I give up

[textualdeviance]

The only thing I hate more than the religious right is people who tell me that I shouldn't be trying so hard to fight them, because doing so is "intolerant" of other people's beliefs.

Well, fuck me. I had no idea that trying to protect oneself and one's friends from being violently oppressed was so terribly rude. Pardon me while I go do their work for them and throw myself off a bridge. Maybe then the fuckers will stop complaining that their religious rights are being trampled on.

(And why the fuck is it always straight, gender-role adherent people who argue this?)

Sigh...

I know some of them are just naive kids who sincerely believe that if we just close our eyes and wish really hard, that asshats like Dobson, Phelps and Robertson will just magically see the error of their ways and start supporting the rights of queer folk, women and non-Christians.

But some of them? I don't get it. The only thing I can think is that they think we're asking for too much. Maybe somewhere inside, they believe that the fundies are right, and that women and queer folk really are less favored in $deity's eyes, and therefore we're being far too uppity when we demand that people stop fucking us over because their scriptures tell them to.

I've lived too long and fought too hard to have any more patience for dicking around trying to play nice with people who think I should be jailed (or worse) because I don't wear skirts and submit to my husband. Life is too short to waste it on trying to build bridges with people whose sole purpose in life is to apply C4 to said bridges before the ground for them has even been broken.

We have wasted too much time trying to coddle these people into seeing things our way. It's time we put our collective feet down and started the process of surgically removing the tumor of religion from the body politic.

Comments

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes! There's someone on my flist who's very "Let's all just get along and compromise" and we always end up in massive political arguments because he just CAN'T GET that I (for some inconceivable reason) am totally unwilling to compromise on things like, say, access to abortion or gay marriage.

And, why, yes. I believe he IS a privileged, white, male.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

Oh, AND he's religious.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

One of the ones I'm bickering with at the moment is a former Christian conservative turned Quaker. He's trying to convince me that because he changed, everyone else can, too.

While I know very well that people can change--hell, I used to be a registered Libertarian--that doesn't mean that I should just sit around and cross my fingers that they do so.

I'm a big believer in negotiation to resolve conflict. It should always be the first line of defense unless one is directly under threat. But when that threat becomes imminent and/or it becomes evident that negotiation has failed, one has to be prepared to fight.

Maybe it's cynical of me to be prepared this way, and to always be on my guard with people who choose to have an association with organizations that have the stated goal of discriminating against me. But honestly, I'd rather be a live cynic than a dead martyr.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

This guy just suggested that nobody is actually trying to take away access to abortion and that it's a tiny issue since it only concerns the women who Get abortions.

He's a teeny hair from being off the flist, out of the address book, and badmouthed publicly. Even though I've known him (and his wife) for years. Ugh.

And people seem not to understand that abortion isn't the ONLY issue I'm worried about, it's just my acid test for a politician. In a two party system, that means voting Democrat. Period.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

I was so pissed off about Obama's sniping about the "wedge issues" thing. Barney Frank really mopped the floor with him on that one.

Yeah, having one's fight for rights dismissed as merely a political football is just SO much encouragement that he'll really bother fighting for them in office.

One of the most rotten comments I heard recently was someone who said that since I'm already married to someone of the opposite sex, why should I care about same-sex marriage? Gee, I guess that since I don't make minimum wage, I shouldn't bother caring about people who do. Or maybe since I can read, I shouldn't care about fighting for literacy. He seemed almost offended that I would be so vociferous about fighting for someone else's rights. It was as if he thought that as long as he could marginalize the people fighting for that as "others" he could dismiss the issue in favor of the "real" issues (which to him were things like lower taxes.)

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

This kind of thing makes me so NAUSEOUS, and the older I get, the more of my friends fall into that particular tarpit.

[ladymonaghan.livejournal.com]

Amen - sista!
I get said ignorance from the vast majority of my family. I've gotten to the point of severe frustration and anger with them...when they start talking about not wanting gays/lesbians in a position of power, or the woman's place is in the kitchen, etc., I have to walk away or I might phsyically hurt them.

[halophoenix.livejournal.com]

I really don't get that, and it irritates the hell out of me too; this notion that (and it usually comes from the privileged) that by even discussing contentious issues and standing up for your beliefs is somehow considered "oppressive" and "discriminatory" against what you're standing up against.

Sorry, but I don't consider calling someone out on hate speech as "oppressing their right to their opinion," or that by telling a religious teacher who thinks that it should be okay to lead their high school science class in a daily prayer (I'm not kidding) that not all of his students would appreciate it I'm somehow showing "intolerance."

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that whole "free speech" thing is a bad animal in itself. So many people have gotten the (quite incorrect) idea that having the freedom to speak means that other people are obligated to provide one with a soapbox and to not criticize what one says.

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

Canada did quite well without formalized (although assumed) freedom of speech until... the '70s? Something like that. And we have hate speech laws. Which I LOVE.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

I'd be convinced that y'all are genetically kind and reasonable people if I wasn't currently arguing with someone who lives in Calgary. ;)

[pixxelpuss.livejournal.com]

Calgary is ALWAYS the exception to the rule. I lived there for nearly twenty years, and it is FULL of conservative assholes who are so self-centered, they think the dinosaurs died in AB because they WANTED the rednecks to have the oil.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Ahahah... yay.

[kevswitchau.livejournal.com]

*stands and applauds*