After losing the presidency to a black guy, and probably losing a Supreme Court seat to a Hispanic chick, the heavily persecuted white, straight male minority has suffered yet another setback. A couple of local Don Imus imitators have discovered that transgenders actually do not find jokes about being smacked around all that funny.

Great, now who’s left to pick on?

Couple of weeks ago, a couple of drooling mouth-breathers who fancy themselves “shock jocks” tackled the delicate issue of transgenders with all the panache of a jumbo jet crash. You know the type of jock I’m talking about, the jocks who think mocking anyone that is not a white, straight male like them makes  them daring, clever and hip. “Look at us, we’re not PC! Aren’t we special?”

What did they say?  They called transgenders “freaks” and “fruits” and said they were trying to “bring attention to themselves.” "If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him." Then they defended the remarks as a “joke”.

Hey, it was joke! Everyone laugh! ‘Cause you know, talking about hitting a repressed minority that often experiences violence just for existing is hilarious. Don’t you have a sense of humor?  

Results were predictable. The transgender community was outraged; leading to outrage by the advertisers; who then decided that they really did not want to be associated with such garbage and pulled their advertising from the show. This lead to outrage by station management, who decided that they loved their advertisers way more than they loved their shock jocks, (who had slipped in the ratings anyway), and yanked the Howard Stern wannabes off the air. Which lead the predictable cries of “What happened to free speech?’ and “If you don’t like it, turn the dial!” from fans of the show. Oh, spare me.

Can we just get over the idea the free speech means you say anything you want to, no matter how stupid and offensive, and no one will exercise their freedom of speech to tell you that you are an ass?

Say it with me now: Free speech does not mean free from consequences.

No government entity got involved. No one was arrested. The Man did not tear down the station’s transmission tower. Because none of these things happened, no free speech rights were violated; because that’s all free speech rights give you.

Free speech does not mean no one’s going to get in your face over your ignorant, dumb-ass comments. Free speech does not mean that the people who pay you money to represent them aren’t going to decide that maybe you aren’t the best representative after all. Free speech does not mean everyone is going to laugh at your unfunny jokes. Because free speech comes with a pesky catch: everyone has it, not just you and the people who think like you.

Go ahead and use your free speech, but don’t think you get a pass if you are going to spew stupidity. Why is this concept so freaking hard to understand?

Say it again: Free speech does not mean free from consequences.

In case you are wondering about the jocks, they got pulled off the air for a week and offered up an apology, after initially defending their remarks. Some links to the story:

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/ticket/archives/2009/06/radio-hosts-def.html?storylink=lingospot

http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/story/1928458.html?storylink=lingospot

http://www.sacbee.com/news/story/1938351.html?storylink=lingospot

Turns out the jocks are better people than their fans. I wonder if they read some of the comments.