For the Record, Craig T. Nelson is an Idiot

Birthdays, Irritations, Musings, Politics

It’s an unhappy 66th birthday to knee-jerk, right-wing bump-on-a-log Craig T. Nelson, aka Steve Freeling and Coach Hayden Fox, who last year famously and apparently without irony asserted that “no one helped [him] out when [he] was on food stamps and welfare.” Idiotic charlatans of political engagement like this — unfeeling creatures who don’t understand the difference between socialism and a societal safety net, and reflexively bristle at social/mental health/outreach programs that don’t conform to the prescribed rigidities of the manner in which they believe others should be living their lives — are in a certain sense citizens of the worst order, because they have the means to be better educated, but almost willfully choose not to be. They put on blinders and ignore the world at large, or indeed the very notion that there could be major problems that do not (yet) immediately impact their lives. Their opinions are rooted in having achieved a certain hard-fought success, and then — instead of celebrating living in a country which ultimately rewarded all their effort with a lottery-style win — becoming embittered with taxation and/or the inability to extend control and ultimate authority across all areas of life. I mean, clueless statements like the one above almost guarantee that the guy has an alcoholic past or has been in some sort of trouble with the IRS, right? Which one is it?

5 thoughts on “For the Record, Craig T. Nelson is an Idiot”

  3. No Anon, I chose my words carefully, actually. Sure, Nelson is a hypocrite, but his words also reveal him as an idiot. Watch the whole interview clip with him (it’s easy to find online), or even just the excerpt.

    That’s why I use the phrase “idiotic charlatan of political engagement,” because Nelson reveals himself to be a socially and fiscally conservative guy (no great whoop in that — that’s fantastic) who merely parrots right-wing radio talking points, without grasping any of the intellectual heft behind their positions. He’s a hands-off-mine! type of guy — blind and oblivious to the entire concept of a social safety net, despite having personally benefited from that in the past, when he was much less fortunate than he is today.

    You simply saying I should “know what he meant” doesn’t change this.

  4. You feel qualified to label someone as an idiot due to one statement, and yet you make the assumptive jump that his statement makes him an alcoholic (or recovering alcoholic) or has a prior criminal history with the IRS? Pot, meet kettle.

  5. Rob — I feel you misuse the phrase “pot, meet kettle,” but nevermind. To your question, yes, I absolutely feel qualified to make that assumptive jump, because folks that espouse the opinions of the sort that Nelson did clearly have a commingled resentment of authority AND some sort of disconnection from reality, the sort of which is typically present in folks with a history of alcoholism or tax evasion. It turns out Nelson (now sober, it seems) has in the past spoken quite a bit about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. So it would seem I was on the nose.

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