I was reading Mary Katharine Ham’s blog on Townhall, and I followed her link to Jonah Goldberg’s latest column.
I find Darwin fish offensive. First, there’s the smugness. The undeniable message: Those Jesus fish people are less evolved, less sophisticated than we Darwin fishers.
The hypocrisy is even more glaring. Darwin fish are often stuck next to bumper stickers promoting tolerance or admonishing random motorists that “hate is not a family value.” But the whole point of the Darwin fish is intolerance; similar mockery of a cherished symbol would rightly be condemned as bigoted if aimed at blacks or women or, yes, Muslims.
As Christopher Caldwell once observed in the Weekly Standard, Darwin fish flout the agreed-on etiquette of identity politics. “Namely: It’s acceptable to assert identity and abhorrent to attack it. A plaque with ‘Shalom’ written inside a Star of David would hardly attract notice; a plaque with ‘Usury’ written inside the same symbol would be an outrage.”
But the most annoying aspect of the Darwin fish is the false bravado it represents. It’s a courageous pose without consequence. Like so much other Christian-baiting in American popular culture, sporting your Darwin fish is a way to speak truth to power on the cheap.
Whatever the faults of “Fitna,” it ain’t no Darwin fish.
The entire column is excellent and it brings up a great point about the cowardice of leftists who will attack Judaism or Christianity at the drop of a hat, but refuse to utter a peep about the worst aspects of Islam. There are probably precious few on the right who grit their teeth any harder than I do when a prominent conservative delivers some half-informed tirade about the “lie of evolution.” I consider the condescending tone with which so many of my fellow conservatives use ridiculous arguments to suggest that all the world’s scientists are engaged in some sort of anti-God conspiracy to be hubris in the extreme.
That said, Darwin fish piss me off for pretty much the exact reason that Goldberg outlines. It’s a cheap shot at somebody’s legitimately-held religious beliefs. You don’t have to subscribe to someone’s religious doctrine to show respect for them. I know that a lot of atheists and agnostics carry resentment because Christianity was forced on them when they were kids, but couldn’t we just grow the fuck up and not be a prick about it? Please?
