Monthly Archives: October 2012
Danger, overload!
So I had at least four things I wanted to blog about today & in the near future, was having an awful time figuring out which to start with. Then a quick shopping trip turned into a several hours long ordeal, plus I watched part of the debate.
Seriously, that debate could have been replaced by two puppets shouting “Is not!, “Is too!” at each other. I’m starting to think that live debates are obsolete and we should instead have dueling websites. Which can provide hyperlinks to back up the shit they say. Sure, it would take days instead of hours, but at least we could actually learn something from them!
Anyway, it was 102 degrees out there today, and I’m just overwhelmed. So I’m going to lay in bed with music and a book. Better blogging tomorrow, I hope.
California gets one right.
Took me a while to get around to this, but better late than never. As of January 1, it will be illegal in California to inflict “gay cure” conditioning on people under the age of 18. The article I linked there calls it “therapy”, personally I prefer “psychological abuse” for that particular strain of cruelty.
There’s not much to say about it that I haven’t said already. But here’s another link to Beyond Exgay, just in case you needed to be reminded that real people suffer under that shit.
The comments on that news article are depressing. I really don’t understand why so many people think it’s so important to treat gays like shit.
Honestly I’m a little surprised it was legal to put a kid into this, it’s obviously child abuse.
An awful metaphor
So, this is the post I mentioned on the Blasphemy Day one. I was bouncing around TVTropes, as I sometimes do, and I found myself following a link to Fundies Say The Darndest Things. Now I generally avoid FSTDT, since it’s more likely to fill me with anger and despair than anything else. In fact I really should have learned by now, I’m far better off with sites like Raising My Rainbow since reading that tends to make me smile.
Pretty obvious now that I think about it. Stories of a gender nonconforming child with a loving family determined to let him be who he wants to be: Good. Collection of the worst quotes made by people who appear to be a danger to themselves and others, many of whom seem to have untreated mental illnesses, which is usually treated as a freakshow for people to laugh at: Bad. And yet I just couldn’t stop myself from clicking the link.
So, here’s the quote that started this post. It’s from 2006, hardly breaking news. As I thought about it, I realized that I had to write about it, and then as my mind branched off into different tracks I decided to do the Blasphemy Day post first. I will reproduce it here below the fold.
Political correctness gone mad?
Last post I mentioned “political correctness” and how I wish the phrase would die out. Here’ s a good example why I feel that way. Consider this billboard.
This is not “politically incorrect”. It is fucking racist. The proper term for it, the term I would like to see people use for this sort of shit, is not some weak, watered-down phrase like “politically incorrect”, implying that it merely toes a boundary of social taboos or something; the proper term is “fucking racist”, because it uses people as a punchline.
Using disenfranchised people as a punchline is at least a little bit more than toeing a social boundary. At best it’s spitting on people you’re already stepping on.
I want to see the term “fucking racist” used by everyone, blogs, newsrooms, political spokescreatures. I suppose I could allow the “fucking” part to be optional, but I think you’re really undermining the impact if you leave it out.
As I said before, I’m a believer in free speech. This should absolutely be legal. But that doesn’t, and shouldn’t free it from criticism. As long as this billboard speaks for him, Scott Brown is clearly a racist. It marks his racism the same way calling someone a “nigger” would.
This is not political correctness gone mad. This is recognizing that the things you say also say things about you. If you respond to this by claiming that your freedom of expression is being stifled by political correctness what I will hear is childish whining that people are actually listening to what you say rather than simply agreeing with you.
And that’s why I want the phrase “politically correct” to fade away, because these days when I encounter it it’s not funny anymore. It’s almost always someone whining that when they say or do bigoted shit, people call them a bigot. The phrase has almost become code for a rallying cry to come defend the privilege, defend the good old boy network, defend the fucking patriarchy, defend white supremacy. Keep the rich white guys in charge by defending anything they say, no matter how awful, by dismissing criticism of it as excessive political correctness. Fuck that.
I don’t know what’s worse, that someone thought blatant racism was a good campaign strategy, or that in some parts of this country it might actually work.
The Adventures of Leo Tarvi 