The (Un)Intellectual Wank's Roseanne mea culpa (sort of)

Image: The Daily Beast

Oh Roseanne.



I tried to help. I told people not to stop watching your show just because they didn't like your politics. I truly believe that a healthy democracy needs national dialog - not two competing monologues. I think if we talk and listen to each other, we have a chance of beating the bots that feed us the angry tripe that dominates political discussion. I thought that perhaps your show - once beloved by so many people of all stripes - might be a decent piece of popular culture for us all to enjoy, and even talk about together.

And now this.

Image: Houston Public Media

I was wrong. Roseanne is horrible. She has no business contributing to the political consciousness of the United States or the world at large.

Of course, this doesn't mean that my broader point is wrong. But there is no need to re-hash that here. Instead, I'd like to glean a tiny positive from what transpired these past couple of days.

With a bigot in the White House normalizing racism and sexism in day-to-day discourse, and with a Trump clone threatening to bring the party up north by potentially winning power in Canada's largest province, it is easy to feel despondent about the downward spiral our civil society has seemingly fallen in to. But consider this: One of America's most powerful entertainers, who enjoys the enthusiastic support of the president (and hence a large portion of the sycophantic government leadership), who has just made a ton of money for her network; despite all of this has just lost her show and left Twitter because ultimately, society on the whole is not okay with the things she expressed. And that, my friends, is pretty darn good news.

We take it where we can get it.