Frankly, I'm not used to WAITING and I don't like SUSPENSE, so instead of suffering week after week, wondering who will be eliminated and who will go on, I store the shows and watch them at my own pace.
By an interesting twist of fate, two of three finalists had disabilities.
Er, is THAT ok to say? Do we say "challenges?" There are several PC words now. My late friend George Carlin had a routine about this. He loved words and hated the misuse of them:
"'Passengers in need of special assistance?' CRIPPLES! Simple honest direct language! There's no shame attached to it. In fact it's used in Bible translations: "Jesus healed the cripples." We don't have any cripples in this country anymore. We have "the physically challenged." How about "differently able." I've heard them called that. You can't even call these people handicapped anymore. They'll say "We're not handicapped, we're handy capable!" These poor people have been bullshitted by the system into believing if you change the name of the condition you change the condition! It doesn't happen! We have no more deaf people in this country: it's hearing impaired. We have no more stupid people. Everyone has a "learning disorder." He's "minimally exceptional." Psychologists have begun to call ugly people "those with severe appearance deficits..."
The winner of AGT this year, Kodi Lee, is blind and autistic. He's "differently able" but in a huffy piece at the Huffity Puffity Huffington Post, a writer went on ad nauseum about how "ABLEISM" is a blight on the world, and even mentioning someone's disability is some kind of...PORN.
Oh, demeaning what porn actually is, are you? Pornographers resent being lumped in with disabled people. For one thing, how in the world would Kodi Lee, blind, appreciate porn?
On AGT, the word "inspiring" was used over and over for many acts on the show...from 10 year-old opera singers to a cancer-surviving child to a quartet that sings on behalf of soldiers who are suffering from traumatic injuries or stress. It was applied to an 84 year-old acrobat and, yes, to Kodi Lee, who happens to be a rare savant who can memorize not only songs but even classical music after hearing it once. The fact is, Kodi Lee's DISABILITY took a lot of effort and family love to control. He as prone to outbursts. He disliked being touched. He couldn't walk out on stage by himself; he needed his mother to help him get seated at the piano.
Finding him overcoming all this shouldn't be praiseworthy?
Not according to this sour, scolding piece:
Shame, SHAME on anyone who calls a blind autistic 22 year-old's competing on a talent show "inspiring."
The Debbie Downer who wrote this (perpetraing Debbie Down Syndrome? No, no, that's a HORRIBLE joke) doesn't seem to want a disability to be mentioned.
You know who disagreed with this? Kodi Lee's mother and his family, who wanted to share with the world how Kodi was different and how he was able to function in life. "Without music," his mom said, things would be much harder. Was she being...pornographic?
Another contestant who won the hearts of viewers and the judges was Robert Finley, who, like Kodi Lee, is no amateur going to the AGT auditions on a whim, but an experienced performer. Finley, 65, lost his sight a few years ago. One of the original songs he sang? "Starting to See."
What, he's a pornographer? He shouldn't sing about what he knows? He shouldn't write about what it's like to be blind?
A lot of disabled people in daily life don't want to have to explain their problem, but a lot know that there's curiosity and that explaining the situation puts it out of the way. That choice belongs to each person. Kodi Lee's family chose to explain it, and perhaps have people understand that not every kid with autism is a lethal Adam Lanza. That people with autism can find outlets to help them cope in this world.
The fifth place finishers this year, "Voices of Service," said they formed their group to help give comfort and hope to people who fought for their country and came back with a disability. Are they pornographers? When they read letters from people who have been inspired and have been comforted by their singing, were they no better than a download of a gangbang video?
The author of the huffy Po piece was livid about ABLEISM and the Mark of Cain on the evil people who dare to feel inspired. Let's not discuss a disability and let's just pretend it doesn't exist.
You know who disagreed with this? The THIRD place finisher in the competition. THIS guy:
In every one of his stand-up routines, Ryan Niemiller, born with congenital birth defects, joked about his problems buttoning a shirt or shaking hands. He did a routine about how he had no interest in swimming. He even had a comic act in which he attempted to fight a pro wrestler and got flattened in the ring. The punchline was that when the wrestler's back was turned, Niemiller got up and charged, knocking the two-handed wrestler down and pinning him for the count. Niemiller referred to himself...are you ready...as...
THE CRIPPLE THREAT.
So, the 3rd place finisher on "America's Got Talent" jokes about being a cripple, but the 1st place finisher's victory is reduced to "PORN." The people who voted these guys past hundreds of contestants, and past Top Ten finishers who were able-bodied acrobats, is some kind of "trope" about feeling sorry for the disabled.
What this tells you is that the PC world is never satisfied about anything. They will always find some reason to be OFFENDED. They will find some reason to take up a contrary position and scowl at the insensitivity of others.
You might well ask what is WRONG with these people, that they don't do what the people with disabilities do, which is accept the congratulations and praise and the word "inspiring."
Niemiller did joke about the problems of his disability and the way people might look at him and be glad they don't have his problem. He turned it around, imagining what it would be like if a woman heard him say: "You know, looking at you, I feel better about myself." BUT...he accepted the judges saying he was an inspiration, and he also accepted Howie Mandel pointing out that he was a very good comedian.
Simon Cowell and others pointed out that Kodi Lee was a very good singer. That's why he won. With a voice that recalled Johnny Mathis and Jose Feliciano, Lee (who has been gigging for several years) gave outstanding performances. Would he have won if he wasn't blind and autistic? Probably not, but feeling inspired by somebody conquering a disability is NOT PORNOGRAPHIC.
Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles DVDs are not sold as PORN on Amazon and eBay.
After I finished watching the finals, I was curious to know more about autism, and what different types of the condition there might be. That's when I discovered the Huffy Po article telling me that I had been watching PORN, and that my interest in Kodi Lee was somehow lurid. That's their "trope" anyway.
Look, if you want to be cynical, and rain on the parade, how about telling people the truth about AGT saying "YOU JUST WON A MILLION DOLLARS."
That's the lie. That's far more obnoxious than playing a sympathy card about a disability. You know who did that? Last year's winner, a card magician. In one of those "get to know the act" pieces, he pointed out that he overcame the disability of cutting a finger and suffering tendon damage. That was pornographic? Not simply human interest? This year viewers being told that a semi-finalist in a dance troupe had spent time in a hospital but kept on practicing, or that another had a broken foot. This crosses the line between inspirational and it becomes porn?
Kodi Lee will NOT be getting a check for a million dollars. He has two options. He can collect $25,000 a year for the next 40 years (before TAXES) or he can settle for a lump sum which, factoring in the taxes, would amount to about $300,000. That's a dirty shame, isn't it? But it's not "Talent Show Porn."
Another LEGIT reason to be cynical about "America's Got Talent" is how manipulative the show is, IN GENERAL. One of the corniest routines is when Simon Cowell interrupts somebody's audition (judges are supposed to be impartial) and declares, "Perform a different song..." or "Do that a cappella" or "Come back in an hour with something else." Equally creepy is when Cowell gasps and blinks and declares "I've never seen anything like this in my life," about an act that he actually saw just a few months earlier on "Britain's Got Talent."
There are many who wonder if Simon Cowell had rehearsed his "gaffe" when he told Niemiller, who only has a few fingers, "it's in your hands" whether the comedian could get to the finals.
Also kind of foul, is that AGT does not distinguish between the REAL amateur and the longtime buskers, cruise-ship denizens and other professionals who have been making a living and are just looking to move from small-time to Vegas...while having a huge advantage over others who haven't even been on a stage before.
You can feel like you've been had, a tad, when you think, "Hey, that Robert Finley wrote some very good songs, I hope he puts out an album..." and it turns out he already DID in 2017, and was mentioned in Rolling Stone for being the "breakout star" of the "Easy Eye Sound Tour" revue in 2018.
"I may not see your face, but I can feel the love in this place..." sang blind Robert Finley. Is he the porn star or the pornographer for singing those lines about his disability?
One more thing about Finley. Is it pornographic, or a sign of weakness, for someone with a disability to seek help and get some benefits? Finley received help from the "Music Maker Relief Foundation," a non-profit organization. Should he have turned this down, because people with disabilities are like anyone else?
There are reasons to be cynical or to find the show as fraudulent as most "reality" shows are. Complaining that any discussion of disability is lurid and "pornographic?"
"America's Got Talent" in previous years, has given back-stories to people clearly trying their best to conquer stage fright, or those who came back from an illness that might flare up again, or a violinist battling a degenerative disease, a deaf woman who could sing, and a singer who survived 3rd degree burns while being one of the few to survive a plane crash.
It's a talent show and it's entertainment, and you might as well feel sorry for able-bodied contestants who can't sway judges or get audience sympathy because they simply have some talent and no drama. Should we feel sorry for the 11 year-old who sang opera perfectly, but finished outside the Top 5 because she was simply a privileged white girl who wasn't in a wheelchair, didn't have a disease, or hadn't been orphaned and raised by wombats in Australia?
There's a special disorder that afflicts people who feel bad over feel good stories. There's a true quirk in people who choose to think people are condescending when they are simply being complimentary. There's something very strange about people who have to be utterly bone-headed and idiotic in showing how super-sensitive they are.
Ryan Niemiller, in finishing 3rd, told the world that he was grateful to be on stage, because maybe five years ago, he would have been shunned. People wouldn't be able to accept him and laugh at him laughing at his own problems. What a world, if in another five years, we continue to move backward due to PC nonsense and "Social Justice Warriors" who have a disability that involves being humorless, dour, and scolding about everything they see.
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