The other day, comic Kathy Griffin was photographed holding up a severed head of Donald Trump. Why did she do this? Well, I have a hard time believing she thought everyone would laugh and think how funny it was, or that everyone would take it as a pithy political statement. The most likely motive was that she noticed there wasn't much talk about her in the news feeds and couldn't allow that to continue. So she went out and did something shocking.
There are other people who do this regularly — consciously trying to do something that has no purpose other than to be outrageous and get attention. I'm trying to think of another example…
Oh, right. The guy whose severed head she was holding. He's the master of that.
And of course, what then happens is that what was said is not discussed so much as the mere fact that he or she said it. Some people are outraged that last night on his show, Bill Maher used the "n" word. They aren't discussing the sentence in which he used it or the political thought he was expressing…just that he let it cross his lips.
And further of course, folks on the other side of the political spectrum from Ms. Griffin are ginning up all possible outrage as a weapon to be used for their causes. In Georgia's 6th Congressional District where Democrats hope their candidate Jon Ossoff can pick up a seat, ads supporting his opponent Karen Handel are showing Griffin's photo and saying, "Now a celebrity Jon Ossoff supporter is making jokes about beheading the president of the United States."
Nice going, Kathy. She's apologizing for the photo and at the same time complaining about the backlash against it, thereby keeping herself in the news feeds. I actually think Griffin can be very funny and even witty when she's not trying to position herself as both the creator and victim of publicity-seeking outrages.
It's all such a waste of good bandwidth that might be used for discussing actual issues. We have some, you know.