On Paths to the Future: Old-School or Fabulous?
Billvon said:
Same way people betray you, although that is generally learned during childhood.
Would you agree, then, with the proposition that the only reason your dog doesn't actually, literally stab you in the back is that it doesn't have opposable thumbs?
Are the pitbull incidents the result of careful strategic planning by the dog?
When was the last time a shih-tzu took out a contract?
Sometimes I think this is a primary source of our disagreement on several issues. It's not that I don't see your point, but, rather, it stopped being useful to me when the last train departed Clarksville.
To wit, please note the line about the dog banging your best friend. The underlying point still holds. Yes, I see your point,
but even such, the problem still wouldn't be the dog.
I find our neighbor's dog analogy incorrect; any pretense of useful application only makes the situation worse. And, to the one, it's true; we don't call women bitches because it is an inappropriate way to treat another person. I would not contest that.
But, at the same time, someone has to speak up for the dogs. The analogy only works as far as, say,
Monopoly and chess being the same because they're both board games.
Funny thing is, if people really believed in such simplistic comparisons, the species would be better off. But we don't, and as a result chess and Monopoly can be the same thing because they're a board game, but a human being and a human being can't be the same because of skin color, the difference between penis and vagina, and all sorts of other details that, when there is no human authority over another at stake, suddenly become irrelevant. Then again, as a matter of psychology, there really isn't anything surprising about that inherent duplicity.
This thread has run for
ten years. While I am slightly disturbed at the turn the topic has taken of late, it's true that the discussion has wandered all over the place. But the thing about free speech is that if the right to say something is, in fact, its only merit in being said, well, sure, we'll respect that right, but not the dishonest message, and it is also our right to adjust our assessment of the messenger accordingly.
Thus, our neighbors are free to rant on about what is or isn't Kosher, or repeat that ill-conceived, viciously intended sleight about how the only purpose of religion is authoritarianism—after all, what does that say about humanity in terms of the religious tendency being an evolutionary adaptation that has not yet selected out of the species?—and all manner of mildly amusing juvinilia. And the rest of us? Well, yeah. We perceive the sickness about our neighbors, and will adjust our assessments accordingly.
And let me remind that we just had a revolution in these United States. Not a warring Revolution, but a proper social revolution. It rose by will of the oppressors a little under a quarter-century ago, and progressed with what, for the slow wheels of justice, constitutes blinding speed. And my side won, which, trust me, I am just as unaccustomed to as you are.
But it's also true that everyone has obligations to be decent and civil toward one another; so while many will criticize such uneducated, superstitious, self-gratifying attitudes, the truth of the matter is that basic decency forbids us from telling you the truth about what such people really are.
Honestly, when these hatemongering closet cases get upset at the criticism they face for the cruelty they show their fellow human beings, they're actually complaining about being handled with kid gloves. One can only imagine how loudly they would bawl if they were treated according to the magnitude of their offenses.
The next frontier for the gay community is daylight itself. Our time underground has helped foster a number of unhealthy practices and outlooks, with the result that our domestic and intimate violence rates are above the already unacceptable norms for the rest of society. This is something we need to figure out. And one will not need to be gay to participate and contribute, but we
will be kicking this sort of bablutive to the curb; it has no place at that or any other table.
The old rules are over. People are still free to make whatever stupid analogies and arguments they want, but we're no longer obliged to pretend they have any sort of legitimate point.
We don't have to put up with this shit, anymore.
And we won't.