Those of us on the American coasts may be familiar with a website network called Patch. Basically it’s a blog covering extremely local news. It’s a great way to stay current on local events, politics and shopping. My local version is Long Beach, NY. Since our local paper is owned by the local cable network, it’s refreshing to get a different perspective on things.
Patch also publishes opinion pieces, which recently included a snide diatribe against gay marriage in New York that was the usual sniveling against the concept without coming out and saying what that opinion was based on. As an oblique counterpoint, it also published a piece by Ariella Monti, a Long Island expatriate now living in Raleigh, North Carolina. She used her support of gay marriage to illustrate her thesis of how a liberal person who moves to an area known for conservative politics must make a few adjustments.
Ms. Monti’s piece is not a brilliant piece of journalism. It’s a little clunky, in fact. I’ve linked it here so you can see for yourself.
O, the comments. Snarky and nasty “conservatives” jumped all over her. Obama came up as ‘her president’ – she didn’t even mention him. Likewise, New York’s pension system. While I’m sure she’s a big girl and journalists have to develop a thick skin, I really felt bad for her.
The comments on the gay marriage piece were even worse – unbridled bigotry, references to sex acts, comparing gays to pedophiles, and on and on. I got called a ‘nasty old fag’ and told that my ‘insatiable appetite for Man Ass’ was not a civil right. I take exception to that last one. One Man Ass will do, thank you. Or maybe a couple of diesel rugby players. And a brawny firefighter. And the bearish conductor on the 8:03 to Penn. (Damn. Ok, I guess they got me.)
This is Long Beach, people, not Dogpatch. It is amazing what the anonymity of the Net brings out in people, which should hardly surprise me – but it does. It also surprises me that in such a liberal coastal town there are so many self-styled ‘conservatives’ who indulge in the very basest forms of bigotry when they think they won’t get caught. Their shrill and screamy tone is also a little scary because it makes them sound thoroughly unhinged.
One mantra that was repeated was “If you liberals are so tolerant, why can’t you tolerate MY beliefs?” This is just stupid. Not every idea must be tolerated equally, and bigotry and racism should be given not even a scintilla of acceptance. Reasonable people can reasonably disagree about a lot of things, but the minute the concept of treating minorities badly comes up, the conversation has ceased to be reasonable.
Yes, we are the land of the free. Home of the brave? Maybe not so much. Any pimply teen or bitter old drunk can pound out insulting comments from their computer in the dark, as snack cake wrappers pile up on the orange shag carpet at their feet. But in person, when they stagger forth from their splanches for work or school, they seem to lose a bit of their nerve. They know that their views won’t be ‘tolerated’ by the vast majority of people. So they lurk in the dark corners of the internet or Tea Party gatherings, covertly fomenting hatred for everyone who is not exactly like them.
I’m not sure how we got to this point. Conservatism used to represent smaller government, less spending, and less taxes, and a live-and-let-live philosophy which I frankly found appealing. Now it’s screaming about Jesus in public schools, wire fences to keep out immigrants, racist comments about our President, and anti-gay hate. I don’t know what spawned this much ugly, but there seems to be an appetite for it that rivals even my appetite for Man Ass. And a lot of it is going on online.
Here’s a flashback to 1995, Before Everything Went To Hell.
Author’s Note: Although this column originally appeared in WORLD Magazine during the summer of 1995, it is still relevant to our current debates.
The Virginia Republican Party split wide apart last month, and the same will happen in other states if the Grand Old Party’s old-line leaders do not treat evangelicals as honored partners. On July Fourth this year we can do more than venerate the Declaration of Independence; we can learn from its embrace of non-compromising coalition politics.
Uh-oh.