A Day To Take Clarence Darrow's Advice

June 8, 2023 11:19 AM

Evangelist preacher, architect of the Religious Right, political gadfly, broadcaster, and bigot Pat Robertson has died at 93.

A leading face of the modern fundamentalist movement, Robertson helped develop the movement's political ties with the right, as well as use his broadcasting to push his odious ideals onto the American public. As part of his political desires, he ran an ill-fated presidential campaign in '88,as well as supporting various right wing politicians. He also routinely seized on various crises and tragedies to push his bigoted views, such as blaming 9/11 on gay people.

Ryan Bort and Erik Loomis detail Robertson's career in more depth.

posted by NoxAeternum (119 comments total)

And again, this is not something that should be taken neutrally - Robinson spent his life in the service of hurting people for power and fame, and his death should not be used to forget that.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:21 AM on June 8, 2023 [37 favorites]

Also, this Twitter thread gives a good overview of how hateful Robertson was.
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:23 AM on June 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

Rest in piss.
posted by fight or flight at 11:24 AM on June 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

Pat
Robertson
Is
Dead
Everybody

(stolen)
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:24 AM on June 8, 2023 [70 favorites]

I only wish he'd died sooner. Harm reduction.

(source for the PRIDE gag.)
posted by Nelson at 11:24 AM on June 8, 2023 [18 favorites]

Sweet, new gender neutral bathroom.

And during Pride Month!
posted by mrgoat at 11:31 AM on June 8, 2023 [11 favorites]

.
posted by riruro at 11:32 AM on June 8, 2023

I try not to rejoice in people's deaths, but given the damage this guy did just in my own life and family (nevermind, you know, globally), I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pleased to hear this.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 11:34 AM on June 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

donaldglovergood.gif
posted by rhymedirective at 11:35 AM on June 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

I’d say it’s a lovely day but I guess Canada went a little overboard with their funeral pyre, so: it’s a damn good day.
posted by Ryvar at 11:36 AM on June 8, 2023 [7 favorites]

Does the 700 club still air a zillion times a day on Freeform?

I could never understand how such an onerous stipulation, made way back in 1990, could persist through three different owners of the cable network up to and including Disney. Was the guy just that good at negotiating an iron-clad contract, or did these businesses go out of their way not to screw him out of that free airtime?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:38 AM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ninety-three! Is there something about evil that refreshes the mitochondria and telomeres? Longevity researchers take note!
posted by mittens at 11:40 AM on June 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

So now that abortion is no longer legal nationally, I guess we'll never have hurricanes ever again.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:44 AM on June 8, 2023 [26 favorites]

I guess he finally couldn’t bilk enough money out of his followers to keep God from taking him.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:44 AM on June 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

It's moments like this I kinda wish there were an afterlife, and he's there forever burning.
posted by OHenryPacey at 11:47 AM on June 8, 2023 [14 favorites]

Is there something about evil that refreshes the mitochondria

I believe the Echthroi have been known to attack the farandolae that live within them.
posted by The Tensor at 11:47 AM on June 8, 2023 [17 favorites]

Eternal suffering may be excessive. How about enduring all the pain they've caused, and that's enough?

I've wondered whether being both hated and loved is good for the lifespan.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 11:51 AM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'd be a lot more willing to jeer and cheer except for the fact that he won and he lived to see victory and revel in it.

We've got decades of work ahead of us just to undo the worst of the damage he did.
posted by sotonohito at 11:55 AM on June 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

What is the opposite of the "." in the language of remembrance on Metafilter? I'd apply it here.

Curious what is the Darrow reference in the title? Is it super obvious and I just can't think of it?
posted by kensington314 at 11:56 AM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

What is the opposite of the "." in the language of remembrance on Metafilter? I'd apply it here.

With apologies to Vonnegut, I nominate: *
posted by piro at 11:59 AM on June 8, 2023 [28 favorites]

We shouldn't speak ill of the dead.

Hahaha no for real, fuck that guy. It is good that he is dead. He was a giant hateful steaming turd.
posted by bondcliff at 11:59 AM on June 8, 2023 [38 favorites]

Last night, after the cruise ships had left for the day and the town mostly emptied out, a group of friends and I grabbed some take-out from a fish-and-chip shop and gathered by some picnic tables on the dock to celebrate the birthday of a really special person, our friend who is creative, energetic, enthusiastic about the world and all the wonders in it, and able to inspire those enthusiasms in others. She's a talented artist, an illustrator of childrens' books, a driving force behind the groups that organize local dance events, and spends most winters traveling to schools in distant parts of Alaska to participate in educational programs to help children develop their creative talents.

I will be surprised if there are as many people in the world genuinely saddened by the death of Pat Robertson as were gathered around the picnic tables to honor my friend.

I'll be thinking today about how the world can have wonderful people in it who are known only to a few while simultaneously allowing hate-filled frauds to poison the minds of literally millions and I doubt I'll make much sense of it. Robertson is gone and shortly will be forgotten but the damage he did will live on. I'm glad, at least, that we are slowly becoming willing to confront the damage caused by such people and to not sugar-coat the truth about them.
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:59 AM on June 8, 2023 [28 favorites]

Carl Sandburg's poem "To Billy Sunday", written in 1915, is equally pertinent here.
posted by New Frontier at 12:00 PM on June 8, 2023 [13 favorites]

Curious what is the Darrow reference in the title? Is it super obvious and I just can't think of it?

Clarence Darrow is one of the people who is often credited with the quip 'I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.'
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:02 PM on June 8, 2023 [29 favorites]

YESSSSSSSS

truly this has been a gift for Pride month
posted by Kitteh at 12:07 PM on June 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

Curious what is the Darrow reference in the title? Is it super obvious and I just can't think of it?

Per Darrow:

All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.

posted by NoxAeternum at 12:08 PM on June 8, 2023 [13 favorites]

I may be a bad person, (debatable), but I know I will go to my death without having caused all the harm that Mr. Robertson did with his life...
posted by Windopaene at 12:10 PM on June 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

He did far more harm than any good. And in completely unrelated news, Kissinger is still alive and starting his second century on the planet.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 12:10 PM on June 8, 2023 [13 favorites]

Proves there is no God...?
posted by Windopaene at 12:12 PM on June 8, 2023

piro, I like it.

*
posted by kensington314 at 12:14 PM on June 8, 2023

Didn't realize that among all of his BS he also claimed to leg press 2,000 pounds.

https://www.espn.com/sports/news/story?id=2474414
posted by kensington314 at 12:14 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

May his grave become a gender neutral public access bathroom forevermore.
posted by FritoKAL at 12:15 PM on June 8, 2023 [32 favorites]

We shouldn't speak ill of the dead.


I like “We should only speak good of the dead. He’s dead; good.”
posted by TedW at 12:16 PM on June 8, 2023 [15 favorites]

*
posted by The_Auditor at 12:17 PM on June 8, 2023

*
posted by Meatbomb at 12:22 PM on June 8, 2023

Almost any headline you read on this is better if you just add Happy Pride! at the end of it.

For example Rolling Stone's Pat Robertson, Televangelist Who Blamed Gay People for 9/11 and Hurricanes, Dies. Happy Pride! and even glowing coverage like FoxNew's US faith leaders react to Pat Robertson's death: 'Kind and gracious servant'. Happy Pride!
posted by inflatablekiwi at 12:24 PM on June 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

Not Kissinger, but I'll take it.
posted by flabdablet at 12:26 PM on June 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

Ninety-three! Is there something about evil that refreshes the mitochondria and telomeres? Longevity researchers take note!

Exhibit two: Henry Kissinger.

Robertson was hateful and evil. Although I'm a non-believer, I kind of hope he does go into the afterlife, because if the Jesus portrayed in the actual text of the bible has any say in the matter, Robertson is going straight to hell and staying there.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:27 PM on June 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

hope they have that ol' inner circle of HELL nice and warmed up for him
posted by supermedusa at 12:30 PM on June 8, 2023

Hallelujah !
posted by rozcakj at 12:33 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

May his eternal existence be spent in a perpetual Pride parade winding its way down the streets of gold. No rest, no respite, just glitter and feathered boas and EDM.
posted by vverse23 at 12:43 PM on June 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

This clip is quite fitting for the occasion.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:47 PM on June 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

So god is no longer going to cause natural disasters because gay people exist? Our world just got a little bit brighter, and better.
posted by Chuffy at 12:56 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

May his eternal existence be spent in a perpetual Pride parade winding its way down the streets of gold. No rest, no respite, just glitter and feathered boas and EDM.

So you'd send him to heaven?!
posted by chavenet at 1:00 PM on June 8, 2023 [11 favorites]

May his eternal existence be spent in a perpetual Pride parade winding its way down the streets of gold. No rest, no respite, just glitter and feathered boas and EDM.

Given his focus on it, and past records of many homophobes, that might be just what he secretly wants. "Finally! Yes..."
posted by Meatbomb at 1:04 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Is there something about evil that refreshes the mitochondria and telomeres?

Something about being rich and powerful increases the odds.
posted by doctornemo at 1:05 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Remember when Pat Robertson tried to stop the Equal Rights Amendment?

There used to be a t-shirt with this quote on it: "Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."
posted by box at 1:07 PM on June 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

I know a lot about him, but I somehow had no idea this wild cockup was actually a thing that happened: The Bank of Scotland is to cut its links with the US evangelist and businessman Pat Robertson after he said Scotland was "a dark country" overrun by homosexuals.

"In Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are."
- Pat Robertson, 1999
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:08 PM on June 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by Melismata at 1:10 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

It's nice to see him finally join the 700° Club.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:11 PM on June 8, 2023 [31 favorites]

The Air Quality Index here dropped from 300+ to just over 100. Coincidence? I think not.
posted by tommasz at 1:13 PM on June 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

For me, * just looks too happy to apply to dregs like Robertson. Maybe just a - ?
posted by jabo at 1:15 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

A life lived in proud opposition to the heart of Christ's teaching. Here's your epitaph, Pat:

Near Golgotha strolls many a priest,
And in their faces there is pride
That they were flesh-marked by the Beast
By whom the gentle Christ's denied.

-Wilfred Owen
posted by cubeb at 1:16 PM on June 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

I posted this song in the Thatcher death thread and it was deleted despite it actually being about Thatcher. But it applies here pretty well here, too. So I'll just quote the chorus here:

Well I hope I don't die too soon
I pray the lord my soul to save
Oh I'll be a good boy, I'm trying so hard to behave
Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live
Long enough to savor
That's when they finally put you in the ground
I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down

posted by hippybear at 1:20 PM on June 8, 2023 [17 favorites]

mandolin conspiracy: "In Scotland, you can't believe how strong the homosexuals are."
- Pat Robertson, 1999

Dude was a piece of shit in life, but you know that’s facts if you’ve ever seen caber tossing.
posted by dr_dank at 1:21 PM on June 8, 2023 [13 favorites]

So you'd send him to heaven?!

Heaven has house music. Hell is for EDM.
posted by mykescipark at 1:26 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

He didn't look a day over 143
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 1:28 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Great quote seen online: "I bet God has some words for him."
posted by Melismata at 1:29 PM on June 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

And nothing of value was lost.

It's times like this I wish I believed in an afterlife because I would love to know he's suffering for eternity after all the suffering he's caused.
posted by SansPoint at 1:38 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Finally. We still have to live with his legacy of harm, but at least we don't have to actually have to live with him any more.
posted by EvaDestruction at 1:41 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

→ Carl Sandburg's poem "To Billy Sunday", written in 1915, is equally pertinent here.

only a bughouse peddler of second-hand gospel sums Robertson up well
posted by scruss at 1:47 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

My own musing about the longevity of evil: yes, having money and power helps. But also, the narcissistic and sociopathic may have another advantage: the absence of the capacity for empathy, guilt, or shame also means a great absence of the ordinary psychogenic stressors of the human condition. A sociopath never experiences regret, at least not organically; they are like sharks, always going forward, without rumination or reflection. Much of human stress and anxiety derives from doubt, from the capacity of insight, from the anxiety about doing the wrong thing. The narcissist never experiences such pangs; they can sleep soundly atop a mountain of corpses. And they often do.

I don't really believe that psychopaths can be punished in a meaningful way. Which is why I also believe that society would be better if we had mandatory psychiatric screening for all person, with pre-emptive quarantine detention for those that fall below a certain point on the 'dark triad'. Imagine how much easier life would be if all sociopaths were branded and marked as such, and you could reckon them accordingly.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 1:48 PM on June 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

So you'd send him to heaven?!

One person's Heaven is another person's Hell.
posted by mephron at 1:49 PM on June 8, 2023

Wil Wheaton just wrote something astonishingly good.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:52 PM on June 8, 2023 [17 favorites]

Which is why I also believe that society would be better if we had mandatory psychiatric screening for all person, with pre-emptive quarantine detention for those that fall below a certain point on the 'dark triad'. Imagine how much easier life would be if all sociopaths were branded and marked as such, and you could reckon them accordingly.

This is what you believe? Wowza
posted by kensington314 at 1:52 PM on June 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

Wil Wheaton just wrote something astonishingly good.

That apparently I will never see because I block resolution of Facebook domains. Anyone care to summarize?
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:54 PM on June 8, 2023

🗣️
posted by clavdivs at 1:54 PM on June 8, 2023

Anyone care to summarize?

I'll go one better and reprint.

The Wait

Pat Robertson walks past thousands of souls, smugly and full of pride, and cuts to the front of the line at the velvet rope in outside the entrance to Heaven.

The bouncer looks up from their clipboard, observing Robertson with thousands of eyes in a swirling cascade of light.

"Pat Robertson," they say. "We've been expecting you."

Pat Robertson silently congratulates himself. He swells with joy. All those people who died from AIDS, natural disasters, even 9/11 ... they all deserved it. They were sinners!

The bouncer speaks into their headset. "He's here." They listen. "Yep. At the front of the line."

The bouncer turns most of its gaze back to Pat Robertson. "Just wait here for one moment, please."

Pat Robertson steps to one side and waits.

After one thousand years, he begins to wonder if there was a miscommunication.

"Excuse me," he says to the bouncer, "I am Pat --"

"Robertson. Yes. We know. We're just getting everything in order for you. It will just be one more moment."

Tens of thousands of victims of gun violence walk past him and enter Heaven. The population of an entire village, lost in a typhoon that was intensified by climate change, is welcomed. And still he waits.

They file past him, all the people he looked down on. All the people he hurt, directly and indirectly, don't even notice him as they pass. It's like he isn't even there.

Another thousand years pass. Pat Robertson realizes he hasn't had a thing to eat since he died and he is so very hungry.

"Hey!" He shouts at the bouncer. "What's the problem? Don't you know who I am?"

The bouncer rolls half a million eyes at once. "We know exactly who you are."

"Well, alright, then!" Pat Robertson spits out, exasperated, "if you aren't going to help me, get someone here who will!"

The bouncer speaks into its headset again. "We're ready."

A gibbering mass of what is mostly human flesh -- or was, once -- slithers / rolls / flops into Pat Robertson's view. It is covered with mouths that bleed and weep and click their teeth together. Enormous open sores swirl and burst and close and reopen and drip pus and viscera across blistering skin. The faint memory of a smell surrounds it, something like very old cigar smoke and very expensive liquor.

Pat Robertson tries to scream. Arm-like stalks extend from the quivering shape. One resembles a hand at the end of an arm, dripping viscera.

In a flash, it grabs Pat Robertson's hand and shakes it. Something hot and acidic splashes up on his arm, blinds him in one eye. He feels weak. Afraid. Alone. Confused.

Hundreds of mouths try to speak. Dozens of them vomit acrid bile that splashes across his chest. Dozens more silently spit out the lies they've been cursed to repeat for eternity to an audience who will never hear them again.

One mouth speaks clearly. So clearly, it's inside Pat Robertson's head and everywhere else all at once. "I'm Rush Limbaugh," it says. "I'm your new roommate. Come with me."

And that's when Pat Robertson knows. That's when it all hits him, all at once. He's getting everything he deserves.

The line to get into Heaven does not see or hear or notice him, or the Limbeast. They can't hurt anyone, anymore.

The cancerous mass of hate wraps its arm around his shoulder and just like that Pat Robertson finds himself in a vast parody of a cathedral. It's built of bones and flesh and lies. The walls writhe, and he sees that they are not bricks and lathe but bodies wrapped in confederate flags and wearing red hats.

The pews are filled to capacity with the souls of people who followed him in life, hated who he told them to hate. Only their hate is now focused on him, hot and unforgiving. Relentless.

Pat Robertson looks for his companion, but it has vanished. It has left him alone to suffer.

A sermon rises in his chest and pushes against his throat. Pat Robertson is compelled to speak, and as he does each word tears through him like broken glass. He spews his hate and his lies, just as he did in life. Only in this place, he doesn't feel the glee and the satisfaction he always did. No, he feels the pain and the suffering and the agony of every human being who he deliberately hurt. He. Feels. All. Of. It. He tries to stop speaking. Of course, he can not. He can not ever stop.

And Pat Robertson's eternity begins.

- Wil Wheaton, 6/8/2023

posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:59 PM on June 8, 2023 [40 favorites]

Nevermind
posted by hippybear at 2:00 PM on June 8, 2023

Took him long enough.

He made America a worse place and I don't think there's much more that needs to be said. Glad to see the back of him.

!
posted by East14thTaco at 2:02 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Imagine how much easier life would be if all sociopaths were branded and marked as such, and you could reckon them accordingly.

Stop moving, Pat! You're dead you just don't know it yet!
posted by East14thTaco at 2:06 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I want you all to share the mental image I have of Robertson's demise.

When you're 93, you have an inkling that any particular day could be your last on Earth. If you're feeling ill, even more so. (I refuse to accept even a theoretical idea where Robertson was feeling well and chipper for weeks before; I want him to have known that The Day was coming, and soon.)

As someone who spent decade after decade evangelizing his own particularly warped variation of the Gospel, I imagine that Robertson felt at peace with his demise; surely, one such as he would be welcomed into Heaven with open arms? He would step forward at the Pearly Gates, and he would hear "Well done, my good and faithful servant" and enter Paradise. He might have even pictured the process of ascension itself, his soul being lifted from his deathbed up into the crystal blue sky in a beam of radiant light.

Now imagine a man who knows that many, many people considered him hateful, predatory and counter to the will of God. As sure as he is of his life well-lived, a tinge of doubt crosses his mind.

And explodes when his family explains to him that right now, on his last Earthly day, the skies across America are turning dark and murky and there's a distinct aroma of smoke and fire and sulphur in the air.

Your destination is ready and waiting, Mr. Robertson... whenever you're ready.
posted by delfin at 2:16 PM on June 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

May the penis flatteners and butthole spiders ravage him forever.
posted by ActionPopulated at 2:18 PM on June 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

It is a tiny bit unjust that Kissinger continues to breathe, but I have hopes for the next few months!
posted by hippybear at 2:18 PM on June 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

REST IN PISS, MOTHERFUCKER

MAY THE HIDEOUS BARGAIN THE REPUBLICANS MADE WITH YOUR FUCKED-UP HATEFUL SOUTHERN STRAIN OF PSEUDOCHRISTIANITY FOLLOW YOU TO THE GRAVE

WHICH I WILL PISS UPON IF I EVER HAPPEN UPON

STANDING UP

WITH MY TRANS LADY PENIS

IN FULL SIGHT OF GOD AND EVERYONE

AND IF YOU POSITION YOURSELF JUST RIGHT, YOU MIGHT SEE A RAINBOW IN THE SPRAY

GOD'S PROMISE THAT HE'LL TRY TO NOT LET A SHITHEAD LIKE YOU HAPPEN AGAIN
posted by egypturnash at 2:28 PM on June 8, 2023 [35 favorites]

Reunited in hell today with his friend Efrain Rios Montt, genocidal dictator of Guatemala in the early 1980s.

From the Wikipedia page:

Ríos Montt retired from the army and returned to Guatemala in 1977. A spiritual crisis caused him to leave the Roman Catholic Church in 1978 and to join the Iglesia El Verbo ("Church of the Word"), an evangelical Protestant church affiliated with the Gospel Outreach Church based in Eureka, California. Ríos Montt became very active in his new church and taught religion in a school affiliated with it. At the time, his younger brother Mario Enrique was the Catholic prelate of Escuintla.

Efraín Ríos Montt's conversion has been interpreted as a significant event in the ascendency of Protestantism within the traditionally Catholic Guatemalan nation. Ríos Montt later befriended prominent evangelists in the US, including Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.
posted by kensington314 at 2:28 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Only fitting that on the day that Zack Pinsent gets gay-bashed, this mofo buys the farm. (cw: a bloodied but cheerily defiant face)
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 2:28 PM on June 8, 2023

⸸
posted by donpardo at 2:45 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

What do you call Pat Robertson’s grave?

A gender neutral bathroom.

Terra Field
@[e-mail]
posted by hippybear at 3:20 PM on June 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

A thoughtful obituary from Rebecca Watson
posted by flabdablet at 3:30 PM on June 8, 2023

I believe

*

has been used on the blue before when a notable asshole perishes. Let's hope this tradition continues!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:37 PM on June 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

It is a tiny bit unjust that Kissinger continues to breathe, but I have hopes for the next few months!


Can we add Dick Cheney to the waiting list, too, or is that just piling on?
posted by Chuffy at 4:21 PM on June 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

And the Reaper gets a twofer with Reagan's horrible SecInterior James Watt also shuffling off the mortal coil.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:22 PM on June 8, 2023 [13 favorites]

Am I out of line to share Rebecca Watson's marking of his passing?

On edit: oops, double.
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 4:27 PM on June 8, 2023

I saw some social media things a while back about a Cheney/Kissinger ticket for 2024, and had to think a bit to realize it wasn't a total Sith Lord conference.
posted by hippybear at 4:27 PM on June 8, 2023

Even Jesus would like to have a word with Pat...
posted by Windopaene at 4:38 PM on June 8, 2023

And I have more vitriol in James Watt's passing than I do from Robertsons'. We all knew Robertson was a grifting slimebag. Watt was in charge of things...
posted by Windopaene at 4:41 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

We all knew Robertson was a grifting slimebag. Watt was in charge of things...

It's a case of immediate effect vs long game. Robertson, I truly believe, can be traced back to be the grandfather of every anti-trans, anti-gay bill that's been introduced in houses of government all across this country in the past few years.
posted by hippybear at 4:42 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

And for that matter, probably the new laws in Uganda, too.
posted by hippybear at 4:43 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I know, but I expected it from Robertson.

Not so much for Watt, who betrayed everything about his post.
posted by Windopaene at 4:46 PM on June 8, 2023

Well, we can dance on Watt's grave in a different thread, if you wish.
posted by hippybear at 4:48 PM on June 8, 2023

There is no known evidence that he, like his comrade Jerry Falwell, travelled to a Thailand medical clinic to have his sodomy-ravaged colon reconstructed in 1991. But it's important to keep asking questions.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 4:52 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Good gravy, James Watt was not only still alive, but he was also that young during the Reagan administration? My assumptions also pass away.
posted by mollweide at 5:24 PM on June 8, 2023

I hope Pat Robertson is beaten by 700 clubs in hell

Just kidding there's no hell. And also now there's no Pat Robertson. Win win.

tammy golden @tammygolden
posted by conscious matter at 6:02 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

James Watt must have been coasting on that sweet steam engine money.
posted by dr_dank at 6:03 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Good.

Bye.
posted by Pouteria at 6:30 PM on June 8, 2023

we can dance on Watt's grave in a different thread, if you wish

I have no intention of doing so, as my idea of fun does not include sinking past the knees in piss mud.
posted by flabdablet at 6:33 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

& _{(penis-flattened ".")}

Not that it matters, but I do not believe all who are of Pat Robertson's ilk are sociopaths, nor do I believe they believe they knowngly feel hate for those they preach against. They merely have faith in a God whose inferred behavior qualifies as sociopathic. And more damning to them, they are judging others while uncritically assuming they pass God's judgement.

I rember a particular assertion from a discussion with someone years ago. "I don't hate anyone! They're just wrong, they're out of touch with God and they're going to hell. I can't let that happen, and I can't let them take anybody else with them. I don't want anybody to burn forever! How is that sociopathic? How am I hating on anyone?"

On the other hand, a parishioner telling a chronically-ill sufferer that if onlty they'd get themselves right with God, He would heal them? Empathy meter's definitely flashing 'E' there, and Smug is at 'F', but wouldn't sociopathy here be to believe that and not advise the sufferer?

Regardless, does the line between loving disagreement and hateful persecution matter? Only if a difference in effect/harm can be measured, I imagine. I haven't seen any such difference in effect/harm so far.
posted by zaixfeep at 7:30 PM on June 8, 2023

James Watt was just about the first guy I ever heard that basically said "We can trash the earth all we want because Jesus'll fix it -- clean up and restore Earth to an Eden-like state when He comes back."

I grew up in a fairly fundamentalist community and I heard the part about restoral but it was usually accompanied by, "Having dominion doesn't mean that we have a license to destroy what He gave us," usually combined with an anti-nuclear-war message. _{(Cue John Cleese saying 'you're weird'.)}
posted by zaixfeep at 7:40 PM on June 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

*
posted by kirkaracha at 7:42 PM on June 8, 2023

Good.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:54 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I remember him instructing the CIA to assasinate Hugo Chavez. (Venezuelan President)
posted by Narrative_Historian at 1:27 AM on June 9, 2023

*
posted by wicked_sassy at 3:23 AM on June 9, 2023

I wish they could live-stream his soul’s arrival in hell.

*
posted by Thorzdad at 3:36 AM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Some quip I saw this morning was commenting on how Pat died, and then shortly afterward Trump was indicted, and a couple of other state-level malfeasance was punished in a couple places; they joked that maybe Robertson's dying was finally able to close the Hellmouth that got opened when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:58 AM on June 9, 2023 [8 favorites]

Loomis also put out an obit for Watt, with something...special he had been saving for the occasion.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:24 AM on June 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Moms Mabley said that you should never say anything bad about the dead. He's dead good!
posted by DJZouke at 5:02 AM on June 9, 2023

He's been dead in his heart for years: this is just the body shutting down.

I hope evangelicals don't make him a hero now.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:47 AM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Pat Robertson famously said that "Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

I am currently writing a magical realism fantasy novel in which a woman leaves her husband, becomes a practicing witch, has lots of hot unmarried sex that is far superior to anything she had with her ex, and gets into politics.

I was already really enjoying writing it, but it'll have a whole new extra frisson now that I realize my vision for the novel is also Pat Robertson's worst nightmare.
posted by orange swan at 6:23 AM on June 9, 2023 [9 favorites]

Ninety-three! Is there something about evil that refreshes the mitochondria and telomeres? Longevity researchers take note

When you have no conscience or empathy, you have much less stress. Therefore, you live longer. Also, see Kissinger, Cheney, and many others.
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 7:54 AM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Aw, I feel so sad about this.

No, wait. What's the opposite of that?

\o/ \o/ \o/
posted by blurker at 6:33 PM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

*
posted by The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas at 7:10 PM on June 9, 2023

I was already really enjoying writing it, but it'll have a whole new extra frisson now that I realize my vision for the novel is also Pat Robertson's worst nightmare.

Of course you can dedicate the completed novel however you like, but you could do worse than "Dedicated to the memory of P.R."
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:10 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Okay, you know that old urban legend about how famous people always die in groups of three?

Pat Robertson and James Watt now have their third, and what a fitting third it is.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:37 PM on June 10, 2023

I'm OK with him having lasted marginally longer than the other two pricks. He was, after all, responsible for many fewer deaths than either.
posted by flabdablet at 3:45 PM on June 10, 2023

While I'm certain this won't be the end of the thread (though, dear Cosmos, I wish no one ever thought of him again) I want to highlight hippybear saying :

Robertson, I truly believe, can be traced back to be the grandfather of every anti-trans, anti-gay bill that's been introduced in houses of government all across this country in the past few years.

That's putting it lightly, as I suspect "past few years" should be phrased "past few decades" (no disrespect to hippybear)
posted by revmitcz at 12:21 AM on June 11, 2023

Seen on FB:

“Yes Pat, but it’s a dry heat.”
-Rush Limbaugh, June 2023
posted by TedW at 5:24 AM on June 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

It won't be a dry heat.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 1:39 PM on June 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Something seen on Facebook; I'll link to it, but I'll also repost because it is just that wonderful and I don't want to risk anyone missing it. The person posting only says that his "dear friend K" wrote it.

Ruminations on the death of Pat Robertson

I don’t like to think
About Pat Robertson going to hell.
That lets him off too easy.
I like to think about
Pat Robertson finding himself
In a heaven he never believed
Would exist.

Where Divine is reading in drag
To the children murdered at
Sandy Hook and Ulvalde.
While Edie Windsor
And Gertrude Stein drink coffee
In the breakfast nook
talking politics with Harvey Milk.

Where Matthew Shepard relaxes by
A stream, reading poetry to
A nameless young man whose family
Never claimed his body
when he died
Of AIDS.

Where the music plays loudly
Welcoming dancers from the Pulse
And Club Q to the floor where they
Twirl and vogue with
All the murdered trans women of color
Whose names we never knew.

Where Jesus puts his arm around
Pat Robertson’s shoulders and
Drapes them with a rainbow feather boa.
And, gesturing around him says
Come, meet my disciples.

posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:02 AM on June 15, 2023 [2 favorites]