Advertisement – story continues below
This social justice warrior who inadvertently called Mike Rowe a Nazi probably felt like crawling back behind the computer screen he came from after Rowe publicly blasted his fallacies on an epic Facebook post. This is brutal.
On Aug. 22nd, the host of the Discovery Network’s “Dirty Jobs” openly posted a user named Chuck Atkin’s question on his Facebook wall.
“Chuck Atkins says … “ the post began before citing the question that Atkins dared to ask.
Advertisement – story continues below
“One of the tenants (sic) of white nationalism is that college educated people are academic elitests (sic). Comment? No? I’m not surprised. You never take a political stand because you don’t want to alienate anybody. Its bad for business. I get it. But there is a current of anti intellectualism in this country – promoted by Republicans. Those people love you, and they think your initiative is their initiative. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is kickin our ass academically.”
Atkins was soon to realize his mistake in implying Rowe had white nationalist sympathies. Bad move Chuck… bad move.
Rowe was quick to comment in a lengthy response below Atkin’s question which began saying, “Hi Chuck, Since we’re being candid, allow me to say how much I dislike your post. Everything about it annoys me – your smug and snarky tone, your appalling grammar, your complete lack of evidence to support your claims, and of course, the overarching logical fallacy that informs your entire position.”
Advertisement – story continues below
Speaking of fallacies, Rowe included this hilarious meme to accompany his response.
However, he was quick to point out that Atkins was actually right in one aspect. “What really bugs me though, is the fact that you’re not entirely wrong. It’s true; I haven’t shared any political opinions this week, in part anyway, because doing so might very well be ‘bad for business,’” Rowe admitted.
Rowe spoke to the fact that many celebrities who do share political opinions often pay the price for doing so. As such, Rowe said he feels “fine” about keeping those opinions to himself, because he understands that actions and words have consequences.
Advertisement – story continues below
“What can I say? I work for half-a-dozen different companies, none of whom pay me to share my political opinions. I run a non-partisan foundation, I’m about to launch a new show on Facebook, and I’m very aware that celebrities pay a price for opening their big fat gobs. Gilbert Gottfried, Kathy Griffin, Colin Kaepernick, Milo Yiannopoulos…even that guy from Google who just got himself fired for mouthing off. There’s no getting around it – the first amendment does not guarantee the freedom to speak without consequences. And really, that’s fine by me,” his post continued.
Then he attacked each one of Atkin’s claims in such an epic manner it is worth repeating in its entirety.
“You say that White Nationalists believe that everyone who goes to college is an ‘academic elite.’ You then say that Republicans promote ‘anti-intellectualism.’ You offer no proof to support either claim, but it really doesn’t matter – your statements successfully connect two radically different organizations by alleging a shared belief. Thus, White Nationalists and The Republican Party suddenly have something in common – a contempt for higher education. Then, you make it personal. You say that Republicans ‘love’ me because they believe that my initiative and ‘their’ initiative are one and the same. But of course, ‘their’ initiative is now the same initiative as White Nationalists,” Rowe said in what is pure gold analysis!
“Very clever. Without offering a shred of evidence, you’ve implied that Republicans who support mikeroweWORKS do so because they believe I share their disdain for all things ‘intellectual.’ And poof – just like that, Republicans, White Nationalists, and mikeroweWORKS are suddenly conflated, and the next thing you know, I’m off on a press tour to disavow rumors of my troubling association with the Nazis!”
The clever response then went on to show how Atkins was part of the problem and listed several news networks that take a shred of “information” to create an insanely unbelievable story. He did the same thing with Atkin’s comment, and was able to quickly paint Atkins as a racist using his own words against him.
It really is brilliant.
Finally, and this has to be said, Rowe dropped the mic with this comment.
“There’s not much we can do about the news, but here on Facebook, I think we can do better. This isn’t Twitter. We’re not limited to a few inflammatory sentences and a flurry of emojis. Take a moment, Chuck. Think. Make a rational argument. Otherwise, just link us to a cat video. People love those, and they’re almost never ‘bad for business.’ (Unless of course, the cat gets hurt. People hate that.) Just don’t assume that people will care about your beliefs, if you’re not willing to back them up with some relevant facts and a rational conclusion.”
Boom.
Honesty, everyone need to go right now to this post and read the entire thing. It is amazing to see a celebrity take everything he has learned from the media machine and use it to spread the truth to the people in this country.
We salute you, Mike Rowe.
H/T The Daily Caller
Share this story on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to add your thoughts on Rowe’s response to the comment section below.
