Joss Whedon Attacks 'Hate' Radio in Commencement Address

Director Joss Whedon has a message for the 2013 graduating class–don’t listen to that hateful talk radio and feel sorry for those who do.

Whedon, who wrote and directed the 2012 smash The Avengers, had the honor of delivering the commencement address at his alma mater, Wesleyan University over the weekend. He used the occasion to warn graduates that we’ve “broken” the world and that the level of debate in the country is in sorry shape.

This is the same director who cut a faux funny video last year attacking Mitt Romney in his battle against President Barack Obama for the White House. In case Whedon hasn’t heard, the Obama administration is accused of using the IRS to stifle dissent, curtailing a free press and obfuscating the truth about the terrorist attack in Benghazi.

None of those scandals snuck their way into Whedon’s speech. Instead, the director brought out the old talk radio bogeyman to flog. He also managed to insult talk radio listeners as well.

And we’re not that. We’re more interesting than that. The way that we go into the world understanding is to have these contradictions in ourselves and to see them in other people and not judge them for it. To know that–in a world where debate has kind of fallen away and given away to shouting and bullying–the best thing is not just the idea of honest debate, the best thing is losing a debate. Because it means you’ve learned something and you’ve changed your position.

The only way, really, to understand your position and its worth is to understand the opposite. That doesn’t mean the crazy guy on the radio who’s spewing hate, it means the decent human truths of all the people who feel the need to listen to that guy. You are connected to those people. They’re connected to him. You can’t get away from it.

The left loves to demonize talk radio which skews unabashedly to the right. Liberals simultaneously do all they can to shut those voices out through boycotts, doctored news reports and cries of racism. It’s a shame the graduating class didn’t hear Whedon defend the actions of his fellow liberals in their zest to smite the very debate he champions. It’s a message they sorely need to hear.