A Stinging Commentary

Markos “Screw ’Em” Moulitsas Zúniga had some tocheiche (admonishment) to voice regarding the death of Australian wildlife specialist Steve Irwin by the barb of a stingray. However, as is usual on the Left, it’s premature to assume you’ve met the worst, because there’s always someone who manages to plumb a lower depth. In this case it’s Germaine Greer, writing in the Guardian. A few [un]savory excerpts:

“The only time Irwin ever seemed less than entirely lovable to his fans (as distinct from zoologists) was when he went into the Australia Zoo crocodile enclosure with his month-old baby son in one hand and a dead chicken in the other.”

[…]

“There was not an animal he was not prepared to manhandle. Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress. Every snake badgered by Irwin was at a huge disadvantage, with only a single possible reaction to its terrifying situation, which was to strike.”

[…]

“Some snakes are described as aggressive, but, if you're a snake, unprovoked aggression doesn't make sense.”

[…]

“The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing 10 times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn.”

(Hat Tip: LGF, via commenter Spiny Norman)

Let’s just say that, assuming the first excerpt is true, I actually agree it was something Irwin shouldn’t have done. See, I don’t reject an argument just because a Leftist said it, but because I really disagree, and if a Leftist says something I agree with, I acknowledge that. But there’s an issue with the child abuse bit I’ll come to later.

For the rest, here are a lot of the thought-patterns that make the Left tick. To be sure, when it’s concerning animals there are things I could find agreeable, but the trouble is Leftists so often carry over that mindset to certain human beings.

The last excerpt says, “The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin”. It has? You mean, all the snakes, crocodiles, penguins etc. wronged by Irwin called a meeting one day, and then plotted with the stingrays to wreak vengeance on him? OK, I understand it’s all symbolic. Still, I can’t escape hearing that tone of “Justice done!” from Greer. In Judaism, cruelty toward animals (called “animals’ sorrow” by our sages) is forbidden, but there is none of that sentiment that the world would be better off without humans.

At any rate, there’s a basic difference between humans and animals, and that’s the issue of accountability, of awareness of right and wrong. Not only was there no literal conspiracy for the stingray to rid the world of Irwin, but that stingray itself wasn’t accountable for its action, as it was following animal impulses. Greer does acknowledge it. But what Leftists like Greer do quite a lot is transfer that animal unaccountability toward certain humans.

Do you remember the Cynthia McKinney incident, in March? She was barred from entering an office building because she didn’t have a pin identifying her as a Congress member, but she walked past the police, until one of them grabbed her, who responded by hitting him. The police officers were doing the job of keeping the building secure, and she not only ignored their shouts toward her, but hit one of them when caught. Such an event constitutes a severe threat upon the rule of law, but that wasn’t the end of the story: McKinney excused her behavior by playing the sex and race cards (“Let me be clear: this whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black congresswoman.”). The implication is that certain factors can exempt you from laws that would normally apply to all others.

Behind this incident, especially McKinney’s behavior, are the gears that make multiculturalism tick: the idea that some humans can, by their very circumstances, be as free of all accountability as are snakes and stingrays. I guess this gives Orwell’s Animal Farm and its famous adage about the equality of animals a new twist.

Why not, after all, when environmentalist fanatics on the Left keep talking about animal rights? It’s a pity for them that animals don’t bring their own lawyers, judges and tribunals to crack down on all those violations of their rights. Were it so, we’d be reading news items like this:

UO To Issue Condemnation to Irwin

Goiters – Terrier Red-Horsen, envoy of the United Organisms, has sent a letter of condemnation to Steve Irwin for his “disproportionate response” to the minor flesh wounds incurred on him by the neighboring crocodiles. Irwin’s actions, said Horsen, go beyond his right of self-defense and constitute an attack on innocent non-humans. He added that the hostilities must stop and all parties go back to the negotiations table.

Mahmoud I’manapeindrag, sitting on the UO Security Council, said Irwin’s atrocities were proof that humans are a danger to peace on Planet Earth and must be wiped off it. In a conference called “A World Without Humans”, President I’manapeindrag called the Black Death of 1348–51, which killed a third of the human population of Europe, a fabrication designed to garner sympathy for the humans and a blind eye to all their present crimes.

Mahatma Bambhi similarly issued calls for the Australian human to be tried before a court led by native non-humans, such as the marsupials of the land.

It would be an… uh… interesting world, but it’s interesting enough as it is with human Leftist ideologists both calling for “animal rights” and arguing for the animal-like innocence of some humans. I guess Darwin’s Theory, when taken to its ideological conclusion (that is, beyond its scientific content), inevitably leads that way.

Now, I said I agree with Greer that holding a baby in the vicinity of a crocodile is a bad thing to do. It’s one thing right-wingers and left-wingers can agree on. What a lot of left-wingers don’t agree on, however, is that bringing up a child on an education of suicide-bombing, taking a photo of him with weapons even as a baby, is child abuse too.

Child abuse in the “Palestinian Authority”. Picture from the massive Palestinian Child Abuse slideshow on LGF.

It seems that, in the name of “resistance to Western colonialist rule”, the charge of child abuse goes out the window, and the equation of the human (that means fully accountable for their actions) monsters who brought the child up that way with stingrays striking a nearby human comes in instead.