So...do the people who hate this idea so much live in a crabby, enclosed little space in which they're unhappy enough to assume that everyone should suffer?
-->Alas, I think you've hit it right here. I've seen very little from that end of the political spectrum that can be seen as even vaguely positive and happy. It's always fear and anger and impending apocalypse.
Historians will note that it's not dissimilar to past religious social crusades: the perpetrators feel secure in the righteousness of their views, and feel that they are saving souls by saving society. There's a basic belief that the Almighty will condemn the community if it has an "impure" person within it (for varying definitions of "impure" through the ages).
All this palaver about "real" Americans and preserving "real" family values is, at root, a colossally misguided attempt to sort the Righteous from Everyone Else. If people just fall in line, they too can be part of some imagined Utopia; but as long as Heathens exist, they're fucking it up for everyone.
It's crazy. It's the exact thing that happens when people are actively discouraged from self-reflection, from thinking about where their ideas originate.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-10-31 02:41 am (UTC)-->Alas, I think you've hit it right here. I've seen very little from that end of the political spectrum that can be seen as even vaguely positive and happy. It's always fear and anger and impending apocalypse.
Historians will note that it's not dissimilar to past religious social crusades: the perpetrators feel secure in the righteousness of their views, and feel that they are saving souls by saving society. There's a basic belief that the Almighty will condemn the community if it has an "impure" person within it (for varying definitions of "impure" through the ages).
All this palaver about "real" Americans and preserving "real" family values is, at root, a colossally misguided attempt to sort the Righteous from Everyone Else. If people just fall in line, they too can be part of some imagined Utopia; but as long as Heathens exist, they're fucking it up for everyone.
It's crazy. It's the exact thing that happens when people are actively discouraged from self-reflection, from thinking about where their ideas originate.