Saturday, October 9, 2010

Bigotry & Elitism...the plumage of the common hoplophobe...

Now and again, I'm asked why I get so twitchy about gun laws and such - after all, Washington isn't nearly as bad as some states. Well, since folks like this [Ed. 10/13/10 - seems the original post, in a display of hoplophobic courage, has been removed. Mirrored here.]
tend to be the ones promulgating them - what can I say?

As a gay man that came to adulthood in the eighties, I've *seen* bigotry. And elitism. And the unreasoning fear and hatred that underlie them.

Whether it comes from the Falwell's and the Craswell's or the Kennedy's and Obama's, it's the same corpse-like rotting stench - "me and mine, and those *just like us* are special...and the rest of you are just not quite human because and as a result need supervision at best, devolving to expendable, and finally worthy of extermination as a public menace."

A phenomena I have yet to explain to my satisfaction is that in the Libertarian & Conservative communities, tolerance and "so what? how is that relevant to our joint goals" is increasingly the response to gay folk in the mix...and the frenetic hatred and fear-mongering of Fred Phelps and the "Focus on Family" loons is ever more rejected...while at the same time, the obvious bigotry and hatred on the liberal left of all those that don't think precisely like them is clutched ever more closely to their breast - even to the point of advocating violence against law-abiding citizens.

Mr. Baird, if Arizona so frets you - move back to California, or perhaps to Illinois or Massachusetts. Or even the storied lands of Europe. Don't be the Ugly Californian that moves to another land or locale only to insist on it being a clone of what you left behind.

Related Article: View from NW Idaho

3 comments:

  1. Why do I think that Mr. Baird's whining about 'nasty comments' from gun people translates as, 'people disagreed with me and they were using all that scary logic and reason and stuff!'?

    I don't know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me that a leftist shut down his comments because he couldn't break the argument.

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  2. Why do I think that Mr. Baird's whining about 'nasty comments' from gun people translates as, 'people disagreed with me and they were using all that scary logic and reason and stuff!'?

    You'd probably be wrong about that. In my experience the unfortunately typical reaction of the vocal pro-gun community tends to the nasty and insulting. We are, unfortunately, often our own worst enemies.

    I understand the impulse. Gun owners are the victims of what Dr. Michael S. Brown has characterized as "a decades-long slow-motion hate crime." People are understandably angry. Still, writing venom-filled comments isn't helpful.

    If you read to the end of the piece you'll see that a calm, reasoned response actually might have done some good.

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  3. Original post is pulled, but it is mirrored in this post on another blog: http://wethearmed.com/index.php/topic,11230.0.html

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