It takes a lot to offend me, I can tolerate most things. Even my irritation at political hypocrisy is an affectation, exaggerated for comic effect. But something I saw of Facebook today really totally pissed me off. It was this:
“What offended Ian about this?” you might well ask.
Good question. Homosexuals don’t offend me (though whining does) Homophobia does not offend me (though bullying does.)
Even the inaccuracy of the stated numbrer of species does not bother me. Including hermaphrodites and species of insects and fish that change sex at some time in their development is blatant cheating but hey, these are Californian queers were dealing with – whatever brain they might once have had was mashed by acid and coke before they were out of their teens.
No, what offended me is the dumping of a prejudice held by a very small minority (American evagelical Christians) on the whole of humanity. AND FROM THAT the assumption that everywhere in the world is like America, a bifurcated society where on every issue people crowd towards two extremes and there is a great big void in the middle where sensible, reasonable people should be AND THEN the usurpation by the creator of this poster of my right to decide for myself what I think about homophobia. (I think it’s irrational – Irrational fear of the same thing? How does that work? I don’t know if the cupid stunt who created the poster is gay or was just sucking up to gays for the sake of selling posters, but he’s not educated enough to know what homophobia really means)
I respect the right of gays and lesbians to be who they are, I respect the right of people to dislike homosexuals and lesbians just as I respect their right to dislike pea soup. I hate pea soup. And bananas, because they make me throw up. I like Banana the poet though, she’s fun. Other people hate meat or beer or yoghurt or opera or Boggart Blog. Fine, so long as they don’t insist I agree.
People are different, that’s what is great about humanity. Dogs and cats and horses are different too, and sheep possibly, though I don’t think about sheep much except in a of mint sauce related context. Socety works well whenpeopkle are given rioom to be different. Start to impose standard ways of thinking on everyone and you have Naziism.
I must conclude however by saying I am so fed up of being told what I must and must not think when I visit American web sites, America is edging towards the same box as Pea Soup and bananas. And Facebook where I saw the offending item was always there, right down at the bottom with rotten tomatoes and pigeon poo. Pity I need the links for traffic.
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One religion- One culture- One sexuality! would the world be a better place?
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Ha! You think the world is just ONE place? It’s lots of places, all stuck on a round rocky substrate. Ha!
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No i dont think that way! It should be that way- and if you dont conform you dont exist!- PERIOD!!!
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I was trying to grasp how something that did not exist would be able to conform with anything when you suddenly shouted something about menstruation. This is a baffling conversation….
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I agree with you..we are so wrapped up in having to conform…or basically you won’t make it in life…It’s ridiculous.
To Your Success,
Dr. Len Schwartz
Pres/CEO of Pro2Pro Network
http://www.Pro2ProNetwork.com
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Dr. Len,
Thanks for that, having been retired early by health problems, for years I have revelled in my ability to say what I like under my own name without any fear of it damaging employment prospects.
Ironically my indifference to the labels people pin to themselves and the politicisation of race, sexuality, religion etc. probably causes more offence that overt animosity.
I have known many homosexuals. They were as diverse in their lifestyles as heterosexuals tend to be.
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truthdoctor,
Well Hitler tried it and things went horribly wrong 🙂
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Oh, look, Godwin’s Law is right…
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I hope you’re being sarcastic.
If humanity had one culture, they’d find something else to start conflicts about.
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Ros, Except in America where fights would break out over who was most faithful to the dogmas of the one culture.
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Exactly my point.
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Careful Ian, you are talking sense again….
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It’s a lousy job but someone has to do it 😀
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Hitler and his regimes ideals were not all bad- some get used by us today- remember it was the british who invented concentration camps!
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An extremely aged canard there. I’d be jolly surprised if no historian was able to refute that one!
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I did the Boer War for A Level. British Concentration Camps weren’t mass execution/slave labour facilities. They were essentially towns with fences round them where we filtered which Boers were civilians and which were terrorists.
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truth doctor,
You are right. Quite a lot of National Socialist ideas were shared by the Labour Party intellectuals in the 1930s. John Carey in his book Intellectuals and The Masses deals with the subject
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Shadow world,
Correct – and I’ll resist the urge or mention Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army thaty any mention of the Boer War usually invokes. 🙂
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And they asked nicely! Are you a civilian or are you a terrorist and after being given tea and biscuits they were given a helping hand to sort there lives out in a civilised british way! – I wonder if the survivors of the villages and towns next to the concentration camps of the 2nd world war had the same mindset to make excuses for the attrocities that took place! History taught or learnt is’nt always the truth!
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Well the ideas Labour intellectuals liked were more to do with eugenics and social engineering than concentration camps and genocide. Neither originated in Hitler’s political party however.
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Is it just me or have you noticed that you dont see many old Chinese people about but there always seems to be a new takeaway opening up each week.
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Doesn’t worry me what goes in sweet and sour pork. I don’t like the tase of monosodium glutimate so I avoid Chinese takeaways.
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He’s wrong. The parks in Hong Kong are full of old Chinese people, all doing Tai Chi, or perhaps time has slowed down, and they are really doing kung fu.
Only really crap cooks put MSG in sweet and sour.
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Walrus, there are a plethora of crap cooks working in East Lancashire’s Chinese takeaways. Most of them work in a factory in Bolton from where the bagged-ready-to-be-boiled meals are distributed.
Time came to a standstill round here in 1998 when the last cotton mill closed.
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There is no such thing as freedom of speech…everybody needs to be politically correct. God forbid someone takes a comment the wrong way…you sill get sued…this like I said in the previous comment is ridiculous.
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Dr. Len,
Free speech laws did not originally grant the right to say what we like, they were intended to guarantee the right to express religious and political ideas without fear of reprisals. Now while civil rights laws are used to defent speeches and publications that promote subversion and socially unacceptable activities, politically correct peer pressure is used to suppress free expression of personal opinion.
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This argument seems to be meandering…..
I agree with you Ian. When people are given room to breathe and think and grow, it leads to less conformity from narrow minded autocrats.
If anything, the piece you quoted is more likely to make me homophobic.
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Athelstan,
You and I agree on many things so I think I am safe in saying the poster probably made you want to kill its creator, not because of homophobia but an aversion to fuckwittery.
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Why can’t we just call homophobia what it is – prejudice?
(PS. Is TruthDoctor a twat or a troll?)
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I would say more of a wind up merchant than your description -I have friends that are gay and friends that are not and all would say that homophobia, racism and any other unfortunate blight on our human frailities exist for everyone and not only individual groups.( ps. smile- hetrosexual loose on blog!
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Wind up merchant. That’s okay, please carry on. 🙂
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So you have finally ‘ CLOCKED ‘ me! what sad humour! : )
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Ros,
I think you may have missed a ? at the end of one of truthdoctor’s comments.
There has been nnothing yet to suggest trollery and though one or two points may have been off the wall that’s entirely in the spirit of Boggart Blog.
Or are you just feling grumpy because of Arsenal’s poor start? :>
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As a man utd supporter and after our last 2 results maybe being grumpy is the real ?
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You’rre an MU supporter? What’s wrong with Inverness CT?
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Well you know there were 3 teams in Inverness – caley and thistle joined together and Clachnacuddin fc stayed in the highland league as the original / true team from inverness- this is the team i also supported during my life but for family reasons.
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Those two are not mutaly exclusive.
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