The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer found himself talking to a dial tone after CNN’s Carol Costello hung up on him during an interview in which he claimed the “Mix It Up at Lunch Day” anti-bullying program promoted “the gay lifestyle” and reaffirmed his previous musings about the Nazis being gay.
After Costello asked him about “Mix It Up at Lunch Day,” which the AFA vehemently opposes, Fischer launched into his sermon on the mount of stupidity and bigotry:
“[W]hat parents need to understand, this is about pressuring public schools and students in public schools to accept homosexuality as a normal, healthy alternative to heterosexuality. It’s interesting to me they’re doing this on October 30, the day before Halloween, and what this program is, it’s like poisoned Halloween candy. Somebody takes a candy bar, injects it with cyanide, the label looks fine, it looks innocuous, it looks fine, it’s not until you internalize it that you realize how toxic it is. And we want parents to be aware that any program that any program that comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center is going to be toxic to their students’ moral health.
Costello then got into Fischer’s favorite topic, Nazi homosexuality, quoting statements he made in September 2010:
“Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers, they were his enforcers, they were his thugs. And Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after. So he surrounded himself, virtually all of the Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were male homosexuals.”
By the time Fischer gets into defending that load of crap, Costello’s had enough and flushes it and him down the drain: “That’s just not true. Thanks for your sharing your views, I guess.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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2eo
How aren’t these terrorists of the AFA in prison?
They loathe the United States, they hate the people, they commit violence against their citizens and they’re packed with violent radicals and rapists.
Jail them.
dellisonly
@2eo:
Because as much as i fully disagree with Fischer he has the right to free speech
Luci
@dellisonly: Freedom of speech is one thing, inciting hatred that is contributing to violence and suicides is another.
2eo
@dellisonly: If it was an islamic group saying the same about christians they would be in jail and their group put on the terrorist watchlist.
Free speech doesn’t grant the rights to alter factual history and incite violence and condoning genocide against a percentage of the populace.
MACDONALDBANK
Where is the LOVE?
Where is the compassion that religion should reflect upon the gay community?
Being gay is something one is born as … and something that a person should be proud of …!
Perhaps its time to embrace all the members of the gay community with respect and dignity!
Religious Republican zombies are coming out of the woodwork — descending on America! Scary or what?
Romney; would be the equivalent to the Taliban — in his treatment to the gay community — with his extreme cultist attitude … if ever elected!
Religion; is the biggest bully on the block!
IRS codes prohibit churches from endorsing or opposing political candidates!
The IRS … should immediately tax churches — that break that rule!
Churches — are opposing gay rights — based on a cult! Tax them or shut them down!
Roman Catholic; Baptist & Mormon churches who were involved in Proposition 8; against the gay community – should be shut down immediately and/or have their tax exemption status revoked!
Church manses; mansions; corporate jets and Christian college campuses … should face taxes or be shut down — based on corruption and/or being involved in cultism!
Mormons are nothing more than homophobic bigots and lustful religious lunatics; who harvested women … attempting to scrutinize themselves; into eternity – without success!
Obama should be praised for standing up for human rights … by supporting the gay community! To see the religious lunatics try to manipulate government and our lives – is
shameful.
Romney as President; would mean the darkest & meanest period in the United States of America’s history. Homophobic — witchcraft would rule the government from Rome & Salt Lake City …!
BJ McFrisky
@2eo: The guy is nutso, to be sure, but his speech is hardly a call to arms against us. He’s just bloviating to his own crowd, like when some on this site claim that conservatives want us dead. Just because someone wants it to be true doesn’t make it so.
AlexL
This is not a “free speech” issue. The government did not throw Bryan Fischer in jail for his comments (which is what free speech is all about – it does not absolve you from people thinking you are an a**hole or not wanting to do business with you or employ you). She hung up as it is a news show that would like to have a value-added contributor on rather than a nutcase spewing mis-facts.
2eo
@BJ McFrisky: I hear one of your friends had an accident two nights ago, shame that.
jwrappaport
@AlexL: It may not be a First Amendment issue, but the comments here certainly implicate free speech more broadly. Though I loathe the AFA and other similarly backward hate groups, I cannot conceive of hate speech laws that would not be ripe for abuse should the political climates change (and how they do). If free speech is to mean anything at all, it must protect that speech which we find most offensive, much as we hate it and wish it didn’t exist. Indeed, it was not so long ago that most of us would have found ourselves on the side of the fence uttering ideas that would have been incredibly offensive by the majority.
It is for that very reason that we afford the protection of the law to the AFA, WBC, Neo-Nazis, and all their ilk: if we deny them that right to free speech, on what ground can we expect to stand should our views become so unpopular as theirs? We give them the benefits and protections of the law for our own safety’s sake, not theirs.
I am very self-conscious of the implied slippery-slope I am clinging to, but I have never been shown an example from history where censorship was used responsibly by a government. Indeed, I think history very well vindicates my position that censorship, even when well-intended, is a raw act of tyranny against the most basic element of a free society that will necessarily have long-lasting negative consequences for that society. I think our Founders gave free speech primacy in the Bill of Rights for a reason: it is the sine qua non of a free country; it is the very motor of dialectic and generator of all culture. Indeed, it is the fount from which all other freedoms flow and without which all other freedoms are meaningless.
I am very open to being persuaded that hate speech laws can be drafted in such a way that does not place us all in their crosshairs, but I just don’t see how that could be so.
TONYC
KUDOS to the interviewer…more people should not get “air time” for they hatred,their Nazi politics etc…he scared the shit out of me, that he exists with that attitude..not everyone with a thought ,like his, is allowed “air time” …citing a Historian’s book, has nothing to do with the “bullying” that continues every day for these children..I DO believe in “the Freedom of Speech” but this is all setup and to attack a certain element of society , make examples by pulling up the Nazis..this shit would never be allowed in Israel….he’s got freedom of speech, he LIVES HERE in this free country called the USA!..Tommy Jefferson…you can NOW, “turn over in your grave” AGAIN!
marc sfe
from another website, which makes me angry and very sad….. “The New York Times reports that about 200 schools have canceled their participation in Mix It Up Day due to pressure from the AFA.”
Charlie in Charge
Carol that was amazing. Thank you!
iBLOW
I find that HILARIOUS since gays were put in concentration camps too with the Jews and were experimented on LMFAO
Aidan8
This is not a freedom-of-speech issue. This is a journalism issue. And I think it’s interesting that BJ McFrisky logs on to comment not on the substance of this idiot’s comments against the LGBT community, but to essentially apologize by false-comparison. Keep it up BJ…. it’s one thing to be conservative, it’s another to be an apologist.
dvlaries
How about not giving insanity a microphone in the first place…?
defsteve
@dvlaries: I think calling Mr. Fischer insane is offensive to the insane population as a whole. Let’s not confuse insanity with being a total and complete A-hole.
It’s about time someone hung up on these conservatives. Tired of all the air time they get, it could make it seem like their views are a reasoned, legitimate alternative.
MK Ultra
Ummm excuse me? When did freedom of speech mean the right to a soapbox on national tv? I have opinions. Cnn hasn’t invited me on. I guess my free speech is being violated!
jwrappaport
CNN’s actions clearly don’t implicate First Amendment issues (as there is no government restriction here), but I think they reasonably invite a conversation into hate-speech and whether there should or should not be laws restricting it.
@TONYC: You ignore the tension inherent in laws restricting ant-gay hate speech, but preserving our right to gay pride parades and what could logically be termed the willful and open denigration of a religious group (e.g., WBC among others). They can’t say “God Hates Fags,” but I get to say “Fred Phelps and his followers are inbred morons whose deaths would make the world a better, more humane place”? Why do they get muzzled but not us? Not that I don’t like that result practically speaking, but it is, by definition, inequitable treatment under the law, a proposition for which I refuse to stand given how much I rely on it to buttress my arguments for gay rights. I say take the gloves us – let them say what they want and let us answer in kind.
AlexL
I don’t really get any of your comments in this thread. I think TONYC and I believe that the AFA can say whatever they want – we just don’t have to respect it or put it on the air as part of a journalistic investigation. They CAN say “God Hates Fags” – nobody gets thrown in jail for it and we have the right to call them idiots for saying it. They can get fired for it just as I can get fired if I told my boss I thought his wife was ugly or he was stupid (she is not and he is not but, anyway) and this is legitimate without violating “free speech.” I don’t see anyone in this thread advocating restrictive hate speech laws to make it a crime for Bryan or Fred or anyone else to say whatever nonsense they want to say. I agree- they can say whatever they like but I don’t have to listen nor do the viewers of CNN. It is not a two sided debate worthy of being played out in public or private just as a “debate” as to whether or not the moon is made of rock or cheese would not be worthy of a CNN segment.
jwrappaport
@AlexL: It seemed to me that TONYC brought up Israel’s hate-speech laws as an example to which we should aspire. I could have misread, but I think that was his implication, i.e., that Bryan Fischer’s speech should not be allowed here, hence my counterargument.
Jesse
Yes we do have a right to “Free Speech”, however there are limits. You face charges for yelling “Fire” in a crowded movie theater and causing panic. Personally I think hate speech, especially if it encourages violence, should also fall into the same category
jwrappaport
@Jesse: Sorry, the fire in the theater example comes from an early 20th century Supreme Court case (Schenck v. United States), whose rule is no longer good law. The Clear and Present Danger rule has been effectively killed by subsequent Court decisions, and the First Amendment has been greatly expanded in the time since. Under the current case law, it is not enough that speech merely encourage violence, it must be intended to cause imminent and likely lawless action. It is a much stricter test that would almost certainly not be satisfied by Bryan Fischer and his goons at the AFA.
I implore you not to be falsely comforted by the notion of censorship, good as its immediate practical effects may be. It is too blunt an instrument for what we really want: equal rights before the law and the right to live with dignity in our society. That will not come by muzzling our opponents, but rather continuing to appeal to people’s innate senses of justice and fairness, and by convincing them of (and not forcing them to accept) the legitimacy of our position. Time and history will ultimately silence the AFA and the others, not the law.
JOHN 1957
Getting back to the Gay Nazi comment, where in the world did he get his information from? Look up history and what was done to the gays during that time in the concentration camps and the horrific torture and deaths they went through. He’s as bright as the KKK who loves hating jews but claim they burn the cross in honor of Jesus who happened to be a Jewish man! His statement is retarded!
Upon the rise of Adolf Hitler, gay men and, to a lesser extent, lesbians, were two of the numerous groups targeted by the Nazi Party and were ultimately among Holocaust victims. Beginning in 1933, gay organizations were banned, scholarly books about homosexuality, and sexuality in general, were burned, and homosexuals within the Nazi Party itself were murdered. How could he not know this when even documentaries with survivors have been made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_homosexuals_in_Nazi_Germany_and_the_Holocaust