Once In A Great While…

     …an entertainer does something that’s worth celebrating:

     Stand-up comedian Mark Normand believes in making fun of everyone, equally.
     When asked about his latest Netflix special, Normand said he wanted to be "inclusive," meaning he wanted to make fun of people from all walks of life.

     And he meant it, Gentle Reader. He included a joke about Muslims in his plan for a recent cable comedy special. One of the “platforms” on which his special is to appear was upset:

     "They go, 'Yeah, we got some bad news there. We reviewed the special again. We'd like to take out the Muslim joke.'"
     Normand explained that staff told him that the last time "a comic did a Muslim joke," they got bomb and death threats. But the 42-year-old said he refused to take it out.

     They argued back and forth. Normand broke the deadlock with a bargain:

     "OK. I don't love it, but OK. I will take it off on one condition," he recalled saying. Normand then said he told those on the call that he would only approve the social media plan if they admitted Muslims are dangerous.
     "I want you to admit on this call that they're a dangerous people. And they were like, 'What? No. What, are you crazy?' And I'm like, 'You got to admit it, or I'm keeping it, or I'm posting it.'"

     The resistance continued. The executives were apparently terrified of allowing the joke… and equally terrified of admitting why they were terrified. Could it possibly get any better?

     Normand won the throw-down:

     "You can say, 'Hey, I love this group.' But then you don't live near them. You know, we're all talk. We're all signaling. We're all virtuous, but you don't actually act that way."
     "So they admitted it," Normand said to his surprise; and while he did reveal he was "half joking" when he made his request, the comedian had a good time getting "a group of HR homos" to say, "All right, they're dangerous. We'll see you later," before hanging up the phone.

     How could anyone not be put in mind of this famous passage from Atlas Shrugged:

     "Mr. Rearden," he had said once, "if you feel you'd like to hand out more of the Metal to friends of yours—I mean, in bigger hauls—it could be arranged, you know. Why don't we apply for a special permission on the ground of essential need? I've got a few friends in Washington. Your friends are pretty important people, big businessmen, so it wouldn't be difficult to get away with the essential need dodge. Of course, there would be a few expenses. For things in Washington, You know how it is, things always occasion expenses."
     "What things?"
     "You understand what I mean."
     "No," Rearden had said, "I don't. Why don't you explain it to me?"
     The boy had looked at him uncertainly, weighed it in his mind, then come out with: "It's bad psychology."
     "What is?"
     "You know, Mr. Rearden, it's not necessary to use such words as that."
     "As what?"
     "Words are relative. They're only symbols. If we don't use ugly symbols, we won't have any ugliness. Why do you want me to say things one way, when I've already said them another?"
     "Which way do I want you to say them?"
     "Why do you want me to?"
     "For the same reason that you don't."

     Rand’s focus was primarily economic. She, who wrote at a time when the U.S. was still overwhelmingly European and Christian, would not have foreseen the tensions of today. But her novel’s various conflicts over production and trade are as applicable to today’s racial and creedal tensions as they were to the proto-fascist conditions of the postwar years.

     You cannot dispel a terror by refusing to speak of it.