RW LOLZ

I wrote recently about how our friends on the far right use the word fascist as if they actually understand what it means, when they clearly don’t. Well, one of the examples I cited has gone full-on comedian… unintentionally and dangerously.

In that earlier post, I quoted extensively from BamBam because while he’s made a career out of saying extremist, hate filled, bigoted things about LGBT people, he’s also actually pretty typical of the rhetoric spewing from the anti-gay industry.

He continues to excel at what he’s best at.

Jeremy Hooper wrote on his Good As You site that BamBam’s “ever-classy site suggests gay people are literally crushing fellow humans”. What he was specifically referring to was a cartoon of people (presumably gay) on a big pink steamroller called “GAYROLLER 2000” about to crush creaming people under their big rainbow roller. The thing is, that graphic was stolen and used without permission.

The original graphic is by Matthew Inman on his The Oatmeal site, which says at the bottom that “All artwork and content on this site is Copyright,” and adds, “Please don’t steal.” BamBam is such a good Christian that he didn’t steal—oh, wait, yes he did (the stolen graphic has since been removed).

The graphic was actually part of a larger comic illustrating the use of the word literally (VERY much worth checking out, by the way, and available for purchase as a poster). Accompanying the graphic in question, was this:

The (thankfully) late Jerry Falwell provided this quotation before his death in 2007: “If we do not act now, homosexuals will own America! If you and I do not speak up now, the homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women and children who get in its way… and our nation will pay a terrible price!”

The context of the comic shows, first, that the far right has always used hysterical (in both senses of the word) hyperbole to attack LGBT people, and second, that the comic was actually attacking the sort of hysterical (in both senses of the word) hyperbole that's a standard fixture of BamBam’s site, whether he’s written the overt-the-top scribblings or some other anti-gay extremist has.

But Hooper's piece also highlights many of the other over-the-top anti-gay graphics, most of which invoke Nazisim, of course, but one also refers to “AL-‘GAY’DA TERRORISTS”. That last one wasn’t funny just because of the use of all caps, but also because even in attacking LGBT people, they had to—simply couldn’t help themselves!—put the word gay into quotation marks, which is how they always use the word, usually even when it’s in a proper name, like of an organisation (alternatively, they also sometimes change it to homosexual, often with hilarious results).

Now, I laugh at these losers more often than not, except when otherwise sensible mainstream news organisations turn to them to provide “balance” when discussing LGBT issues. I’m sure that any day now I’ll see, say, CNN, have a KKK Grand Wizard on to discuss the civil and human rights of Black Americans—any day now, because, BALANCE!

BamBam and his friends have clearly changed their game, and they’re no longer merely fighting against the civil and human rights of LGBT people. As Hooper put it:

Folks, they've stopped debating us and are now trying to make our fellow citizens hate us. I wish I was overstating that—I really do. But I simply can't un-see what I am seeing. The denigrations are getting louder and more personal, and the goals are seeming far more sinister than they did in the past.

I agree. What was once mere over-the-top silly (and often crassly stupid) hyperbole has become a clear campaign to portray LGBT people as scary monsters. The hatemongers and bigots of the anti-gay industry know what we all do, that when people learn that the people they know, respect and love are LGBT, their opposition to us fades away. The ONLY hope that the bigots on the far right have is if they can take on that simple reality and instead make people see us as scary monsters. THAT is what all this over-the-top talk of fascism is really all about.

The logical response in situations like this is to stand up to it. First, LGBT people must come out to as many people as they safely can. Second, everyone—LGBT people and our straight allies—must speak up and object when we see or hear this sort of hyperbolic nonsense. If enough of “the good guys” start pushing back, the power of the bad guys’ lies will evaporate.

The good news is that good beats bad when it’s given half a chance. We just have to give good the support it needs to win against the bad.