April 27, 2011

It was bound to happen.

The Right Wing has officially jumped into Orwellian territory. Remember that plot point in 1984 wherein the Party would use phrases like “Freedom is Slavery” and “War is Peace”? The idea was that having the population believe two mutually exclusive ideas would create such a dissonance that more mundane lies would be much more easily accepted. It is the willingness to believe something that cannot be true by its very nature that would make the population easier to control.

Behold the American Conservative Movement.

The Heritage Foundation is pushing for something called “conscience rights.” In essence, they claim that things like abortion and gay rights are assaults on freedom.

Think about that for a second. When the blood stops shooting out of your nose, keep reading.

. Cognitive Dissonance . by *DigitalBaptism on deviantART

The argument goes something like this. Say you believe that homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God. By making same-sex marriage legal and otherwise embracing the homosexual community as normal members of society with the same rights and freedoms as everyone else, the government is encroaching on your moral fiber by making something you believe is a sin acceptable.

I’m really hoping you see where this plan falls apart.

They want to push to make things illegal because they are against their own morality, a morality that is quite clearly based on religious belief. But they’re not phrasing it like that. They’re phrasing it to somehow mean that we, as a collective, are outraged.

So… in order to protect speech, religion, and the right to love each other, you must take those rights away from others who believe, say, and love what you will not. After all, having worked with gays and having lived next door to one for three years clearly affected my ability to be attracted to women.

Love has no Limits by =MyLastBlkRose on deviantART

Okay, I‘m being snippy. The specific example they go for is that if a doctor against abortion is asked to perform one, he will have to comply. This is clearly an assault on his morality, right?

Well, if he didn’t want to deal with this, he shouldn’t have made choices to put himself in this position.

So, if I am offended that Republicans are against gay rights, immigrants, and a woman’s right to choose, can I deny to help students at TAMIU who identify themselves as Republicans and write papers on conservative opinions? I’d be helping the ideological opposition spread its message, and I just couldn’t live with that.

Without actually claiming and admitting that this course of action is about fundamentalist Christian morality trying to weasel its way into our legal system, they’ve set themselves up for failure. A small part of me wants for this to get taken up just so the Right sees the whole thing blow up in its face like liberal-hearted claymore.

A claymore filled with progressivism!

Explosion are Always Fun by ~GreenApples109 on deviantART

Hey, look! Links!

• Cupcake-flavored vodka? I predict scores of sorority girls chucking this stuff, then puking their intestines out at parties in the very near future.

• The Onion has an insightful interview with the writer of the latest Fast and Furious sequel.

• Budweiser released a commercial some claim contains a gay soldier and his lover. Me? I thought it was the guy’s brother or something. Anyway, I can see how people might think it’s about gays in the military, but what do you think?

• How do we know socialized medicine would work? Because it’s worked pretty much everywhere else.

• People often ask me why I hate Beck so much. Partially, it’s because he’s a lying snake who’s tricked millions of people into a world-view they’ll cling to even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Yesterday, he went off on new passport regulations that would ask for information regarding every place you’ve ever worked at, every address you’ve ever resided, the people present at your birth, and other questions. He called this new application “evil” since, he claims, no American could find all that information. His only explanation? The government wants to make sure citizens cannot leave the country and illegal aliens can stay since we cannot figure out where they’re from. It’s a ploy to take power! The real explanation? These new regulations are for people who submit questionable birth certificates or references. It’s actually a way to keep sketchy people OUT.

• If you live in Tennessee, you will no longer be able to say “gay.” More specifically, schools won’t be able to address homosexual issues. Way to go, Tennessee. It’s not like gay teens were already marginalized, right?

• And George Takei had some things to say about this.

• We may have finally found the “slut” gene.” Methinks this will not be exploited by corporations in the least. Nope.

• I adore Anthony Bourdain, but he admits that he may now be part of the problem when it comes to selling out. Say it ain’t so, Tony!

• Just how jarring is the change when crossing the border between Mexico and the US? Check out these pics.

• Ever felt like you were being watched?

• And speaking of awesome things that don’t have anything to do with this, a new photo of Spiderman’s new costume (with battle damage) for the reboot film was released. The best part, we can now confirm the mechanical web-shooters are real. Even though it’s not the exact costume from the comics, I really like it.

• And finally, Alessandra Torresani and some more geeks star in this wonderfully tongue-in-cheek video, “Tonight I’m Frakking You.” Can you name every character, reference, and actor by the end? Don’t think so. Anyway, enjoy the slave Leia outfit, female Ghostbusters, and in-jokes out the butt. See you Friday!