Posted on 01/14/2005 7:57:27 AM PST by madprof98
Woo hoo! I've made the big time. Last month, the website Free Republic featured a thread about my Nov. 18 column, "Queers Who Don't Act Right." You probably don't know much about Free Republic unless you are a right-wing lunatic. Free Republic is so far right that wing-nut gay muckraker Matt Drudge and Lucianne Goldberg, one of the architects of the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky brouhaha, both left the site in 1999 because it was too extreme, even for them.
In the years since, the site has become the contemporary version of a marathon meeting of the old John Birch Society and the KKK. Most recently, Free Republic was in the news when John Corsi, one of the Swift Boat Veterans who authored a book attacking John Kerry, turned out to post embarrassingly racist messages there. (Of course, he argued his racist insults were all "a joke." Talk about your Clintonian rhetoric.) The site also was in the news recently because someone correctly posted that Dan Rather had relied on phony documents to impute President Bush's National Guard service.
Free Republic is so extreme that it's a blast to read. Don't bother to explore the site with the idea of posting an alternative perspective or to correct facts. Your post will simply be deleted, despite its owner's celebration of freedom of speech. The site has no hesitation in reprinting copyrighted material, like my column, even though the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times both successfully sued to stop such theft. In other words, as is generally true of the lunatic far right, the truth, free speech and the law only matter when they support their point of view.
Of course, Freepers, as the creepy wing-nuts on the site are called, were not alone in being outraged by my column. I received quite a lot of mail, mainly from other gay people, questioning my argument that LA Fitness at Ansley Mall overreacted when it closed its sauna because of some occasional sex and reopened it with a new picture window overlooking the locker room. As an update, I might add that the window has effectively eliminated unseen sexual interactions inside the sauna and made room for another, more open form of sex between people on either side of the window: exhibitionism and voyeurism.
Most of my correspondents argued that the occasional discovery of sex in the sauna merited involvement by the police and the health department, reconstruction of the sauna and a report by one of the local TV stations. And, as usual, they concluded that because I called that overreacting, I must favor sex in public spaces. No matter that I said I find the behavior annoying. To be righteous, I must find it -- what? -- criminally actionable.
I wasn't surprised by the reaction. Sex troubles people more than anything. That's why Clinton was impeached for lying about a blowjob, while Bush was re-elected despite lying about a war that has killed thousands. Gay people's oppression is the result of their sex lives, so it's not surprising that they are hypersensitive to anything that might add to the picture of deviance. But it has become obvious that the very effort to make all deviance disappear and to assimilate -- to marry, for example -- increases prejudice.
The Freepers, of course, took outrage over my column to dizzy heights, fabricating arguments I did not make. This began with the man who posted it, "madpro98." He said that I dismissed "all sexual conventions, including common decency, as so much homophobia." Actually, I wrote no such thing. Then, of course, the Freepers concluded that the case of LA Fitness means every gay man is a sauna whore. For example, "Sender" writes: "Does anyone else think it's strange that gay men often have sex in a public toilet stall? ... Even if we had unisex public restrooms, somehow I can't imagine a man and a woman eyeing one another while washing their hands, then just jumping in the stall for a go."
The writer obviously has never been to Buckhead on a Saturday night. But what cracks me up is that the Freepers are so anxious to bash someone like me that they don't even realize when they are supporting a contrary argument. For example, "buffyt" quoted my statement that I don't like "stumbling upon any sex scene to which I have not been invited." Then she riffed obsessively about heterosexual couples at Mardi Gras "coupling all over the place" while the police ignore them. Exactly. Heterosexuals spoil the view with public sexual interactions every bit as much as homosexuals, arguably more, when they can find a place to do it. Nobody followed up on that post, of course.
I'm not going to quote the mind-boggling illogics and endless sophomoric fag-bashing (despite arguing they aren't homophobic). But I will thank "Jack Black," who wrote: "I think this was very well written. He is writing for the audience of radical homosexuals as one, so I have trouble twisting my thoughts enough to get to his point of view, but I still think the writing is good." Kiss me, dude!
Cliff Bostock holds a Ph.D. in depth psychology. Write him at cliff.bostock@ creativeloafing.com.
Hey, keep this guy writing!
That way, he won't have time to molest other people's children while whining about it not being his fault that he was born that way.
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
Is it just me or does "Depth Psychology" in the gay context bring up some unpleasant pictures to mind?
**************
Gee. Impressive.
Historically, depth psychology, from a German term (Tiefenpsychologie) coined by Eugen Bleuler, has come to refer to the ongoing development of theories and therapies pioneered by C. G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Alfred Adler
Somebody needs to post the "CHIPS" photo of Erik Estrada saying, "YOU'RE A HOMO!" :-)
I can't make any sense of it, but here is a link.
Everyone notice, he doesn't actually quote Corsi, just claims he is a racist. If I remember correctly, Corsi was saying the islamists are murdering butchers, which a lot of people agree with and which isn't close to racism at all.
As an update, I might add that the window has effectively eliminated unseen sexual interactions inside the sauna and made room for another, more open form of sex between people on either side of the window: exhibitionism and voyeurism.
Exhibitionism and voyeurism don't transmit HIV, herpes, syphillis and other monsters in the sexually transmitted disease zoo. This is a simple matter of public health.
A guy with a Ph.D. ought to be able to understand this.
Imagine the dilemma faced by left wing kooks like this guy.On the one hand, as FR becomes more & more a force to be reckoned with, their natural liberal inclination is to crush it and anyone associated with it. On the other hand they don't want people being swayed by it, so they're hesitant to write or speak about FR. I imagine more than a few heads will be exploding over this conundrum.
I had no idea it was possible to get so far up one's own fundiment.
"And a poster by the name Owl_Eagle called me a perverted AIDS monkey."
And...that make me laugh (out loud) at work...very nice!
I guess we are not as conservative about sex as the left thinks we are. (As long as it is not gay sex, that is.)
Hey, one of your buds made the papers!
What the heck is "depth psychology"?
Thats where you throw a liberal in a hole and watch as it fills up with cement.
And lonely, creepy Ph.D.'s who are looking for attention for their poor writing. Depth phychology....BAHWAAAAAAAAAA!!
Technically, Muslims are not a race. It may have been anti-religious but I doubt anti-religion talk bothers him.
IOW If we could only get married then we wouldn't be buggering each other in bath houses, parks and public restrooms. It's "intolerance" that makes us this way!
BS! If homosexuality was equivalent to heterosexuality it would be self-validating. It would not require the blessings of church and/or state to make them feel better.
It is a miserable condition indeed that requires constant reassurance that it is OK to be gay.
Madprof posted a trhead awhile ago that zinged one Dr Bostock who is a legend in his own mind.
Bostock responds by whining about us!
Give Madprof congrats on zinging Bostock.
He's found where some of our recent trolls are coming from.
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