Teh Stupid, It Burns #43,817,906

[filkertom]

Michael Schwartz, chief of staff for Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), discussing pornography in a panel on "The New Masculinity":

But it is my observation that boys at that age have less tolerance for homosexuality than just about any other class of people. They speak badly about homosexuality. And that’s because they don’t want to be that way. They don’t want to fall into it. And that’s a good instinct. After all, homosexuality, we know, studies have been done by the National Institute of Health to try to prove that its genetic and all those studies have proved its not genetic. Homosexuality is inflicted on people....

And one of the things that [a "very good friend... who was in the homosexual lifestyle for a long time"] said to me, that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark. He said, “all pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards. Now think about that. And if you, if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to go out and get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants.” You know, that’s a, that’s a good comment. It’s a good point and it’s a good thing to teach young people....

[I]f it doesn’t turn you homosexual, it at least renders you less capable of loving your wife. And it’s something you need to be healed of.

I don't have any idea what to say in response to this, apart from expressing incredible sympathy for him because of whatever screwed him up so badly.

Comments

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

"Later, [Schwartz] told Max Blumenthal, "I'm a radical! I'm a real extremist. I don’t want to impeach judges. I want to impale them!"

[BAD AUSTRIAN ACCENT]Verrrry interesting....[/BAA]

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

It's at this point that I lose every last shred of sympathy. He's gone from expressing an opinion to attacking the people who've kept me sane the last year or so. Were he to do that in person.... it would not be pretty.

The boy (he's not a man) needs to have someone very close and trusted come out of the closet on him. His tiny little world will go all 'splody.... and he will either survive the experience a free man in multiple senses, or he'll go right off the deep end and be in grave need of either a pshrink or an undertaker.

And there's a truly horrid pun there which I did not intend but will let stand anyway.

[mythdude.livejournal.com]

When I first read this, this is what I got from it.

Oh no! The porno mags and masturbation have gotten to Schwartz! Instead of impeaching judges now he wants to have sex with them! THE HORROR!

But it's ok, I support his lifestyle. He can have all the judges he wants.

[alymid.livejournal.com]

Does this mean if I watch gay male porn I'll end up a lesbian?

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, the largest consumer of gay male porn that I personally know is a bisexual woman who tends to lean towards the female in choosing real partners. So that proves the point, right? Right?

Why are you looking at me like that?

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I wonder which studies he's talking about. All the ones I've encountered point to how genes are a factor. For example in identical twins, if one is gay there's a 70% chance the other is too, even if raised apart. Seems to me that's a big indicator that it's not as much of a choice as he would admit.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

And the Republican War on Reality continues.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

I wonder what his sexuality is? I'll bet he has some big kinks: porn usually makes men more interested in women, not less.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Wait...did he just say "Pictures of naked women in erotic poses are SO GAY", or words to that effect?

Or did he only suggest that mentor figures would win the trust of male teens, and influence them away from said pictures, by telling them so?

Either way...yeah. (shaking head in consternation)

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

I'd really like to ask him when he chose to be straight. Because obviously if being gay isn't genetic, being straight isn't, either, and there must come a time when everyone chooses to be heterosexual.

[adammaker.livejournal.com]

Excellent point.

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

The problem is, with that attitude, he might well be gay, and thus have had a point in his life where he decided to repress it and try to pretend to be straight, and he might think that's normal...

[arensb.livejournal.com]

Whereas on the other hand, a man and a woman united in holy matrimony become one flesh. Which means that when they have sex, it's masturbation. Which is sex with someone of the same sex as you, which is gay. Or something.

Now I'm confused. I wonder if Schwartz's ideas would make more sense if I had my head as far up my ass as he does. No, wait: that would be some combination of analingus, fisting, and autoerotic asphyxiation. And also gay masturbation.

I'm doomed.

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

Well...he may have a point. I can't imagine anything more likely to contribute to an 11 year old boy who wasn't gay becoming so other than nekkid pictures of me. They'd either decide that guys were the way to go, or claw their eyes out and decide to be celibate.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Oh come off it, I've seen WAY worse than you!

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Leaving aside the question of whether homosexuality can be acquired (the answer is "no", if anyone was wondering), I went to a boy's boarding school, and I can assure you, with deep conviction, that boys that age have a great capacity for same-sex sexual behavior.

Someone should tell him that no matter how hot he fans his hate, those feelings will never go away.

[old-fortissimo.livejournal.com]

If they truly believe that pictures of attractive women will drive men to homosexuality, they should stop promoting the career of Carrie Prejean...wait, wasn't she speaking at the same conference?

OTOH, that would explain their promotions of Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter....

[mtgat]

Huh. The boys "at that age" when I was a kid picked on the Episcopalian kid all the time. (We went to Catholic school. Obviously he was a heretic.) Also the fat kids. And the poor kids. And the kids with glasses. And the dumb kids. And the smart kids. In fact, any aspect they could find to differentiate "them" from "us" was used as cruelly and as often as possible.

I have kids and I love kids, but even as a kid, I knew that most children of a particular age are vicious bastards (much of which they learned via observation from home and what the teachers never stopped at school). They could use more issues of Playboy. Maybe if they were busier wanking, they'd have less time to spend making everyone else's lives miserable.

Just an experiment...

[m-t-quill.livejournal.com]

If we took a video clip of the Senator, and put it beside a video clip of then closeted Mr. Garison from South Park (tm) when he was in the bar saying "Poontang, Poontang, Poontang", and we switched the audio tracks, do you think anyone would notice?

Or to be more clear...
I believe the senator is regretting his choice to FIGHT his Gay Genetic Predisposition, and thus is trying to come up with reasons that he feels the way he dose. He looked at LOTS of porn at the age of 11, and now he desperately wants to find himself a nice guy and settle down, or at least he wants to find an airport bathroom encounter and avoid the crackdown.

Either way, stop trying to despoil the hopes and dream of the 11 year old boys of the world.

These people give me a migrane...

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to offend anyone but I'm quite done with:

Gay vs Straight

Women vs Men

Race vs Race

Religion vs Religion

etc.

The more we separate those things the worse off we are. We need to stop classifying people as X vs X and just accept everybody as _people_.

Not "people of X", not "x kind of people", just...people.

Stop judging people by what they appear to be to you and start judging them by the actions they take.

Re: These people give me a migrane...

[blackdjinn.livejournal.com]

This is sort of a point I try to make just in general... most of the _______ Rights issues are not issues of a particular minority. They are instead HUMAN rights issues. 'Gay Marriage' isn't about orientation, its about people being allowed to express love and having the government recognize that in whatever form it takes (as an example.)

But in addition to the genetic links for orientation (or at least propensity toward one or the other) there are some FMRI studies that indicate that political orientation has a similar physiological basis... so this bullet-head really didn't have as much of a choice about his views as we might think. The biggest thing to remember is that arguing with them has the opposite effect... it strengthens the erroneous belief instead of undermining it.

Vide the 'birthers'... you can show them the birth certificate all you want, and it just makes them more certain that its forged. So the way you win is by walking away, ignoring them, stop challenging their ideas and go about making the world around them better despite them.

Of course this is just my opinion... I could be wrong.

[ponderoid.livejournal.com]

I googled likely to be quoted phrases from his speech, and I found absolutely no one, no where online saying anything remotely in approval of it. The libs are laughing their asses off at him, and the cons are just hunkering down and hoping he'll go away. :)

*** Ponder

[sethb.livejournal.com]

It might be possible to get an 11-year-old boy not to be interested in Playboy.

A few years later, no.

Anybody who believes that's possible has never been near an adolescent boy.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

So straight porn turns boys gay? Is there anything in this person's worldview that doesn't?

I am no big fan of Teh Ghey myself, but this sort of "reasoning" makes me cringe.

[skemono.livejournal.com]

all pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards

The fuck? What... I can hardly fathom what this person thinks he means. What on earth does an "inward" sex drive have to do with homosexuality?

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

THIS. After about three rereads attempting to parse the "logic." Usually it's not too difficult once I locate the faulty base assumption at work. But this is just... whaaaaa?????

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Wait one second. Last thing I heard was that pornography demeans women and promotes violence against them. Now he's saying that porn, straight porn, man with woman or maybe several women porn, turns young boys gay.

If you combine those things, do you get catty gay men who rip on women constantly? I know some of those guys and I guarantee you from conversation with them, they never bothered with Playboy. A couple of them borrowed their sisters' Playgirls now and then...

[timewalker.livejournal.com]

I hate you Tom!
Now my brain hurts from reading teh stoopid....
Ahm gonna go listen to "Starlight and Saxophone" about ten times...

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

This isn't surprising. Right-wingers learned something from the evangelical preachers they partnered with. Preachers will look for any possible hook in anything upon which to base a sermon. It doesn't matter whether it's sensible or not, they'll find a word or phrase and base an entire twenty-minute spiel on it.

If someone, anywhere, finds out that gay males have a slightly greater disposition for ingrown toenails, people with political or religious agendas will state "Gay Men's Feet Rot Off!" and get it printed in a thousand church bulletins.

This is the same sort of thing. And calling it "teh stoopid" may make you feel better momentarily, but remember that the process works too well for it to be derided. As James Thurber said, "You can fool too many of the people too much of the time."

[batyatoon]

All I can think about is the anecdote I heard involving one eleven-year-old boy saying to another "You have a GIRLFRIEND? Man, that is so gay."

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

So this good family-values Republican sees gayness, gay sex and gay porn in everything he looks at.

Based on my scientific, empirical observation of his population subset (white male fundamentalist Republican Congresspeople foaming with rage that a Nee-grow is settin' in the Oval Office)?

I say he gets caught en flagrante with an 18-year-old male page within the next 3 years.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I think it was a Mad TV skit. An artist went to a senator for a grant and brought some examples of his landscape paintings. The senator say naked boys everywhere. "There's a naked boy behind that tree, in that house, and lying down in that patch of tall grass!!" (Just to be clear, there were no people in the paintings period.) "I'm going to confiscate this smut for further examination in uhhh private."

[ardent-firesong.livejournal.com]

....

Sorry, but if I ever have children, and if one of those children happens to be a boy, I'm not going to give a flying fuck if he looks at porn. In fact, I am likely to suggest certain publications over others as being better in some fashion, etc. Whether or not the people in it have the same equipment as him.

People look at porn. They also go dancing on Sundays and eat meat on Fridays. Oh, the humanity [/sarcasm].

[kayshapero]

Y'know, they say that the most important leg of a three legged stool is the one that's missing. I think this poor guy had the entire thing pulled out from under him when he sat down...