Continent of Stupidea Under Quarantine Due To Wackadoo Orsonscottcarditis Pandemic
13. Aug, 2009 
9 Comments
UPDATE:
Mr. Unmentionable has closed his Livejournal account to comments.? Ostensibly because there have been so many responses, he can’t keep up.
Yeah.? Right.
Elsewhere, some fast person has made some editorial changes that are – spot on and entirely appropriate.
Finally.? Mr. Unmentionable says, in his longish defense:
“(3) Notifications of Boycott. To the one or two readers who promised never to buy my books because I came to certain conclusions in logic you do not share, allow me to point out that most of my books were written before my conversion to Christianity, and at least one was written before my disillusionment with the Sexual Liberation Movement. So, for those of you who buy books for the sake of ideological purity rather than for entertainment value, I suggest you discover which is which, and plan your purchases accordingly.”? (Bold mine)
Ok Mr. Logician.? Except for the fact that any royalties received on CURRENT sales aren’t magically transported via time machine to your prior (sane?) self.
I’m not going to be indirectly responsible for tithes donated to whatever church you belong to…
(Not to mention the on-going pandemics of Wackadoo Glennbeckitis – W1I2 strain and ‘Therespeopleotherthanwaspslivinginamerukaitis’ – Three Stooges Strain – “My World, my world – you’ve shattered my world!” and a whole host of other potential outbreaks, including the possible return of the dreaded Anitabryantitis “Orange” disease)
When oh when are we going to pass a law that says that it’s illegal to be against things that don’t affect you personally in any way whatsoever? (When oh when is the average IQ of the United States going to rise above 5?? I use the ‘estimating the intelligence of a mob’ formula here:? find the lowest IQ in the mob and divide by the number of mobsters.)? When oh when are average everyday people going to STOP rewarding fear mongers by thinking for themselves?
Real quick before I continue my lament:? this post was inspired by a Livejournal entry by yet another person who’s name will not appear on my blog, brought to my attention by Matt over at Enter the Octopus.? Matt is responsible for the name of the disease in the title.? He also links to Jeff VanderMeer’s response here.? Jeff is responsible for naming the continent of Stupidea I used in the title.
There’s plenty of outrage over this.? Ellen Datlow chimes in over on Facebook, and a host of livejournalists have commented on the original – mostly in the FAIL category.
I’m amused by folks who wittingly or unwittingly play with gay stereotypes in their responses:? men referring to their pocketbooks, men and women noting that this kind of thing is a ‘pain in the ass’.
(Don’t read anything into that.? I read Dan Savage’s sex advice column on a regular basis.)
One of the most eloquent voices on this topic – and one with a national audience btw – is Lewis Black, the comedian.? He’s got a lot to say on this particular subject.? In particular, he manages to skewer the whole fear-of-queer point of view in this little argument in an entirely humorous way.? Here’s the clip on Youtube. The pithy part starts at about 4:03.
I’m also particularly fond of his statement that ‘with everything going on in the world, this is what we’re spending time worrying about?’
Brandon – I love that guy – he does such a great job of illustrating the idiocy of certain positions…
By the way, the Lewis Black clip was great.
B
John C. Wright is about to become far more famous in the sf world than he ever dreamed of being, thanks to the perverted homosex conspiracy and sympathizers.
I hope he’s prepared to arm wrestle with Scott Card for the honor.
Brandon, no, not really, though your inclusion of the phrase ‘voting with the pocketbook’ falls into the same class as a lot of responses on livejournal. I understood your statement clearly.
This is one of those things where I’m seeing irony and sarcasm that wasn’t necessarily intentional. Someone from the “other side” of the argument could have responded with something like “I’m not surprised that guy’s with pocketbooks disagree with my point of view”.
Matt – yes, I’ve been reading Savage for a number of years now. I loved his campaign to give the word ‘Santorum’ a particular definition – and suggested to him that OSC deserves the same treatment. He briefly picked it up, but did not harp on it long enough to engender any kind of a following…
Question:
“I’m amused by folks who wittingly or unwittingly play with gay stereotypes in their responses: men referring to their pocketbooks, men and women noting that this kind of thing is a ‘pain in the ass’.”
was this in reference to my post at Enter the Octopus?:
“I’ve never ready anything by the guy, but I will make a point not to at this point. Voting with the pocketbook… but it doesn’t escape my attention that by discussing his rant, we’re giving him attention.”
What I meant to say was that I’d not be buying books from someone with such bigoted views. Hope that statement did not come across the wrong way?
B
You’re a Dan Savage fan, too? I love his podcast. Funny guy.