“Twitchy” is one of the sharpest and most entertaining news sites on the net — it’s a Drudge Report for Twitter; I visit it regularly. From time to time, though, it makes a mistake. Yesterday it reported that Elton John is boycotting Dolce & Gabana clothes, and calls him a hypocrite. Though I’m not sure he needs my help, I feel compelled to rise to Mr. John’s defense.
John took umbrage at Domenico Dolce referring to kids conceived through in vitro fertilization as “synthetic children.” Dolce, who cofounded Dolce and Gabbana in the 80s, says he is “not convinced by those” he calls “children of chemicals.” In vitro fertilization has let a lot of people who couldn’t otherwise have had kids have kids; really, it’s a miracle of science. But even if you agree with Mr. Dolce, it’s hard to blame anyone for leaping to the defense of his children. Mr. John’s kids were conceived in vitro, and his call to boycott begins, “How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic.’”
Twitchy maintains that Dolce wasn’t “disparaging anyone’s children.” It may be right. But John is no hypocrite; it’s important to know that, unlike many celebrities, he is not a knee-jerk boycotter. As Twitchy points out, he played at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding, and he has refused to cancel concerts in Israel. He’s also not a pushover — during a concert in Beijing two years ago, Mr. John dedicated his performance “to the spirit and talent of Ai Weiwei,” a Chinese dissident artist. According to the Guardian, the dedication got John questioned by the Chinese police, and it appears to have got him banned from future tours in China. After the Ai Weiwei tribute, China’s culture minister announced that, henceforth, only artists who — unlike John — have university degrees would be allowed to perform in the People’s Republic.
The fact is, on the celebrity scale of conscientious objectors, Elton John is a mensch — and conservatives should appreciate that. Lots of John’s peers have buckled to anti-Israel pressure; virtually none has had the guts to go to Communist China and endorse a democracy advocate. I’m a big fan of Twitchy, but they should be careful to reserve their barbs for men who deserve barbing.