The Corporate Class fits another Speaker with a GAG (Hank Williams Jr)

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Obama, Hitler and Hank Williams Jr.” is not a headline one ever could have imagined writing. But then, who could have thought that we would become so idiotic?

Let’s be perfectly clear: Barack Obama is not Adolf Hitler. He doesn’t even look like him. Unless, that is, you paint a skinny mustache on him. Even then, he only looks like Obama with a Hitler mustache. Or Charlie Chaplin.

Obama obviously has never done anything to remotely suggest a Hitler comparison, but as I read Wednesday’s headlines, Hank Williams Jr. apparently compared the president of the United States to Hitler.

OMG. This has never happened before. Except for the 13,900,000 mentions that pop up when you Google George W. Bush and Hitler.

And who knew that Hank Williams Jr. was still alive? Kidding, kidding.

But there are a few of us out here who don’t watch “Monday Night Football” and so were only vaguely aware that, for the past 20 years, Williams’s song “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” has opened the TV festivities each week. (This doesn’t mean he was still alive, it seems reasonable to mention.)

Make that did open. ESPN has benched the singer for saying that which cannot be said. Or something. It’s hard to say what caused this tempest to erupt.

In fact, Williams didn’t really compare Obama to Hitler. What he said was that Obama playing golf with House Speaker John Boehner was like Hitler playing with Benjamin Netanyahu. Get it? Two guys who are enemies aren’t likely to play golf.

Though clumsy and not necessarily true, it’s not a bad analogy for a country singer. Not that country singers aren’t clever, I hasten to add. Or that they are analogy-averse. But clearly Williams is neither a pundit nor a politician and was just speaking his mind in what he considered a fairly friendly environment. That’s why they call it “Fox and Friends,” isn’t it?

Williams’s obvious intent was to say that political enemies don’t golf together, even though they surely do. But must we always be so literal? Why not burn down an embassy and some effigies while we’re at it? Williams himself subsequently explained his thinking, citing Obama and Vice President Biden as “the enemy,” politically speaking. But this was not enough in our pitchfork-grabbin’, burn-the-heretic political culture.

In dropping Williams’s song from Monday night’s really big show, ESPN issued a statement that read in part: “We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

Oh, harrumph-harrumph.

Within the usual span of nanotime — that is, immediately — Williams was excoriated by the usual chorus of excoriators. How dare he compare the president of the United States to Hitler. (See Paragraph Four.)

I’m certainly not defending Williams for his weak, free-associative powers. I wrote ages ago that we should retire the name Hitler for all time except when specifically discussing World War II and/or the Holocaust. His name is too convenient, though one wonders whatever happened to Attila the Hun. And of course, invoking Hitler trivializes that which defines horrific.

As everyone including Williams knows, disagreeing with the president does not make him horrible or scary and certainly no mass murderer. But should making a clumsy analogy intended to convey a broader idea cause one to be cast into the outer darkness?

Following the template for public atonement, Williams apologized for his poor choice of words. He thanked his supporters. No word yet about whether he’ll enter rehab. Meanwhile, back on the mother planet, Earthlings went about their daily tribulations, variously rending their garments or rolling their eyes.

My own days will not be less bright without Williams opening “Monday Night Football,” should his sentence to purgatory be extended. I will miss him the way, say, Bush misses being compared to Hitler. But until the outraged are willing to be evenhanded in their defense of civility, perhaps we might let sleeping amateur pundits lie.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/obama-hitler-and-hank-williams-jr/2011/10/05/gIQAsnPOOL_blog.html?hpid=z3

I am extremely not happy that Hank Williams decided to play ball with these assholes with his apology/explanation. ESPN was behaving as an anti-American firm, so for cripes sake say so! What he should have done was demand an apology, and if it was not immediately forthcoming head out to the Occupy Wall Street rally and speak out against the lose of freedom in America.

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Just another celebrity without sense enough to keep his politics private.

1 Reply

@wayne,

actually after hearing the audio, the FOX dudes threw him under the bus

i think he made a great analogy, he never really said the obama was hitler, IMO, the FOX anchors tried to push him towards saying that, and i think being flustered he was unable to defend his position properly (i'm guessing that Hank isn't a rocket scientist)

i also didn't find his apology grovelling (certainly less ass kissing than many others i've heard), but the constant press barrage has spun the whole story into a worse light than it ever should have been

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It's this sort of over the top reaction which leads me to call this joker Chicken Little. Everything is melodrama with him, everything is evidence of the decay of our society. He's a bullshit artist and ought to be given the consideration which that deserves.

Kudos to DJ for a well-informed and measured analysis of the incident.

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@djjd62,

Quote:

actually after hearing the audio, the FOX dudes threw him under the bus

That doesn't surprise me at all.
The immediate apology is probably good damage control.
It was a good analogy, when you don't read into it.

I think a lot of interviewers lead these celebs into political statements they later regret. It can never be good to take sides publicly when you risk alienating half your potential audience.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

He may be alive; but his brain isn't... The right says that kind of crap and just recycle their own opinions until they take it as fact... Mr. Obama has his faults... When he is with the blacks and ranks he talks like a revival preacher, but when he is with the bankers he talks like he understands in the English of the learned...Do you see: He believes with the incredible, and asks the credulous to believe in him, which is to say, to believe that the whole broken down system of capitalism can be got up and made to work at making us work for nothing again while it steals the life out of the government and the people...

So long as there are idiots there will be exploitation and exploiters... Mr. Obama is correct in one regard: The system has worked for him... It has put him in office and not in the street...And he should ask himself: If the system had failed him as it has failed so many, would he still accept it??? The Weimar Republic failed Germany, Hitler included... Many looked to a leader to unite the people and bring them victory... They wanted to surrender their morals and common sense to a figure that reflected their own spirit, dreams, and experience... They wanted to be relieved of the obligation of thinking for themselves and of rational discourse... We forget how often half hearted, powerless democracy has failed people everywhere, and how seldom it has brought justice... As Spengler said Of Hitler: What victory? (over the Weimar Republic). There was no opposition...

The republicans offered no opposition to the Democrats in the last election, and none in this coming election... Together they offer no defense of our rights, and no reason to support the government... They cannot oppose the capitalist class, morally or legally, as it goes about gathering all our wealth, and taking all our rights... We are doomed, and not because Mr. Obama is Hitler; but because he, like so many of both parties has accepted the problem as the solution... Which for them it is...

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Quote:

Hank Williams Jr. cited his First Amendment rights to free speech as grounds for his official and permanent departure from Monday Night Football.

ESPN issued its own statement Thursday, thanking Hank Williams Jr. for his contributions to Monday Night Football, but they will part ways.

The network had pulled the song from the game Monday night after Williams made an analogy to Adolf Hitler while discussing President Barack Obama on Fox News on Monday morning. Williams later apologized for the remark.

"After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision," Williams said in a statement to The Associated Press. "By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run."

But ESPN's statement said: "We have decided to part ways with Hank Williams Jr. We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of Monday Night Football has always been about the games and that will continue."

Are you smarter than an NFL quarterback? Take the quiz

Spokesman Kirt Webster said Williams made the decision Wednesday night, while the network said it informed Williams of the move Thursday morning.

Regardless of whose call it was, one of sports' and entertainment's most visible partnerships is over. The song had been a "Monday Night Football" staple since 1989 and survived the game's switch of networks from ABC to cable a few years ago.

The song is based on Williams' hit "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight." The lyrics were changed each week to reflect the night's game.

ESPN will no longer have access to the music or words because Williams owns the publishing rights, the master recordings and the song. Williams, the son of country music icon Hank Williams, is known for his bombastic manner and easy opinions.

Williams' statement on "Fox & Friends" comparing a golf game between Obama and Republican Rep. John Boehner to an outing featuring Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went viral after ESPN announced it would pull the intro late that afternoon.

"It'd be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu," Williams said during the satellite interview.

Asked to clarify, Williams said, "They're the enemy," adding that by "they" he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Anchor Gretchen Carlson later said to him, "You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president." Williams replied, "Well, that is true. But I'm telling you like it is."

Williams issued a statement Monday night insisting his remarks were misunderstood, then apologized Tuesday.

Williams got plenty of support, even from some unlikely places.

Among his defenders were Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar of "The View," who have a very different political viewpoint from the conservative Williams, but often are called out for their own comments.

"Those among us who are without sin, cast the first stone," Goldberg said.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2011/1006/Hank-Williams-Jr.-says-his-free-speech-rights-violated-in-Hitler-comment

Good to see that this guy finally stepped up. I hope he now turns up at a Take Back America rally

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You're always around to hyper-defend someone who makes an ass out of themselves publicly, Hawk. It's a nice trait of yours.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

You're always around to hyper-defend someone who makes an ass out of themselves publicly, Hawk. It's a nice trait of yours.

Cycloptichorn

I think that I am in the majority who are getting fed up with people getting greatly harmed by corporations if they insist upon participating in the democratic process, insist upon the right to speaking their minds.

Hank Williams JR should step up and take his place on stage as a hero for the common man, as a defender of American freedom. It is ESPN that should be ashamed of themselves here, not Williams, because he is right in more ways than one...

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

You always think you're a representative of the majority, Hawk.

We've been through this exact issue before: the 1st amendment doesn't protect anything but your right to say something. It doesn't protect your job... and Williams was an idiot for doing what he did, and idiots get punished for being stupid from time to time.

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Quote:

You always think you're a representative of the majority, Hawk.

Bullshit, I have many many times said that I am taking the minority position, which I hope to build into the majority position. The sexual rights of teens, men's rights, that the government is corrupted by the corporate class, that America is massively less free than we used to be and should be are just a few examples.

You are not so stupid that you believe the claim made, you are lying for effect....have you been taking lessons from Firefly??

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Quote:
You always think you're a representative of the majority, Hawk.
Bullshit, I have many many times said that I am taking the minority position, which I hope to build into the majority position. The sexual rights of teens, men's rights, that the government is corrupted by the corporate class, that America is massively less free than we used to be and should be are just a few examples.

You are not so stupid that you believe the claim made, you are lying for effect....have you been taking lessons from Firefly??

Why??? If you are right you are right even if you are the only one.... Who needs the majority on their side when for one reason or another they are always in the wrong... The people are the law, and the people are right only in the sense that collectively and usually they have their best interest at heart... When the group survives so survives the individual...

1 Reply

@Fido,

Fido wrote:

hawkeye10 wrote:

Quote:
You always think you're a representative of the majority, Hawk.
Bullshit, I have many many times said that I am taking the minority position, which I hope to build into the majority position. The sexual rights of teens, men's rights, that the government is corrupted by the corporate class, that America is massively less free than we used to be and should be are just a few examples.

You are not so stupid that you believe the claim made, you are lying for effect....have you been taking lessons from Firefly??

Why??? If you are right you are right even if you are the only one.... Who needs the majority on their side when for one reason or another they are always in the wrong... The people are the law, and the people are right only in the sense that collectively and usually they have their best interest at heart... When the group survives so survives the individual...

I aim to be right as much as possible, because by definition the educated person is the one who is able to discern the truth and nothing is more important in a democracy than the combination of the citizens being educated and having an active give a ****. The building of the majority is important both because in a democracy the majority decides, and because the combat of ideas and opinions that takes place in the process of building majorities is the major mechanism for the process of education.

It is most certainly not at the universities where one gets educated, as they mostly died a long time ago and became job training centers and political pressure group indoctrination headquarters. For instance the university is a fine place to go to learn the feminist mythos, but it is a very poor place to learn the truth about the interaction patterns between males and females. Right now we have a lot of poorly educated elites running around being the deciders and making a hash of our once great nation because they are full of themselves buffoons (and often outright bold faced lier/schemers), and the truth of the situation will only be seen if we have debate and show up that they are not what they claim to be. Building a majority to overrule the elites is how we get this done.

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@hawkeye10,

In addition to being a private citizen, Mr. Williams is also a brand. He damaged his brand, and now he's paying the price.

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

In addition to being a private citizen, Mr. Williams is also a brand. He damaged his brand, and now he's paying the price.

We shall see, but as I said I think he has set himself up as a hero of the people.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

ESPN will no longer air Hank Williams Jr.'s song at the beginning of Monday Night Football, it was announced today. Will MNF survive? Ha, of course it will. Nobody cares about that song. ESPN could play literally any song in the world before Monday Night Football, and the experience would be just as good. Please just don't use this song. We can't take it anymore.

Amusingly enough, both ESPN and Williams took credit for the split. ESPN, in a statement, said, "We have decided to part ways with Hank Williams Jr. We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of Monday Night Football has always been about the games and that will continue." Williams, meanwhile, posted this note on his website, once again capitalizing whatever words he felt deserved capitalization.

“After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment
Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It’s been a great run.”

Williams makes a common mistake here. His "First Amendment Freedom of Speech" was not "stepped on" by ESPN. Williams was and is free to make whatever Hitler analogies he so desires. He can write a new country song called "President Obama Is Just Like Hitler" if he wants to and play it at his next concert. But ESPN isn't bound by the First Amendment to associate with him. The First Amendment doesn't protect anyone from the repercussions of their own stupidity.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/10/hank_williams_jr_espn_part_way.html

In my opinion most Americans dont give a **** if it is the corporations who stomp on citizen participation in democracy with the government failing to come to our aid or if it is the government doing the squashing....we the citizens end up in the same place and the government has still failed us. I feel the same way about censorship, as some will remember when Robert was arguing that any action to squash voices on A2K is not censorship because the government is not the one doing it I said that it was still censorship, but that someone other than the government was instigating it.

I think we will see a some liberals defending ESPN, in part because they dont care much for Williams or what he said, but also because they will defend to the death the right to have the establishment police the communal conversation, that is after all what the PC laws are all about. Hopefully though we will soon begin to see some influential people on the left get fed up with the continued abuse that the American citizen has been subjected to, and will close ranks with the libertarians on the right and fight for the American people.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Fido wrote:

hawkeye10 wrote:

Quote:
You always think you're a representative of the majority, Hawk.
Bullshit, I have many many times said that I am taking the minority position, which I hope to build into the majority position. The sexual rights of teens, men's rights, that the government is corrupted by the corporate class, that America is massively less free than we used to be and should be are just a few examples.

You are not so stupid that you believe the claim made, you are lying for effect....have you been taking lessons from Firefly??

Why??? If you are right you are right even if you are the only one.... Who needs the majority on their side when for one reason or another they are always in the wrong... The people are the law, and the people are right only in the sense that collectively and usually they have their best interest at heart... When the group survives so survives the individual...

I aim to be right as much as possible, because by definition the educated person is the one who is able to discern the truth and nothing is more important in a democracy than the combination of the citizens being educated and having an active give a ****. The building of the majority is important both because in a democracy the majority decides, and because the combat of ideas and opinions that takes place in the process of building majorities is the major mechanism for the process of education.

It is most certainly not at the universities where one gets educated, as they mostly died a long time ago and became job training centers and political pressure group indoctrination headquarters. For instance the university is a fine place to go to learn the feminist mythos, but it is a very poor place to learn the truth about the interaction patterns between males and females. Right now we have a lot of poorly educated elites running around being the deciders and making a hash of our once great nation because they are full of themselves buffoons (and often outright bold faced lier/schemers), and the truth of the situation will only be seen if we have debate and show up that they are not what they claim to be. Building a majority to overrule the elites is how we get this done.

I would say that the idea of democracy, though it is never thought out in true democracies, is to bring the best, and even all the minds to bear upon every subject of concern; but that is hardly the object of our government which is all about limiting the number of voices that can be heard, primarily to those representing money... Money talks, and government hears, and if they had the slightest interest in hearing what the people have to say they would approximate the level of representation we began this country with, say, one representative for every thirty thousand which would give us about 7 thousand representatives in the house, a small army of the people, if nothing else... Limits on the number of representative were made outside of the constitution, and while the Supreme Court has ruled that the House can set its own limits, one can see the quality of our government decline, the quality of our democracy decline the more that parties and powerful can manipulate the districts to get the answer they want from the people rather than seeking the advice of the people... This country has grown by a hundred million in my life time... Yet, the number of representatives is fixed, and more house districts are made safe to one party or the other every day... Rather than actually making these districts safe, the make them radical, with the only danger from party candidates coming in the primaries from ones more extreme, and the result is government more divided and entrenched, unable to act, which is all the action the rich require to have business as usual... And the more government does not serve the people, the more fragile and endangered it becomes... The more incompetent the legislature becomes the more power will have the Presidency and the Courts, by default; and the one is barely democratic, and the other is not democratic at all, and represents the most conservative, and even reactionary interest... The court does not care what the morals of the people are, or what the definition of justice is, but in protecting the rights of property which undercuts the fundation of morality they literally demand the end of their power... The office of president is that of a tyrant, and not by choice, but again, by default, because the parties to be heard made government inaccessable to the people... If the people were heard in the house, no president would contradict them...

Hawkeye; Government is not about right or wrong, but about the political solution... Even philosophy is only superficially about right or wrong... Ultimately, it is about getting ideas to work for us, to improve our conditions materially... What happens in society is contrary to philosophy, since we find we are always working for ideas that do not work for us... Capitalism is a great idea that does not work in practice... It is easy to explain why it does not work, but since it is not so easy to explain why its opposite number, communism does not work we are left with the most obvious example of failure, and one that can be excused by human nature and base greed... Greed cannot be at once the cause of the success of capitalism and the reason for its failure; and yet it is presented so... In fact, greed plays upon the emotions of all of us, and we are willing to accept the moral faults of others in the light of our own failings... If we would simply agree, that we do not have to be perfect to demand better of others we would all be much better off...

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

In addition to being a private citizen, Mr. Williams is also a brand. He damaged his brand, and now he's paying the price.

You should never underestimate the power of the people, even over those who most hate democracy in this land, that being the corporations... Anyone can say anything so long as it does not conflict with common sense or moral perception... The office of the president is that of a tyrant, and even more so with the failure of the rest of government to serve and unite the people... It does not help to say so, since any questioning of the institutions and forms of society will at some point bring to light the undemocartic, and anti democratic character of wealth and corporations... The living cannot compete for rights with the immoratal, as corporations are, having the rights of a person, but eternal life which no true individual has... Standard Oil probably goes back to civil war days, or soon after... What person alive can claim such history and wisdom???

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@hawkeye10,

If that's what he wants, then good for him. On the other hand, if what he wants to do is license his song to the NFL then maybe he should take a little care before he shoots off his mouth.

Can he weather this? Sure.

But it's hardly a case of "fitting anther speaker with a GAG!"

1 Reply

@wayne,

Quote:

actually after hearing the audio, the FOX dudes threw him under the bus

wayne wrote:

That doesn't surprise me at all.
The immediate apology is probably good damage control.
It was a good analogy, when you don't read into it.

I think a lot of interviewers lead these celebs into political statements they later regret.
It can never be good to take sides publicly when you risk alienating half your potential audience.

There was no reason to apologize.
He shoud have bravely dismissed & rejected the complaints of liberals.
Not much can be said for Mr. Williams's personal courage.
He had merely indicated that it is unlikely for philosophical adversaries to play golf together.
If Hitler and Netanyahu had been contemporaries,
it is unlikely that thay 'd have played golf together
because thay r very different. Williams was saying
that thay also r very different.

I do not see ANY way that obama is similar to Hitler
( maybe Karl Marx ), but Williams is entitled to freely speak of them both.

No big deal

David

0 Replies

The Corporate Class fits another Speaker with a GAG (Hank Williams Jr)

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