« Yes, Hypocrisy Matters | Main | Commenters: Go » A Dilemma15 May 2007 01:41 pm Consequence-driven blogger that I am, I'm trying to think of a way to acknowledge Jerry Fallwell's death, thus proving that liberals aren't out-of-touch, without appearing to celebrate the man's passing, which might provoke a backlash. Solution: Go meta! Lesson: Irony and a wry tone can get you out of any jam. Comments (58)
Don't worry, God's on your side on this one. This was God's punishment for him being so mean to gay people. 
"Irony and a wry tone can get you out of any jam." Isn't it ironic, don't you think?
The question is, how do you really feel about his death? If you really are celebrating inside, you could express that, but some people will understandably be turned off. Better to just matter-of-factly say "Jerry Falwell is dead." Alternatively, people frequently find it in them to put their differences aside when their opponent is dead, and sincerely express some kind of solemn respect.
So Jerry's dead? Well, I for one really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians, the A.C.L.U., People for the American Way, all of us who have tried to secularize America, I shake their hand and say, "We helped this happen".
Stay classy, Matt and friends.
Why is it necessary to acknowledge Falwell's death on your blog? I'm pretty sure that you realize that you are only going to get a bunch of lame jokes in the comments, which would undermine you larger aim of making liberals seem more sympathetic.
Isn't it ironic, don't you think? Like rain on your wedding day, right before you die at the age of 73 after a lifetime of fostering bigotry and wake up unexpectedly in a pit of lava.
Truly one of the more corrosive and mean-spirited influences of the past 30 years. He personally stifled to no small degree the cause of enlightened reason and progressive policies in many areas of life. Anyone beyond his immediate family saddened by his passing is deluded.
"Why is it necessary to acknowledge Falwell's death on your blog? I'm pretty sure that you realize that you are only going to get a bunch of lame jokes in the comments, which would undermine you larger aim of making liberals seem more sympathetic." Doesn't matter. If Matt were to say something insensitive and Coulter-ish, he'd get heat from the other side. But commenters have the freedom to express the proper level of contempt for Falwell without any actual consequences. Hell, in the last thread, I called for Paul Wolfowitz to be drawn and quartered.
We should not speculate about the reasons why he was struck down by the Lord -- some past offense, for example, or something nefarious he was planning to do. His time had come, and he Lord gathered Jerry to himself like a good farmer taking in the harvest.
Stay classy, Matt and friends. You know, you're right. To stay classy in memorial of Jerry Falwell is decidedly ironic.
Instead of lame jokes, how about heartless political calculation! This makes tonight's GOP debate more awkward for John McCain, because when Sam Brownback or whoever says, "let's all pray for the eternal soul of Reverend Fallwell," who will doubtless remind people that McCain once called Jerry an "agent of intolerance." Basically Fallwell's death will put him, and the Christian Right, back in the news, and McCain will have to strike a fine balance between respecting the man's passing/show evangelicals that he is now one of them, and reminding people that the Maverick of eight years ago hated Fallwell.
Isn't it ironic, don't you think? It's like dying right before LU commencement, Who would have thought ... it figures.
all deaths are reminders of our own mortality, so any death sucks.
some deaths suck less than others.
It makes you slightly nostalgic for the time the Christian right was preoccupied with the satanic pretensions of certain heavy metal bands and exorcising the diabolical influence of Dungeons and Dragons from the hearts and minds of American youth. I gather the late Mr. Falwell had a hand in both of those noble battles.
"Instead of lame jokes, how about heartless political calculation! This makes tonight's GOP debate more awkward for John McCain" Your logic here is sound, but as with most things in politics, there is always the possibility of a jujitsu maneuver. McCain could use the opportunity tonight to embrace Falwell and gain forgiveness for 2000.
With Haggard and Falwell gone, is Dobson undisputed leader of the religious right? Are there any rising stars we should be keeping an eye on?
Whatever your thoughts are in the 1st 18 hours are probably not worth hearing. Why not wait and sink your teeth into it when you've got something meaningful to say? P.S. No death is to be celebrated. It is always a tragedy. Even Jerry Falwell. There will be plenty of time to think about the lessons to be drawn from the life he led.
Pat Robertson is cackling and toasting a glass to his increased market share.
McCain could use the opportunity tonight to embrace Falwell and gain forgiveness for 2000. I think 2006 McCain could (and in fact, did) pull a stunt like this with a straight face. But now, after all the accusations of pandering and detachment from reality, an all-out(metaphorical) enbrace of Fallwell would just serve as a reminder of how hollowed out the Senator really is. McCain will never be forgiven for 2000 by certain aspects of the party, and these aspects were strong Fallwell-ites, I think. It would probably be most effective for Big Mac to say something like "Jerry and I disagreed on a lot of issues, but I respect his passion and committment to what he thought was right." It won't gain him any Fallwell votes, but he never had those to begin with. Best to write them off and kcik Jerry's body a bit to revamp his campaign.
It makes you slightly nostalgic for the time the Christian right was preoccupied with the satanic pretensions of certain heavy metal bands and exorcising the diabolical influence of Dungeons and Dragons from the hearts and minds of American youth. I gather the late Mr. Falwell had a hand in both of those noble battles. Oh to be young again back in the days where it was considered rebellious and dangerous to sit around a table in the basement with your friends and pretend to be a wizard while listening to bad rock music. I never could understand the preoccupation of some of the right-wing Christians at the time with D&D. And for the record, the guy with the anti-D&D agenda was the same guy who (coincidentally, I'm sure) had an hour-long nightly TV show that he had to fill with some kind of examples of things that were "hazardous to Christianity" -- Pat Robertson. I don't recall Falwell ever really going out on the anti-D&D crusade (though the anti-Tinky-Winky crusade was one of his finer moments).
I'm thinking that the good Lord probably harvested Falwell cleanly and painlessly, like a large load of cabbages. It wouldn't be seemly to think of a 200+ lb. farm animal being poleaxed and gutted.
an all-out(metaphorical) enbrace of Fallwell would just serve as a reminder of how hollowed out the Senator really is. I agree. The only thing worse for his electoral prospects would be a non-metaphorical embrace. You don't want to be known as the candidate who hugs dead guys.
Falwell dead ? does it matter at all ? Now if someone truly evil and powerful, like Scalia, were to croak...
Whatever your thoughts are in the 1st 18 hours are probably not worth hearing. Why not wait and sink your teeth into it when you've got something meaningful to say? P.S. No death is to be celebrated. It is always a tragedy. Even Jerry Falwell. There will be plenty of time to think about the lessons to be drawn from the life he led.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No death is to be celebrated. It is always a tragedy. That is ridiculous. Some are crimes. Some are worse that than -- atrocities, say. A very few are unqualified blessings, as Steve Duncan points out. One could go on. Enough with this blanket use of 'tragedy', which seems intended to numb the audience's moral response.
Yglesias, you have no command of irony and you are certinly not wry. Your readers are similarly disadvantaged in this area, seemingly imagining leaden sarcasm a worthy substitute for wit. Fuck your mothers!
Falwell was the fist person to ever make me feel conflicted about being a Christian. Seriously, before I heard the things he said about the world I had no idea that Chritians could believe the things Jerry Falwell believed in. He literally weakened my faith in Christ. Ain't that ironic. I have since grown older and realized that Falwell was the pawn of Satan. I'm kinda kidding but sorta not. It's a faith thing.
McCain aside, Newt is supposed to speak at the Liberty U (Falwell's college) commencement this weekend. The death will give that event extra spotlight. But if Newtie was planning to declare a run in that speech (admittedly unlikely), it'd look pretty crass to go ahead now...
The idea that "death is always a tragedy" is bizarre.
Like "irony," "tragedy" is a word that in popular usage has been expanded way beyond its literary meaning. The expanded meaning of "tragedy" is now something like "any event that occasions a substantial amount of sadness." Under that expanded meaning, it is not really bizarre to say that most deaths are "tragic."
"Fuck you mothers!" also, clever.
"Death is always a tragedy" for somebody. The reason I personally can never get totally behind the idea of being happy that a person has died is that I always imagine someone grieving for them. Falwell undoubtedly had friends and family who are in pain right now, and odds are that at least some of them are people whom I'd like if I got to know them. I didn't care enough about Falwell to hate him, but I successfully sustained something like a consistent, low intensity contempt spiced with loathing, and he did nothing to improve the world that I live in, but I can't quite bring myself to celebrate the cause of someone else's grief. I'll make jokes about him and his ultimate Fate, and I'm not sorry to see him go, and I've probably got something you could call grim satisfaction at his end, but for me even Falwell's death is too somber an occasion for revelry.
Correction: "Fuck your mothers" is what he said.
No death is to be celebrated. It is always a tragedy. Uh, no. Though Falwell, the hubris-nemesis combo might be appropriate. I just hope that Fred 'God Hates Fags' Phelps and his brood protest at the funeral.
YMMV, as they say, but I don't think the fact that lots of people are sloppy or vague in their usage habits makes the idea that "every death is a tragedy" any less bizarre. For that matter, it isn't even true that "every time someone dies, someone else is made sad."
some deaths suck less than others. cosigned.
Your solution fails. By writing that you crafted this post to avoid the appearance of celebrating his passing, you have created that appearance.
Ben: I'm pretty sure that "pimp hand strikes!" is mentally ill. It's best to ignore him; he can't help his nonsensical outbursts. Sam: I can totally hear Alanis singing "It's going to hell, where you thought all the gays would be sent".
Under that expanded meaning, it is not really bizarre to say that most deaths are "tragic." Well, that expanded meaning is bullshit. Every death is sad for someone. But for some reason, people can't say 'sad' any more.
I started to ask what would conservatives do if the liberal equivalent of Falwell had died, but you know what? We don't really have an equivalent person who makes idiotic, extremist, inflammatory remarks and also has real power over the Democratic party and who it nominates for political office. I'll admit my first reaction on seeing the headline on DKos was, "Yay!" I sympathize with his family and all that, but Falwell's death improves the tone and level of public discourse in America by a tremendous amount and should help slow or stop the relentless march to theocracy that the right is intent on.
Thanks for the tip, Walt.
Lesson: Irony and a wry tone can get you out of any jam. I don't think that's true, either. As for Falwell: without wishing to be vituperative, I think we are definitely better off without him. Unless, of course, someone worse takes his place somehow.
"Are there any rising stars we should be keeping an eye on?" Whatever happened to that kid with the mullet in "Jesus Camp?"
I am sorry for his family at their loss of someone who, I assume, loved and honored them. And that's it. Falwell was a malign influence on the Baptist faith and on religion as a whole. He was a mean and spiteful man who displayed none of the qualities of Christ. The unfortunate thing is he died before having a change or heart and reclaiming his humanity and his decency. He died a malignant horrible man whose sole legacy is damaging the Baptist faith - to the point that many have left the church. I was raised Baptist and Falwell helped to deform a good and honest church into a travesty that alienates as many people from religion and from god as it attracts. Falwell helped create atheists out of believers by his abuse of his church
His death may very well be thought a tradegy by family members and close friends, but looking at it objectively, considering all the evil he is responsible for, there is no doubt that the world is better off without him. Just saying.
Who cares? The religious wingnuts have always been around, and will be around for a while. A long line from Cotton Mather to Comstock to Hayes covering Maureen O'Sullivan's thighs & nipples(damn him to hell) to Conklin to whoever to Falwell and beyond. Irritating and annoying, locally and marginally damaging but rarely really important. There would anti-choicers and gaybashers without Falwell, and they will survive without him. One child born to carry on.
The expanded meaning of "tragedy" is now something like "any event that occasions a substantial amount of sadness." That is an utterly imperialistic expansion of the word's meaning, with very repressive implications which good liberals will resist. When you say 'death is always a tragedy' and define 'tragedy' solely in terms of sadness, you *prescribe* a certain emotion -- telling everyone to shut up with whatever anger/outrage/relief/etc. they might feel and to just be sad. Problem is, in many cases (the soldier killed in a useless war, the person who dies of a treatable condition for lack of health insurance, the tyrant assassinated, etc.) anger/outrage/relief/etc. are entirely warranted emotions -- and here you are telling people it's inappropriate to feel them. Astoundingly presumptuous. Ask Andrew Bacevich, Sr., today whether he thinks his son's death is a tragedy.
Haven't had a chance to scan all the comments here -- can someone let me know if anyone has compared Falwell-style Christian fundamentalists invidiously to Muslim fundamentalists yet?
I wish I believed in Hell.
short reaction: Praise the Lord.
but then there are the occasional super-predators, who really do stand out from the crowd. It just isn't true that if Bush hadn't been in power, things would have gone as badly, or someone else would have done the same things. Bush was a uniquely horrible loser. Same with Falwell--sure, there have always been Elmer Gantry holy joes, but this guy was uncommonly evil. Give the devil his due: he was worse than the average religious wing-nut.
Guess he wasn't drinking Pat Robertson's Age-Defying Shakes! If he had he'd be alive right now, leg-pressing 1,000 pounds!
My first thought: "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead!" My second thought: "I shouldn't think that, how horrible..." My third thought: "Won't it be ironic when liberals are accused of being intolerant and hateful of Christians because we are happy to be rid of a malign influence on our society. Ah, good riddance." Truly, I don't wish the man suffering, and I don't believe in hell as eternal torture and punishment. I'd like to believe that God will sit him down and correct him on a few things, after which he can spend eternity contemplating the awful, wrong things he did with his arrogance and vanity. For a true believer, that really would be hell. Unfortunately that's not really how I think things work and he probably died believing he was doing good for the world and that was the end of it. That makes me infinitely more sad than any empathy for people who might have reason to grieve his passing.
Speaking as a born-again Christian who didn't drink the Kool-Aid and believes the stuff Jesus said in the Gospels actually counts for something, I'm glad to see the last of Falwell. And if, as Paul said, to live is Christ and to die is gain, Falwell's doing fine, so it's win-win all around, right?
Zombie Reagan/Zombie Falwell '08!!!1!1
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Heads in the Sand
Let's just figure that God called Jerry home to have a little talk about his commentary after 9/11....
Posted by elle loco | May 15, 2007 1:46 PM