The proper way to treat a minor episode like this would be for someone to explain to Dye that he works for people who want as big an audience as possible, so he needs to be extra careful not to alienate anyone by talking politics, or social issues, or by making jokes or even mild references to any minorities that have been designated too sensitive to criticism, real, implied or imagined.

Poor, dumb Dye had his publicist draft a competent grovel to avoid his slapdown, but of course it isn’t enough for the mob…

All that for those barely coherent remarks in a live exchange?

The point of this Kabuki is for NASCAR to disavow toxic masculinity and hopefully get more female and LGBTQ fans. If Dye has to lose a lot of money and be used as a sacrificial lamb, so be it, I guess.

Nevertheless, he didn’t cheer the death of Charlie Kirk, or shout “From the river to the sea!” or say that all he had to do to attract women was to “grab them by the pussy.” What he did was give a metaphorical sacred cow group an opportunity to show its power and get the scalp of a minor celebrity who wandered where he isn’t allowed to go.