First they came for the Communists. Then the feminists. Then the hippies. And then, yes, America’s culture war came for the gays. But wouldn’t you know it: Despite Prop 8, those state constitution amendments, and Sean Hannity, the gays have just about won! “The gays have nearly completed their vile mission,” jokes
Mark Morford. “They are everywhere. They are almost normal. Gay marriage, the last civil right, is now less an impossible dream and far more a foregone conclusion. It’s merely a matter of waiting for bitter old homophobes to die off.”
Which means, despite Frank Rich declaring the culture wars dead (or at least too expensive for America), we will rise up and find a new enemy to persecute!
America always needs some fringe group to go after. To explain why society is bankrupt. Why marriages are failing. Why children are having children. Why Sarah Palin continues to, well, continue.
Morford throws out some suggestions: Vegans! Hindus! Journalists! Old people! The rich!
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But what about: Fat people! Skinny people! Poor people!
And true American classics like: The Jews! The Irish! Mexicans!
Surely we can come together as one nation and find a more unfortunate class of people who deserve all our hate. The ladies on QVC can’t handle it all.
Jeff
I vote for the RELIGIOUS!
Angelo Ventura
I, too!
Paul
Eh. Before any well meaning people read “Gay marriage, the last civil right, is now less an impossible dream and far more a foregone conclusion.” and forget that in many states–and in the U.S. military–you can still be fired just for being gay, let’s not call gay marriage “the last civil right.” There’s plenty left to be accomplished.
Qjersey
“And true American classics like: The Jews! The Irish! Mexicans!”
Yep, next it’s immigrants, particularly brown skinned Latinos/Hispanics.
Alan down in Florida
Hopefully it will be fundamentalists, of any stripe.
Joe Blow
These children should be removed from their home…I am guessing they are the spawn of one of the Westboro wackos. In NJ a couple lost their kids because one was named Adolf Hitler and the other one Aryan something or other. This is hate speech and also endangering the welfare of a child.
strumpetwindsock
Often I wish we could, but we can’t.
If I could remove every kid I saw whom I thought was under bad influence, about a third of the parents I know would lose their kids.
Sadly the rules are that you can only remove kids if they are being abused, not receiving proper care, or being put in danger.
Fortunately too…. because if child and family services had that kind of discretion the first people they would turn it against would be US.
By contrast, you can bet groups like Westboro have a lot of legal ammunition to fight seizures that poor, non-white single parents do not.
Also, think of the logistics. Where would you put all these kids? Many foster homes are overloaded, underfunded, and also a source of abuse and bad influence.
Look at what happened with the polygamist seizures last year. Probably a lot of terrified and traumatized children who eventually wound up back with their families .
Again, I agree with the sentiment, but it’s not a strategy that will work – legally or morally.
bb
hipsters
rogue dandelion
@Qjersey: we really need to do a better job of integrating the current civil rights battles for full citizenship- latinos/ (and other minorities with high immigrant populations) should be natural allies in making sure all people are equal under the law and not placed in an permanent under class.
Brianna
“It’s merely a matter of waiting for bitter old homophobes to die off.”
I’m sick of hearing people say this as if it is such a black and white issue. Just wait for them to die. Oh, please. These same people are raising children to think the way they do. People aren’t going to automatically be accepting of gays just because they grew up in the 90’s-00’s. Newsflash…society is still homophobic, and homophobic people often raise homophobic children.
I also agree with Paul on his comment that SSM is not the “last civil right.” Christ, people are clueless.
strumpetwindsock
@Brianna:
Agreed, and in fact I think the new generation is a bit further to the right than us and those who came a bit before us.
The notion that the new generation will naturally be more open-minded and progressive is completely fucked. If that were the case we would have reached peace and perfection long before now.
Read your history. Do you not think there have been progressive movements in the past (even hundreds of years ago) which were swept over when the pendulum went in the other direction?
BrianZ
@strumpetwindsock: While the notion that political and social moods certainly pendulum as you and Brianna are suggest it isn’t as if we consistently undo all the progress made on each swing and not all progress is made on the liberal swing, either. By your notions we should be just about ready to again legalize slavery and strip women of the right to vote. Perhaps you can provide me with a modern example of this? I certainly can’t think of one.
While it is valid to observe that homophobes tend to teach their offspring their attitudes, isn’t it just as valid to point out that those same offspring are likely to encounter openly gay classmates, co-workers, family, etc and will also base their opinions on those encounters? It’s a rather simplistic view to suggest that just because your parents were bigots you are going to be a bigot, just as it is overly simplistic in suggesting that all homophobes are old.
strumpetwindsock
@BrianZ:
I don’t entirely disagree with you.
I think in the long term we have made steady progress. But I do think the notion that we are more enlightened and progressive than those who came before us is an illusion.
And I do think that kids these days are a little less free-thinking than we were when we were kids (and I’m sure someone 10 years older than me who grew up in the 60s would notice an even further swing toward lemming-like behaviour.
As well, I did say “a bit further to the right”, though I do take your point.
Modern examples? easy. The gap between rich and poor and the amount we are having to work to make a living has only grown in the past 30 years.
I don’t know about the U.S., but the pressure of that has been responsible for turning back a lot of the benefits won by trade unions, and in particular for women workers. Farmer’s organizations, small businesses, small communities all have suffered as power has shifted higher up in government and into the hands of big business.
Look at your Patriot Act, or similar anti-privacy laws in Britain.
Universities used to be centres of free thought. Now anyone who can afford to go to one has to keep their focus on getting a job to pay off loans.
So yes, there is plenty of evidence that we have lost ground since 80s, and a lot of social policy has been sacrificed because we “can’t afford it”.
Other examples – compare your country in the New Deal era and the McCarthy Era of the 50s, or look at Germany from the late 20s to the 30s.
Again, I agree that over time the world has gotten steadily better, but there have been plenty of times that progress has reversed.