The speech enforcer

As anyone who’s a frequent reader of this column knows, I’m one of the more ardent defenders of free speech on this staff, and possibly in the world. Basically, aside from falsely shouting “fire” in a crowded theater and causing a panic, I think people should be allowed to make basically whatever statements they choose to make, so long as they’re in the proper forums.

However, people like Michael Savage make me think that I should be appointed as the country’s official speech enforcer, to beat senseless anyone who says things that are stupid and hateful.

Evidently, the right-wing radio talk show host declared on July 16 that 99 percent of autism cases represent “brat(s) who haven’t been told to cut the act out.”

He went on to say, “What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, you idiot.’”

Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. It’s because they don’t have fathers. Because it’s a well-known fact that all children diagnosed with autism are fatherless. Insulting and belittling them will surely make the problems all go away.

First of all, this is part of a problem that has been growing recently – people who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about trying to make psychiatric evaluations of people they’ve never met. Whether it’s Savage issuing sweeping generalizations from on high, or Tom Cruise misdiagnosing millions of depression sufferers on the Today show a couple of years ago, it’s bad news when people use the platforms they’re given to try to refute science. We should really try to leave medical diagnoses to doctors, not failed science fiction writers like L. Ron Hubbard.

It’s part of another thing that irks me personally, though: talk radio. The only radio host I can stand is sports-oriented Jim Rome, and that’s only because he reserves his ire mostly for those who deserve it. (Brett Myers, if you’re going to hit your wife, you will suffer the consequences.) But Savage is basically the third part of the Axis of Evil also occupied by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. He claims on his Web site that he “fits no stereotype,” but that’s a lie. He perfectly fits the “enraged-talk-radio-host stereotype.” And people like him are not helping matters in this country.

The weird thing is that people of Savage’s ilk seem only to exist on the right wing. The closest the Democrats have is Keith Olbermann, and he’s usually not that angry – and he usually sticks to things that are actually true, rather than “99 percent” hyperbole. I truly do not understand why people tolerate and even enjoy listening to people such as Savage. The appeal of anger, stupidity and fabrication is largely lost on me; I wish it was lost on more people in this country.