(This was initially a comment at TCP but my laziness precluded writing a different entry. I did though want the world to know where I stand on this just because I am that vain, self-centered and…a blogger.)
I’ve been hesitant to say much about the Goforth thing because I respect newscoma and I’m friends with–and have much love in my heart for–many people who happen to be left-wing.
My first thought about all of this was Brittney. And my second thought is that it seems like there is a segment of the left-wing population which becomes not unlike a pack of wild dogs when something like this comes up.
If they get the scent of blood they’ll tear everything to shreds and not stop until
actual blood has been shed. They must have the job of the offending person as some sort of penance for that person’s crime of wrongthink.
I think what Sherri Goforth did was tacky. It should a real lack of class and judgement. But it also was a good ‘teachable moment’ as they say in the world of schools and parenting. It was a chance for everyone who thought the email was wrong and tacky to explain what exactly was wrong and tacky and cruel about it.
A few did say “this was perhaps not wise and here are the reasons why” but most turned it into a self-aggrandizing chance to say “we are better people than you because we would never do this horrible thing you did. Now, since we are so much better than you we demand that you appease us by becoming unemployed.”
That had the odd wring of old-style Catholicism or even Viking Wergild about it. There was no sense of forgiveness, of moving past or coming to understanding. There was only the demand that a price be paid–that a sacrifice honouring rightthink be performed. And oddly, it had the opposite of the desired effect.
Instead of those of opposing viewpoints seeing a reasonable protestation it allowed folks to take to the defensive. To continue to characterise the blood-thirsty in the left-wing as tonedeaf monsters who don’t live in the real world.
It makes no sense. Unless the goal is for a number of people to feel better about themselves. To feel superior about the rightness of their beliefs and the wrongness of everyone else’s.
In that way, those on the left who cry for Goforth’s blood are not at all unlike Pat Robertson decrying homosexuals.
It’s both funny and sad when you think about it.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
“There was no sense of forgiveness, of moving past or coming to understanding.”
I don’t know that the results would be any different, but perhaps there would be more forgiveness if Ms. Goforth actually believed she did something wrong, other than accidentally sending this to the wrong distribution list.
Randle Patrick McMurphy would characterize it as a “pecking party”.
[…] to be fired and said so. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one wondering what this was all about. Kat Coble wants to know as well. I think what Sherri Goforth did was tacky. It should a real lack of class […]