How Do These People Keep Their Jobs

Or not just slit their own throats out of shame, after taking money to write something like this.  Today's example, Richard Cohen, who got paid by the Washington Post to write as follows:

"I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children."

So Richard Cohen somehow forgot- forgot! that slavery was bad, and came to believe that it was a "benign institution" run by "benevolent whites" who just happened to believe that God gave them the right to own other humans.  And it took going to a movie to remind him of the truth!  Because otherwise he would have never figured it out on his own, or learned enough about our history to know the truth!

Why do I spend time searching the wingnut internet for examples of moral depravity and indifference, when the mainstream press has now reached the point where it has turned its megaphone over to people who feel free to state in public that they thought slavery was a pretty nice deal for the slaves?  What in God's name has gone wrong with this country, where malignant, hateful sentiments that, a few short years ago, were the property of neo-Nazis and unrepentant Southern racists, are now apparently reasonable enough that columnists for one of the most influential newspapers in the country freely admit believing them?

And yet these same people tell the rest of us that it is our responsibility to meet the haters halfway, as they venture further and further into the outer darkness of human depravity, guaranteeing that we are all just a few years behind them.

This is now the new reasonable, adult-in-the-room position- hey, that slavery wasn't so bad- that the slaves were grateful for their condition.  And if this son of a bitch hadn't seen a movie, he would still believe that, and would soon be telling us to get over it, that maybe the Confederates were right.

I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/533655/terrible-columnist-richard-cohen-shocked-to-learn-that-slavery-was-really-really-bad#25wBqJFbxyZcJcew.99

I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/533655/terrible-columnist-richard-cohen-shocked-to-learn-that-slavery-was-really-really-bad#25wBqJFbxyZcJcew.99

I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/533655/terrible-columnist-richard-cohen-shocked-to-learn-that-slavery-was-really-really-bad#25wBqJFbxyZcJcew.99

I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/533655/terrible-columnist-richard-cohen-shocked-to-learn-that-slavery-was-really-really-bad#25wBqJFbxyZcJcew.99

I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/533655/terrible-columnist-richard-cohen-shocked-to-learn-that-slavery-was-really-really-bad#25wBqJFbxyZcJcew.99

I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/533655/terrible-columnist-richard-cohen-shocked-to-learn-that-slavery-was-really-really-bad#25wBqJFbxyZcJcew.99

I sometimes think I have spent years unlearning what I learned earlier in my life. For instance…slavery was not a benign institution in which mostly benevolent whites owned innocent and grateful blacks. Slavery was a lifetime’s condemnation to an often violent hell in which people were deprived of life, liberty and, too often, their own children.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/533655/terrible-columnist-richard-cohen-shocked-to-learn-that-slavery-was-really-really-bad#25wBqJFbxyZcJcew.99