to dismiss someone for not upholding their values. Could someone who works in retail show up in dirty wrinkled clothes and barefoot? No - so ESPN has every right to not use this ass holes song anymore.

Activist Angler: You might not like it, and consider it "blatent," but there was nothing inaccurate about the analogy. And I clearly said that Williams should not have used Hitler to make his point.

And, yes, a retailer has the right to fire someone who shows up for work in dirty, wrinkled clothes and barefoot. ESPN also has the right to do what it did. But I think it over-reacted in the name of political correctness, something that it has done in the past.

Angler Liberal: Not inaccurate? You are a moron - Is hitting an ant with a hammer overkill?  Is it necessary?  It was an offensive inacurate statement - you think the old apples and oranges line would have been a little more accurate as opposed to siting the most destructive relationship in the history of our world IE Hitler vs Jews - what a ridiculous comment.  ESPN has been politically correct in the past? If you are refering to the blatently racist comment made by Rush Limbaugh about McNabb then - again - I disagree with you and you are again defending a point of view that is insensitive and destructive.

Activist Angler: And you like to call people names instead of analyzing critically. Let's see: asshole, moron. Yeah, that's the way to win arguments. I'm impressed by your vocabulary.

One doesn't justify bad behavior by offering similar examples on the other side. But certainly it can be used to point out the hypocrisy.

During the Bush administration, Greg Guttfeld was a blogger at the Huffington Post. He says that the theme he most received in comments from readers was that Bush was another Hitler.

Hitler should never be used by anyone on either side for any reason. Williams shouldn't have done it. Liberal readers of the Huffington Post shouldn't have done it.

Williams screwed up. How do you explain what those Huffington Post readers did?

 And I am not referring to Rush Limbaugh. I worked as an independent contractor for ESPN for several years. I know intimately the mentality of those who run the show in Bristol, Conn.

Angry Liberal: Good so now that I have your attention - and since you have made it clear that nobody should ever use that hateful description - then why do you still feel it necessary to defend Hank?  I dont think you actually want to anymore and that is ok with me.

Activist Angler: I stand by what I said in my original article. From the beginning, I've said that Hitler should not be used.

But Williams made an analogy, not a comparison. Liberal readers of the Huffington Post actually made the comparison. Hypocrisy in political debate, most often from the left, is what offends me the most. Did you ever see the tee shirts that depicted Bush, Cheney and Rice as Hitler and his cohorts?

By the way, I've "disconnected" us at LinkedIn so that you will receive no more of the potentially inflammatory updates on my website.

Angry Liberal: Thats a shame since you have obviously chosen to isolate yourself and not have hard fought debate - typical.  No i never saw that t-shirt and even if I had I wouldn't have condoned such a thing.  You are a dinasour and soon enough your way of thinking will be in the tar pit of history so that people in the future can piece together your ridiculous thinking and laugh at it in a museum.  Have fun being on the wrong side of history and living your life as a frustrated ass hole.

Activist Angler: Thanks!

Let’s see: Angry Liberal calls me an asshole and a moron, and he says that I have chosen not to “debate.”

Actually, I have chosen to debate, but he clearly is unwilling or incapable, and so he resorts to insults and name calling.

By the way, I didn’t know him to be a liberal until I checked out his Facebook page, following our “conversation.” He wears his angry liberalism proudly.