Bill O’Reilly vs. the Bible Thumpers

By Selwyn Duke

If an argument falls in a forest of confusion and nobody hears it, does it make an impact?

In a segment with Megyn Kelly on the Wednesday edition of the O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly lamented how traditionalists don’t have a “compelling argument” on the faux-marriage issue and that all we can do is “thump the Bible.” But if theistic thumping is all O’Reilly hears, he needs an ear for something other than the mainstream media.

O’Reilly’s assertion is, frankly, insulting. Many of us in the Brainstream Media have for years been propounding deep, intellectual, and sometimes novel arguments in defense of marriage. And they’re certainly compelling, yet it is true that they don’t compel. And how could they?

Virtually no one hears them because society’s primary conduits of information — the mainstream media, academia, and popular culture — are all controlled by the left.

The reality is that the above members of the Triumvirate of Evil are like the sentient programs in The Matrix: they guard all the gates and hold all the keys. If they don’t want your message to get out, it won’t. They can make you famous or infamous or keep you anonymous; they can cast angels as demons, truth as lies, and virtue as vice. And they do.

So is it fair to fault traditionalists for not being able to put compelling arguments in the public arena? It’s a bit like putting the onus on the Jews for not having been able to control the narrative used against them in Nazi Germany.

In fact, if anyone would imply that the right has been outshined by the left in intellectual heft, he has it exactly backwards. The right has actually been doing very little Bible thumping, while the left has been doing almost nothing but equality thumping. And this is the left’s advantage. 

The person who offers reasoned, intellectual arguments always has an uphill battle against the demagogue, which is why man’s history is one of mainly bad men, not good ones, rising to power. The demagogue is selling vice — in the form of playing on people’s prejudices, envy, covetousness, etc. — whereas the wise leader is stuck peddling that unpopular product called virtue. And, to paraphrase Confucius, “I never met anyone who loved virtue as much as sex” (which could be why no one worries about his adolescent son getting hooked on theology sites).

As for marriage, it doesn’t take much synopsizing to characterize the left’s arguments as “Marriage Equality!” and “Equal Rights!” — with heavy, heavy emphasis on the exclamation points. And it works like a charm. As Adolf Hitler pointed out in Mein Kampf, the common man has a very short memory, so political success requires the use and continual repetition of brief, catchy slogans. Hey, it’s why we hear “Coke is It!” and “Just do it” as opposed to long expositions on the delights of drinking cola or wearing $120 sneakers. It is the technique of effective advertising — and the Way of the Demagogue.

Getting back to O’Reilly, an irony here is that he’s part of the problem. When has he ever had on his show a guest who has put forth those compelling arguments “that don’t exist”? He certainly has found time for fonts of intellectualism such as Marc Lamont Hill, retreads such as Bob Beckel, and a regular “Culture Warriors” segment with news-version Barbie dolls (CNN’s Margaret Hoover was a culture warriorette until recently). Oh, as to the last thing, I know that pretty faces sell in this superficial age of the image. But it’s a little ridiculous to complain about the alleged lack of traditionalist intellectualism when you’re ignoring traditionalist intellectuals in favor of something far closer to Idiocracy’s Hot Naked Chicks & World Report.

So I have some advice for O’Reilly. It you want find a compelling argument on an issue, don’t go to someone who is the leader of an organization devoted to that issue, or who simply has a relevant Ph.D., but who has never penned anything but boilerplate. Go to a person who has actually written something compelling — which, by the way, is just a mouse click in the right direction away. It’s not rocket science.

Anyway, the mainstream media will continue to act as if the Brainstream Media doesn’t exist, because what cannot be refuted must be ignored. But the fact is that we’re here doing the job un-Americans won’t do. And you ought to know that, Mr. O’Reilly. Heck, forget Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy, your next big book could be Killing Our Culture. 

                                Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com

                                                         © 2013 Selwyn Duke — All Rights Reserved

Comments

[Greg]

It's my opinion that the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck are "fifth columnists".

In other words, they are traitors to the republic and the Constitution.

They are cultural Marxists; wolves in sheep's clothing.

Their sole purpose is to enrich themselves while sowing confusion.

[Robert Berger]

Selwyn Duke, you are a total imbecile. Same sex marriage will no more "destroy" America and bring the "wrath" of a (non-existent) God down on us than allowing blacks and women to vote did, or allowing blacks to serve along with whites in the military and blacks and whites to marry did .
Actually, I'm an agnostic, not an atheist. But I don't believe in the ridiculous Biblical God if idiot American Christians who is so obsessed with what people do in private .
Homosexuality cannot and must not be equated with pedophilia, polygamy, bestiality or incest etc - GET OVER IT !!!!!!!
Bill O'Reilly has finally seen the light . If a@#$%^&s like Duke got their way , I would not want to live in America . There would be no freedom of nay kind , and Big Brother would be on everyone's back just as in Orwell's 1984 . Shut up ,chicken little Selwyn Duke. The sky is NOT falling .

[Mario F. Romagnoli]

Starting with an ad hominem attack is a great way to bolster your argument, Mr. Berger.

I don't know if you are atheist or agnostic, but I do know that you seem to be threatened by those who believe differently than you, and who do so with conviction.

As for Big Brother, he is already upon us, and in the form of the Politically Correct Left.

[David Wetter]

Yes it is Mr Berger, the sky is falling, but people like you will protect yourselves by burying your head in the sand.

[Robert Berger]

David Wetter, the sky may be falling, but for completely different reasons thanb same sex marriage and gay rights etc. This nation is threatened by the American Taliban, the religious right.
A loathsome bunch of inbred hillbilly Bible-thumping , anti-abortion, homophobic , fanatical evangelical Christians who are determined to make America a "Christian nation", their code word for turning us into a totalitarian Christian fascist police state which would be little better than the Islamic theocracies of the middle east .
Worried about Muslim Shariah cming to America? Well, that's not a risk. But be VERY AFRAID of CHRISTIAN SHARIAH ,which these fanatical evangelical idiots want to impose on America. It wouldn't be as violent as Islamic Shariah, but it would still be utter tyranny .
Don't get me wrong; I'm not anti-christian; I have no problem with Christians who are sane,rational, tolerant and reasonable people who mind their own business and keep their religion to themselves .They're not the problem . I am ANTI-THEOCRACY .

[Greg]

You've got it backwards...

A cabal of cultural Marxists are bent on un-defining marriage in order to further destroy the culture.

What's next? Fathers marrying sons? Mothers marrying daughters? Group marriage?

By your own logic of "tolerance" you must accept this or be a "hater".

Selwyn Duke is right on this, and you are dead wrong.

The definition of marriage has always been the union between a man and a woman.

You and your ilk want only to debase it.

The endgame of the commies is to make marriage mean nothing.

There is no "Christian Sharia"...but there sure Liberal Sharia...it's called "Political Correctness".

[Publius]

Great article, Duke. I just read a very insightful piece by Jonathan Chait of New York magazine (online) called, "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy Is on Your Screen." It effectively links the decline of public morality with televised depravity. You've written about it before, but I'd love to read your take on television, decadence and the amorphous ethos of modern America.

[Robert Berger]

Greg you idiot ! "Marxists" are not trying to "impose" gay marriage on America in order to impose communism on us . What you are claiming is beyond idiotic . Many gay people are just aksing to be granted the same marriag erights as heterosexuals.
Only an idiot believes that allowing same sex marriag e will lead to legalizing polygamy, incest, pedophilia and bestiality .
You are so out of touch with reality it's pathetic !

[Greg]

Guess what?

Just because you tape a feather to your rear,

it doesn't make you a chicken...no matter how many times you say you are

or how many people you get to agree with you.

It just isn't so, despite your wishful thinking.

So, what if a father and son want to be married and have their "love" (sic) recognized

and celebrated?

You must support it, by your own "logic". Otherwise, you could be called

an "idiot" and "out of touch with reality". (Which are really weak 'arguments'!)

That you can't follow this simple line of logic is very telling of you lack

of honesty.

By the way, the normalization of perversion is a plank in the hard-core commmie agenda.