socialistexan:George W Bush literally ran his 2004 reelection campaign on opposition to gay rights.
socialistexan:George W Bush literally ran his 2004 reelection campaign on opposition to gay rights. It was front and center. This isn’t a matter of “oh I disagree with him, but he’s my friend,” rather it’s “he maintained his position as the most powerful person in the country by literally dehumanizing me and set my rights back a decade, but that’s okay because he’s rich and I’m rich.”Okay except this whole controversy came about because1. she was invited to sportsball with her wife2. GWB was also invited to that same sportsball in the seat next to her3. they were photographed not actively strangling each other so she’s a traitor I guesslike what was she supposed to do, ruin her evening by throwing a tantrum because someone she disagrees with was also invited?? Or, like, enjoy some weekend football??And then people threw a big fit about it and she examined what she did wrong, which was nothing, and went “actually, fuck that, I’m NOT apologizing for going to a football game with my wife and not being rude to other people who were also invited” but she’s Ellen, so she’s gonna say it nice and try to it treat it like a call to action to, like, maybe talk to humans outside your comfort zone. And pretend it was something deep and powerful. Because Ellen. And is Ellen some milquetoast centrism? sure. But ALSO, she literally didn’t do ANYTHING except GO TO A FOOTBALL GAME WHERE GWB ALSO HAPPENED TO BE. And she was harassed so thoroughly for it, she was made to address it on her fucking show, and now she’s getting lambasted because she went “look, I’m not gonna fucking blacklist a whole ass person who is literally in front of my actual face even if we hold fundamentally opposed views, because that’s RUDE and I’m NOT” but in Ellen “let’s all be friends” speech.Also, do you know what the biggest perpetrator of partisanship and bias is? According to some cool latest studies? It’s not actually “echo chamber” social media or news sources. It’s not actually tumblr or facebook or youtube or even Fox News. It’s “echo chamber” in-person interactions. People become more “radicalized” in any given direction after talking in-person to people they agree with. And less certain of their views when talking to people who are diverse from them, again, in person. A coffee date can be more helpful or more dangerous than a thousand lying facebook memes. When you segregate yourself from the “enemy”, you might very well be protecting yourself. I begrudge no one that. Listen, we all draw our lines where we feel safe. No one is obligated to put themselves in harms wayBut a liberal lesbian, even one who’s not as leftist as I might prefer, being willing to hang with conservatives might be a “betraying the cause”, but they are also the thing that is most likely to get those same conservatives to calm the fuck down. And that’s backed by evidence! The most likely thing to change minds on social issues especially is just fucking knowing some people affected by those issues. People are less homophobic when they hang out with gay people. Less racist when their new coworker is black or latinx. Less classist when they actually talk to poor people. Which isn’t to give Ellen any great credit here. What she said was revisionary bullshit, and this wasn’t activism. It was just a fucking football game. But I’m also real tired of guilt-by-association, because that is not how the actual world works. Ellen went to a football game. GWB went to the same football game. They had a laugh about the juxtaposition while there. That’s, like, so fucking harmless. And then an internet mob went after her, so she was forced to “explain herself”, and literally no explanation would’ve been good enough, so I kind of don’t care whether I agree with her explanation or not. Because she never should’ve HAD to explain. It’s an absurd level of scrutiny to hold a fucking comedian to, and an example of the ridiculous high bars for “purity” we keep trying to enforce on our community, to the detriment of our own stated goals. Let Ellen go to a goddamn football game without having to check the guest list first. What are we, Jehovah’s Witnesses disfellowshipping each other for talking to our enemies? This isn’t an okay way to act. -- source link