Taking on the cynical myth

The video above features Alan Colmes taking on rightwing crackpot Todd Starnes and his constant promotion of the cynical myth of Christian “persecution”. Starnes gave it his best shot, but…

Starnes is a serial liar, saying things that are absolutely not true, or spinning things in such a way that they may as well be an outright lie. Blogger Joe.My.God. (where I found this video—I don’t actually watch Fox, of course) frequently quotes Starnes verbatim, which is as good a place as any to find evidence of how little regard Starnes has for the truth or for facts: He’s all about the spin.

Colmes, on the other hand, called Starnes on a few of his outrageous claims, and also pointed out how US and state governments are overwhelmingly dominated by Christians. Faced with that fact, Starnes tried to spin his way out—and failed miserably to do so. In fact, any time Colmes presented Starnes with a fact that challenged Starnes’ myth promotion, Starnes tried to spin the facts.

Still, Starnes is a capable media operator, which is why he’s used on Fox in the first place, and it’s also why people might believe his bovine excrement. As a side note, I don’t often see Alan Colmes, but this was by far the best I’ve ever seen him do. In the past, I thought he was so awful that he was of no use to our side; maybe I was wrong about him.

In any case, I know it’s somewhat jarring to see me posting a video from Fox “News”, a channel about which I have absolutely nothing good to say. However, as important as it is to keep challenging the far-right’s cynical myth of Christian “persecution”, it’s also important to make sure the mainstream knows that the myth IS being challenged, and without such videos, people like me would never know it was happening on Fox.

This issue is not going away. After the US Supreme Court rules on marriage equality, it's certain to become the focus of the rhetoric from the USA’s radical rightwing as they seek to enshrine their anti-LGBT bigotry into law. We need to be ready to take them on when that happens.