The NFL Commencement Speaker Almost Had a Good Point

Harrison Butker can tell something is off about how we think about work. He just thinks it's all women's fault.

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Last week, a football player gave a commencement speech that made a lot of people pretty upset. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. 

Commencement speeches are pretty minor skirmishes in the grand scheme of culture wars. All of the media punditry hair pulling about these poor college students walking out on Jerry Seinfeld or missing their big graduation commencement speech strikes me as very stupid. I do not remember a single word of my graduation commencement speech, nor do I remember who gave it. I asked my wife if she remembered who gave her commencement speech and she did, because it was Paul Ryan. I asked if she remembered what he said, and she did not, because she left in the middle to go get a hot dog. 

But there’s been a weird pattern in these agro Christian guys’ “we must take back culture for cool tough men like me” speeches lately. I noted a few weeks ago that Mark Driscoll of all people was in the orbit of a good point in his own recent infamous speech, but his views on gender kept him from landing the plane. Something similar is happening with this football guy’s commencement speech.