MILLER: Billy, I just flew five hours from L.A. to New York next to Islamic kid who was in his 30s. I couldn’t even watch the movie. I just fantasized [about] hitting him in the head with an elbow if he went up.
Remember when Dennis Miller used to be funny? Remember when he actually had something interesting to say? I know; I barely do, either. Somewhere along the line, Miller fully embraced the Dark Side and forfeited his sense of humor. I don’t begrudge him his right to believe as he sees fit, but there’s little doubt that Miller’s become a hateful, curmudgeonly shadow of his former comedic self. Like so many Conservatives, he fails to understand that smug arrogance just isn’t funny. Even worse, hating for the sake of hating is not only not funny, it exposes Miller as being devoid of sensitivity and humanity.
There’s nothing funny, interesting, or of any socially redeeming value to be found in Miller’s story about his fantasizing about attacking a Muslim passenger who sat next to him on an L.A.- New York flight. That Bill O’Reilly laughed the story off as if they were discussing the past weekend’s football games is every bit as reprehensible. Hatred and the violence it can engender is nothing to joke or even speak lightly about. Over the years, Fox Noise Channel has helped to create an atmosphere in which hating Muslims is almost de riguer, something as naturally as eating or breathing. Tolerating and condoning hatred and violence is but one step below commission of the same.
Yes, 19 Muslims were responsible for the 9.11 attacks, but Islam was not…any more than Christianity was responsible for Scott Roeder shooting Dr. George Tiller in the vestibule of Tiller’s Wichita church. Murder is murder, and neither Islam nor Christianity condone the taking of innocent lives in the name of religion. Islam is not the enemy, nor are Muslims. I’d submit that the real enemies are those like Dennis Miller and others on the Far Right who sow hatred of Islam because it suits their fear and prejudice.
If only Miller had the decency to recognize that fear, hatred, violence, and smug arrogance just aren’t funny…and that terrorism isn’t the exclusive property of Islam.
