You simply can’t have an opinion anymore without every Tom, Dick and Harry having something negative to say about it. You don’t have to agree with everyone’s opinion. That’s what makes the U.S. a great place to live. But, this need in our society for people to apologize all the time has gotten out of hand, especially when you take the case of what happened to all-time great stand-up comedian Norm Macdonald.
Macdonald did an interview with The Hollywood Reporter (THR), which was released on Tuesday, and the perpetually-offended populace got so up in arms about his criticism of the #MeToo movement, along with his take on Roseanne Barr and Louis C.K.’s fall from grace that Macdonald apologized a mere 12 hours later.
Oh, not only that, but Macdonald's scheduled appearance on Tuesday's edition of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" was cancelled because of his comments.
Here’s what Macdonald said about the #MeToo movement:
I'm happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a little bit. It used to be, "One hundred women can't be lying." And then it became, "One woman can't lie." And that became, "I believe all women." And then you're like, "What?" Like, that Chris Hardwick guy I really thought got the blunt end of the stick there.
The model used to be: admit wrongdoing, show complete contrition and then we give you a second chance. Now it's admit wrongdoing and you're finished. And so the only way to survive is to deny, deny, deny. That's not healthy — that there is no forgiveness. I do think that at some point it will end with a completely innocent person of prominence sticking a gun in his head and ending it. That's my guess. I know a couple of people this has happened to.
Am I missing something? Even if you disagree with what Macdonald said, were his comments worthy of an apology?
Apparently so, because here’s Macdonald’s apology:
Roseanne and Louis have both been very good friends of mine for many years. They both made terrible mistakes and I would never defend their actions. If my words sounded like I was minimizing the pain that their victims feel to this day, I am deeply sorry.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) September 11, 2018
I can echo Macdonald's sentiments. Barr and C.K. "made terrible mistakes." But just because I defend Macdonald, it doesn't mean that I condone Barr and C.K.'s actions. However, you won't see me apologizing any time soon.
As you can tell, Macdonald also had to apologize for comments he made about Barr and C.K. Here’s what he said:
Well, Louis [C.K.] and Roseanne [Barr] are the two people I know. And Roseanne was so broken up [after her show's reboot was canceled] that I got Louis to call her, even though Roseanne was very hard on Louis before that. But she was just so broken and just crying constantly. There are very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day. Of course, people will go, "What about the victims?" But you know what? The victims didn't have to go through that.
Macdonald wasn’t discounting the pain actual victims felt and still feel about whatever happened to them. He was simply intimating that Barr and C.K.’s livelihood was basically taken away from them. C.K.’s fall was more justified than Barr’s, especially when taking Macdonald’s opinion on whether Barr is a racist or not into account.
“What I do know is that she is a single-issue motivated person,” Macdonald told THR. “And that issue is Israel. That's all she cares about politically. She is left wing in everything else. But that is why she did not like the Obama administration, because they snubbed Netanyahu. I believe that is the only reason that she voted Trump. She is certainly not a racist. That's just crazy.”
Macdonald was being honest about his opinions, and that’s more than I can say for most of the media, Hollywood, sports and politicians. Macdonald is harmless. He just wants people to like his comedy. But, he found out real quick that you can’t say things that deviate from Hollywood bubble’s perception of what is true, which more times than not isn’t.
Leave Norm alone! As far as this situation goes, he has nothing to apologize for.
H/T: Breitbart