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News & ArtsThursday, June 23, 2011
LGBTQITSLFA Evolve Already
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 2:37 PM
2
Am I the only one that just thinks this is a horrible idea? I mean I really really want Obama to support my equal rights but I also really really want to not have a batshit crazy republican in the white house that will set gay rights back a decade! I feel like a pc user in a room full of apple fanboys.. Can we not wait for him to get reelected then push hard it seems pretty clear at least to me that is what he was planning
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@2 Remember that now a majority of Americans are for marriage equality now. He has already repealed DADT, he rejects DOMA, and now it's time to go all the way.
No more dilly dallying.
No more dilly dallying.
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@4 A majority does not get you elected have we already forgot 2000? I understand it's hard to wait for our rights BUT if he comes out for it and the republican hammer him on it and win in a few bigoted swing states where are we then? I think it's fair to say gay marriage isn't polling at 50+ % in Florida or even Ohio
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When Obama says his views are "evolving", he's basically trying to provide an example or model for middle Americans to accept gay marriage. It's a stance that doesn't make them defensive about their old-fashioned views, while at the same time showing them the way forward.
7
Fantastic video.
Now here’s hoping he also evolves back to sane positions on habeas corpus, treating previous administration officials like they’re not above the law, and thinking he has the authority to murder any US citizen he deems a threat without any oversight or trial.
Seriously people, the guy is cementing the corruption of the Bush years into place and you unamerican serfs hardly even seem to care because he might be slightly better in a small select group of areas than the only other choice you’ve convinced yourselves you have. YOU are the problem for accepting the two party duoply.
Now here’s hoping he also evolves back to sane positions on habeas corpus, treating previous administration officials like they’re not above the law, and thinking he has the authority to murder any US citizen he deems a threat without any oversight or trial.
Seriously people, the guy is cementing the corruption of the Bush years into place and you unamerican serfs hardly even seem to care because he might be slightly better in a small select group of areas than the only other choice you’ve convinced yourselves you have. YOU are the problem for accepting the two party duoply.
8
@7 I don't think obama is quite the one doing the cementing. i htink there's quite a bit of the State still there from Bush years working on him. If propaganda techniques can be tried on congresscritters, who's to say the presidential office isn't these days the target of massive effort to keep things the way they are?
I just think it means we all have to keep pushing.
I just think it means we all have to keep pushing.
9
Entirely independent of my political views, will you people - all of you involved in this conversation on all sides - PLEASE stop misrepresenting evolution? I'm an evolutionary biologist and it makes my teeth itch. There's nothing in or about evolution that implies improvement or enlightenment. It's just change over time in whatever direction the selective winds blow. There is also no such thing as "more" or "less evolved." All life has been around as long as it's been around, and everything has had an equally long time to evolve in.
Suggesting that a regressive thinker is "unevolved" is as bad as comparing a black man to an "unevolved African Ape" (I'm looking at you, Mr. How Strange That I Find Racism Wherever I Look I Guess Everyone Else Must Be Racist) in technical terms, if not moral, and entirely comparable to the goddamn creationist halfwits asking, "Well, if people evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?"
ARGHSTOPIT*HEADDESK*
Suggesting that a regressive thinker is "unevolved" is as bad as comparing a black man to an "unevolved African Ape" (I'm looking at you, Mr. How Strange That I Find Racism Wherever I Look I Guess Everyone Else Must Be Racist) in technical terms, if not moral, and entirely comparable to the goddamn creationist halfwits asking, "Well, if people evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?"
ARGHSTOPIT*HEADDESK*
10
@9 evolution can mean something else from biological evolution,
"The gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form"
I'm an archaeologist. I respect the theory of evolution, but to suggest that the word was coined to mean darwinian evolution is a bit narrow.
Sorry for that, but it is being used correctly here, and elsewhere.
"The gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form"
I'm an archaeologist. I respect the theory of evolution, but to suggest that the word was coined to mean darwinian evolution is a bit narrow.
Sorry for that, but it is being used correctly here, and elsewhere.
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Thank goodness for Get Equal. Good to remember that there are equal rights organizations doing good work in the midst of disenchantment with GLAAD, HRC and Equality California.
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@8 He's a former constitutional law professor, for screaming out loud, BEG. I know the system is 90% of the problem, but he does have some power. There's always a choice. He deserves no slack for clearly making the most amoral political calculations an intelligent person can make, and perhaps has ever made. A true patriot would not do what he's doing, they'd throw their body on the machine before seeing the Constitution desecrated this way.
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Black hands? Where are the Black hands? I would be model my hands. Did the person who did the video not have black friends? This is not a white issue, making a white video makes it appear to be a white issue.
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Btw BEG, on the off chance you check this thread again, after 3 beers I just now realized my emphasis on "for screaming out loud" could be construed as a crack on your deafness. Was definitely not my intention.
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@10, you're technically correct, but you know that is absolutely not how it's being used here or anywhere else in the common parlance. When people say "evolution" you know what they mean, similarly to how, when someone says "The White House," you don't look around and say, "Which one?"
Though while we're at it, evolution by natural selection IS actually a pretty apt metaphor for what the President's position on equal rights is in fact doing - rather than adapting directionally toward a "better" endpoint, it's just changing to survive in the environment it inhabits at the time.
Though while we're at it, evolution by natural selection IS actually a pretty apt metaphor for what the President's position on equal rights is in fact doing - rather than adapting directionally toward a "better" endpoint, it's just changing to survive in the environment it inhabits at the time.
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@12: I agree with every word you said. But a true patriot would never get elected in the first place, unfortunately.
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