Can we talk about double standards?

It's so much pressure to come up with a first blog post! I debated - should I post something about myself, what I like, etc.? After thinking about it for a minute, I decided to go with something that fits into the reason I started this blog in the first place. Something that will hopefully start a conversation. Something that will likely offend some. So here goes...

I've been thinking a lot about the situation with Roseanne Barr. At first, I thought her tweet was really horrible and I respected ABC's decision to not want her to represent them in any way. Never mind that for one person's mistake, dozens of innocent people are also unemployed. I'm generally not in favor of anyone losing their job over something they've done in their personal life (assuming they have not broken the law), but I get that the entertainment industry is a whole different animal.

Then I thought about it some more. Yes, her tweet was horrible. Make no mistake, it's never acceptable to attack someone's looks or other traits that they have no control over. Was it racist? I honestly don't know. She claims that she didn't know the subject of her tweet was African-American. To be honest, neither did I, and I don't think it's incredibly apparent by looking at her. I also didn't know that Colin Kaepernick was African-American until a former friend called me a racist when I initially spoke out about his protests during the national anthem. (That's a whole other blog post that maybe I'll write someday.) I don't get the impression that Roseanne is a racist, but I don't know her personally so I obviously can't say for certain.

What bothers me is that there is clearly a huge double standard and even a few liberal news personalities have pointed it out. If we're going to be outraged and fire people because of horrible things they say, shouldn't those "rules" apply to everyone? After the Roseanne fiasco, Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a "feckless c**t." She quickly apologized, as Roseanne had, but only one of them is out of a job. Bill Maher said the n-word on air recently and he still has his job. Chelsea Handler and others have attacked Sarah Huckabee Sanders for her looks over and over again. Lots of celebrities have accused law-abiding NRA members of being "child murderers." Chris Rock recently said that he wants to live in a world where the same amount of white kids get shot as black kids. The list honestly goes on and on and on.

What do those who have made horribly offensive comments and lost their jobs have in common with each other and how do they differ from those who have made horribly offensive comments and been allowed to keep their jobs? Hmmmm, are people of a certain ideological persuasion given a free pass by employers who have the same ideological beliefs while those who don't toe the line get a swift kick to the curb?

In my opinion, the left has been outraged at the success the Roseanne reboot has enjoyed and they were going to find a way to take her down no matter what. Unfortunately, she did something really stupid to give them an excuse to do it. But let's not pretend that Roseanne is the only celebrity under contract with Disney/ABC whose statements are "inconsistent with their values" and tell it like it is. The real inconsistency is that she's a Trump supporter and they hate that. According to Roseanne, the network is replacing reruns of her show with reruns of The Cosby Show. Apparently convicted rapists' values are consistent with Disney and ABC's. The true irony is that for all of the leftist criticism of the show, those critics clearly weren't even watching it. Much like All in the Family back in the day, Roseanne did a great job of pointing out how wrong it is when the characters show their ignorance and prejudices. It was very inclusive in its range of characters and it was equally funny and thought provoking.

Thoughts?