Garofalo on Olbermann: Comedy or Tragedy?

This week the media served us up some of the usual ladels full of hate and vitriol. This isn’t unusual at all. We all know that the media follows the “If it bleeds, it leads” and “If it’s burning, it’s earning” maxims. After all, we are a twisted train-wrecks-are-cool society, are we not? I myself likes me some good trainwrecks, yep. Indeed, low-brow Jerry Springer trailer trash crap appeals to the dumb masses, ™ Neal Boortz, and it sells ad space.

What happens when one of these Springer acolytes, bankrupt of the more important character traits of intellectual honesty and acceptance of our human code of civility,  leaves the trailer park literally but not figuratively? By obtaining a remarkable vocabulary and achieving notoriety, Janeane Garofalo, has certainly been able to remove the 16×30 aluminum-sided single wide from her choices of domiciles, but is she still living in one anyway? From MSNBC’s “Countdown” program on April 16, 2009, Here’s a quote from Mrs Garofalo;

Thank you. You know, there’s nothing more interesting than seeing a bunch of racists become confused and angry at a speech they’re not quite certain what he’s saying. It sounds right and then it doesn’t make sense. Which, let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. And there is no way around that. And you know, you can tell these type of right wingers anything and they’ll believe it, except the truth. You tell them the truth and they become — it’s like showing Frankenstein’s monster fire. They become confused, and angry and highly volatile. That guy, causing them feelings they don’t know, because their limbic brain, we’ve discussed this before, the limbic brain inside a right-winger or Republican or conservative or your average white power activist, the limbic brain is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable person, and it’s pushing against the frontal lobe. So their synapses are misfiring. Is Bernie Goldberg listening?

MSNBC has some very bright people working for them. Even Olbermann himself, I’m sure, is able to recognize antisocial personality disorder when he sees it. The only reasonable conclusion I can come up with as to why they continue to have Mrs Garofalo on is that she sells ads. Laughing at Janeane Garofalo’s comedy act is one thing,  but selling ad space between manifestations of her illness is just as tragic as pushing an invalid down a hill in a wheelchair.

What do you think? Do you think that Mrs Garofalo is ill and that her tattoos, as well as her hateful oral peristaltic rush reveal some deep personal problems? Is MSNBC taking advantage of her?

Learn more about Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD):

Wikipedia Entry for ASPD

Published research on tattoos and antisocial personality disorder:

AU: William Cardasis, Alissa Huth-Bocks, Kenneth R. Silk
TI: Tattoos and antisocial personality disorder
SO: Personality and Mental Health
VL: 2
NO: 3
PG: 171-182
YR: 2008
CP: Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ON: 1932-863X
PN: 1932-8621
AD: Center for Forensic Psychiatry, Michigan Department of Community Health, USA; Department of Psychology, Eastern Michigan University, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, USA
DOI: 10.1002/pmh.43
US: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmh.43

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