Denis Leary: Victim of the Politically Correct

Leary strikes back at critics

Denis Leary is an asshole, and he's proud of it.

In fact, throughout his comedy career Leary has built his reputation insisting that American citizens have the right to be assholes.

Leary seemed to have earned that label recently as his recent book, Why We Suck, was claimed to have taken Don Imus-like shots at autism.

As he pointed out on last night's Daily Show with Jon Stewart, however, the truth is actually quite different.

In fact, Leary address parents who seek autism diagnoses for their children.

"For me, the reason for writing the chapter was because I know people who have children with autism, and I'm offended by people actually trying to seek out a low-level diagnosis for their kids because they're too lazy to deal with their kids' behavior," Leary said.

Leary's alleged outrage stems from a single paragraph from the book -- one taken out of context by the New York Post. Yet that paragraph is accompanied by tales about autistic children Leary has known. He notes that autistic children are actually "smart and industrious, not lazy and stupid".

What Leary actually attacks is the diagnosis, not the condition.

Yet intellectually dishonest douchebags like the Boston Herald's Peter Gelzinis that the context in which Leary wrote his words is irrelevant. Galzinis insists that Leary is "twisting the truth", insisting on reducing the matter to Leary's choice of words.

Admittedly, referring to autistic children as "autistic fucking children" is more than just a little uncouth. But those who've bothered to get familiar with Leary's comedy know that Leary's disgust is not at autistic children, but at those trying to abuse an autism diagnosis in order to make excuses for their children.

In fact, it's individuals such as Gelzinis who are twisting the truth -- insisting that Leary's lowbrow brand of plebian humour justifies manufacturing an outrage in order to discredit him.

For his own part, Leary is willing to apologize for the offense that his words have caused.

“I have nothing but admiration and sympathy for the people I know who are raising children with autism. In fact, they were the inspiration for the chapter I wrote about the subject,” Leary insisted. “To them - and to all parents of children with autism - I apologize for any pain the out-of-context quotes from my book may have caused.”

All this while individuals like Gelzinis refuse to acknowledge their own role in the entire affair.

Denis Leary was the individual most likely to come under fire for being politically incorrect. It's just too bad that his critics won't admit the extent to which they've twisted words, and twisted the truth.