Oh dear...

[fajrdrako]

This isn't the worst anti-gay diatribe I've read from Orson Scott Card, but it's the most recent. Possibly the most stupid. Oops, did I say that out loud?

I got the link from tavella.

Comments

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

Oh, for fuck's sake. I can't even tell you what I'm thinking.

In better news: a happy day here in Massachusetts! :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can't even tell you what I'm thinking.

Well, yes. Me too.

Faugh.

What happened today in Massachusetts? Oh, wait a minute, you must mean this (http://www.365gay.com/news/072908-mass-allows-marriage/). Yes! Way to go, Massachusetts.

And in looking for that, I found this (http://www.365gay.com/features/bones-digs-up-angelas-ex-girlfriend-for-the-fourth-season/), which interests me, even though I don't like or watch Bones. I didn't know the show had a bisexual character. Cool.

Why is it that on British TV, bisexual characters tend to be men, while on American TV, bisexual characters tend to be women?

(Pondering the oddities of life and the media.)

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! I hadn't heard that news till now. Was hoping and expecting, but in this day and age a person can't take common sense for granted, eh?

Lucky you to live in Massachusetts.

As for bi characters on TV... could be that American producers are chicken, and think that seeing a bi man will turn people off, but seeing a bi woman will play to people's fantasies? Um, to men's fantasies. Narrow-minded audience stereotyping, I'm talking of.

Homicide: Life on the Street (which I would dearly love to have on DVD) may have had the first openly bi male character. One of the first, anyway.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

As one poster noted on Making Light (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010443.html#284409), it's particularly bizarre for a Mormon to be asserting that strict monogamy has been universal and culturally invariant throughout history.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

it's particularly bizarre for a Mormon to be asserting that strict monogamy has been universal

It's highly ironic. There are several historical errors in his comments: for instance, there have indeed been times and places in the past where gay marriage was observed and legal.

But then... Even if his history was right, his conclusions would still be wrong.

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

I gave up on Card after his anti-smart people rant around 1990, long before he "discovered" homophobia.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The first homophobic essay I read by him was in the early-to-mid-1980s - that is, I read it then, I don't think it was even new. His tone was kinder than this article. Officious; condescending. He said gays were like children who didn't understand the truths of life and should be corrected, taught, and forced to see the error of their ways.

I've never been able to read anything by Card since.

Therefore haven't read his anti-smart people rant, but I can't help thinking that it sounds in character.

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get past the 5th paragraph. I know his views on abortion and on gays and I find them both closeminded and unChristlike.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They certainly are. Self-righteous, too: and he twists the truth.

None of these things are good, and yet he thinks he's the good one on the 'right' side. It's... painful to witness.

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the AfterElton editorial? http://www.afterelton.com/people/2008/7/orsonscottcard

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

No, I hadn't seen that. Thanks for the link. It sounds so much more sane than Card's essay.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

He's still a closed-minded bigot, huh? Well, forget him. He's a waste of good oxygen.

I lost all empathy for the man with the third book of Hatrack River, when he turned Tecumseh into a bootlicking cigar-store indian who allowed people to call him Ike. Disgusting.

To think that people revere Ender's Game the way I revere A Wrinkle in Time... sigh.

Okay, I'm done wasting good oxygen now! I'll shut up again. [g]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

lost all empathy for the man with the third book of Hatrack River, when he turned Tecumseh into a bootlicking cigar-store indian who allowed people to call him Ike. Disgusting.

If I understand you correctly: He's not just homophobic, he's also racist?

Oh, charming.

And I'm sure from his comments that he's sexist too.

[ceindreadh.livejournal.com]

When I saw the address of the link, at first I thought it said 'moron times'. After reading the article, I think that would have been a more accurate addy.

I don't think I've ever read anything by Orson Scott Card (surprizingly, as I am a Sci-Fi fan), but I certainly won't be starting now.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've never read any of his novels, and I'm not sure what they're like. Once at a World Con, one of the speakers told me that Card's works 'showed the world as it really was'. I wonder if she knew? or if that was before he started talking about political matters?

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are some nice ones out there (and I actually have met a few), but fucking ignorant-of-history fundamentalist Mormons give me a stitch. Does anyone still read his books?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Someone must read his books; and his comic book work continues. I don't know why!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, the usual "people's rights should be decided by majority vote and not the law" argument. *eyeroll*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This makes no sense to me at all!

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

My feelings about Card are the same as Mark Vorkosigan's about Tien Vorsoisson in ACC. I have not and will not read Card's work to contribute to his income, not even from the library.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of us feel that way!

Personally, I think the man is scum. Bigoted scum.

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

It's also a big bunch of BS. I don't know where he gets off, going on about judicial activism, when the fact is, the California State Legislature approved gay marriage in 2005. Governor Schwarzenner vetoed the legislation. The Calfornia Supreme Court, in making this decision, simply upheld the original legislation.

Grr!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, he has so many 'facts' wrong, it's painful. But I don't think he cares. He's on an anti-gay rant, and an anti-gay legislation rant, and it's clear that reality has very little to do with any of it.

And then he resents being called 'homophobic'.

Dumb, really dumb.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I'm not looking. I decided some time ago that refusing to read anything by Card was the most sensible approach to dealing with his writings. His opinions are wrong-headed and often backed by false "facts". I don't even want to support him to the extent of being recorded as a hit on any website where his diatribes are displayed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm not looking.

Wise of you. It is simply annoyance without substance. His facts are false, his passions are bigoted, and his sense of self-righteousness is matched only by his sense of ill-doing that anyone should dare to think him less than perfect.

In other words, he's an idiot, best ignored.

The fact that he is advocating armed revolution is a little scary, though.