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04/24/2014

Jonah Goldberg can't see the hornets' nest for its hornets

by Jeremy Hooper

Screen Shot 2014-04-24 At 9.30.14 AmConservative columnist Jonah Goldberg:

"I think it’s admirable that some advocates of same sex marriage are relatively magnanimous in victory (and I’m certain it’s preferable to the scorched earth alternative the signatories decry). But it seems to me that if you’ve spent a decade or more advancing the argument that opposition to same sex marriage is morally equivalent to opposition to interracial marriage and other Jim Crow laws, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when people who bought your argument then go out and apply its ruthless and unforgiving logic." [SOURCE]

As always, the social conservative is overstepping the very real things that opposition movement has done to create this "culture war" in order to make the ones who have suffered—and suffered cruelly—seem like the tyrants.

For decades, the anti-LGBT movement has decried gay people as broken, immoral, dangerous, and worse. They've tried to "change" us through highly discredited and deeply dangerous programs that do nothing but instill shame. They have gone after our families in the cruelest ways imaginable. They have attacked every one of our rights and protections, from simple employment protections to the ability to serve our nation, and have even tried to change the federal constitution so that is explicitly bans us. They have used truly disgusting language to make us seem nearly Hitler-esque in our quest for basic peace. Through it all, they have cultivated pointedly hostile messaging that has wounded the psyches of many on both sides of this debate, leading to mental and physical torture that most of us wouldn't wish on our worst enemies.

So to back up Jonah's thought and take it back to its more obvious root: It seems to me that if you’ve spent decades or more advancing the argument that homosexuality is morally equivalent to any number of awful and ungodly things, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when people who have suffered—and suffered hard—under your argument reach a breaking point. You can't keep poking people with a stick and expect them to just sit there and take it.

(**And to be clear, I say this as a pacifist who very much wants to turn rather than ratchet up hostility.)

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