Whitlock: Keith Olbermann’s Barstool insanity shows the danger of living a life based on defending political lies

This question will seem highly partisan and inflammatory. It is asked sincerely and without malice.

Has the agenda of Democrats become so secular and distant from objective truth that it causes people who adopt a liberal/progressive identity to go insane?

I ask this question out of genuine concern for the sanity of Keith Olbermann, a broadcaster I once admired, and many people I love whose identity and worldview are tied to politics, particularly left-wing politics.

Modern-day progressive politics requires a rejection of objective truth and traditional Christianity. You must believe men can be women, that abortion is not an issue of morality but of choice, that white people are God and in control of your destiny, that George Floyd is a hero and Kyle Rittenhouse is a terrorist, that Donald Trump’s mean tweets are an existential threat, that flagpoles can be the primary weapon in a deadly insurrection, that rogue cops are a more lethal threat to black men than street gangs.

A rejection of truth and faith makes insanity inevitable.

I’m concerned for my family and friends. I’m afraid they will go down the same path as Olbermann, an intelligent person forced to ignore truth to protect his political ideology and brand.

Yesterday, via Twitter, Olbermann used the atrocious school shooting in Michigan to attack Barstool Sports and its founder, Dave Portnoy. Olbermann retweeted a Barstool story about a high school football player who lost his life during the school shooting while trying to protect his classmates. Olbermann complained:

“This kid died to stop a school shooter whose mother echoed the Trumpist Fascism of @stoolpresidente and @barstoolsports.”

Portnoy and Trump radicalized a 15-year-old sophomore to shoot up Oxford High School. You need proof? Well, Olbermann pointed to a 2016 blog post written by the alleged shooter’s mother. The blog post praised Trump.

“Mr. Trump, this is why I voted for you. I see the change that we desperately need. I see jobs coming back, people having to work for their handouts, money going to who really deserve it. If this blog even makes it to your eyes, thank you. From the bottom of my heart.”

Within 48 hours, corporate media politicized the Oxford shooting.

This is insanity mixed with a heavy dose of hypocrisy. The Daily Beast wrote a story profiling Ethan Crumbley, who is white. The Daily Beast dug up the old blog post from Crumbley’s mother. The story included lots of information about the shooter’s parents.

Crumbley shot up his high school on Tuesday, two days ago. Let’s contrast corporate media coverage of Crumbley to that of Darrell E. Brooks, the accused Waukesha mass murderer. Does Brooks have parents? He committed his attack 11 days ago. Has anyone written a detailed story about Brooks’ upbringing, his parents’ political beliefs? I can’t find it.

The Big Lie, the biggest lie being perpetrated on the American public, is that liberals are seeking racial justice. They’re seeking racial division and political power through racial division. It’s not just Olbermann.

Yesterday, longtime political broadcaster Marc Lamont Hill conducted an interview with two women discussing abortion rights and the Supreme Court’s possible rejection of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Brittney Cooper, an associate professor at Rutgers University, turned the discussion of abortion rights into a deranged rant about political conservatives not “caring about black babies” and concern “about demographic anxiety.” She opened her rant by taking morality off the table.

“We get caught up in the moral arguments about (abortion),” she fumed. “And this isn’t about that. This is about our rights to have self-determination and autonomy.”

Cooper is an example of where hyper-secularism leads. Morality is a non-issue. Morality is an impediment to freedom, pleasure, and political identity. Morality ended slavery and Jim Crow, gave women the right to vote, made domestic violence taboo. Now we don’t need morals. No reason to get caught up in morality.

The left is unhinged. Keith Olbermann’s descent into lunacy epitomizes where the left is headed.

During the 1990s, Olbermann was one of the best sports broadcasters in America. He and Dan Patrick co-hosted a lively and fun version of ESPN SportsCenter. Olbermann later moved to Fox Sports and led that network’s coverage of Major League Baseball.

In the early 2000s, I enjoyed Olbermann’s work at MSNBC when he pivoted to politics and became a liberal firebrand and President George W. Bush’s harshest critic. During that era, I made frequent appearances on all of the cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. You did not have to agree with the hosts to appear on their shows or networks. I was and am a political free agent.

When Olbermann left MSNBC to rejoin ESPN in 2013, I was honored to be the very first guest on his nightly ESPN show, “Olbermann.” Whether I agreed or disagreed with Olbermann, I found him extremely intelligent and thought of him as honest.

That is no longer the case. Olbermann is crazed. He frequently says and does things that make me question his mental stability. It would be easy to blame it on Trump derangement syndrome. The rise of America’s 45th president has certainly frustrated leftists.