Joseph Backholm is the Executive Director of the Family
Policy Institute of Washington. That institute promotes family values,
and Backholm is accordingly also the leader of the Preserve Marriage Washington
campaign to repeal Washington’s marriage equality law (those would be the wrong
kind of families, of course). Backholm denies, of course, that the marriage
equality movement is comparable to the civil rights movement because, according to Backholm,
“today’s argument about the redefinition of marriage would be like the civil
rights movement if the civil rights movement was an attempt to have black
people be referred to as white people.” That’s a pretty tortured attempt to
hide the fact that your motive is bigotry.
As most such activists Backholm warns against the consequences of marriage equality:
persecution of Christians and those who disagree with marriage equality. Backholm is one of
those who live a breathe a martyr complex, and in Backholm’s world the
Christian majority is already persecuted, with the liberals just about to put
him and his fellows in jail.
But then, Backholm thinks marriage equality will fail.
It will fail because the case for same-sex marriage, he claims, doesn’t rely on
logic. Instead, Blackholm said that unlike anti-gay activists, proponents of
marriage equality depend on demonizing the opposition and “emotional manipulation”
to win support.
Diagnosis:
Sometimes you suspect him to be dimly aware of how feeble his efforts actually
are, but those moment of self-realization, if they are there, are quickly
swamped by rank bigotry, a well-developed persecution complex and dubiously
coherent wingnut talking points. Sad.
Sad, but rather cute. :-)
ReplyDeleteAh, the b section, quite a selection of potential loons here
ReplyDeleteAdam Baldwin (for claiming that the agenda of environmentalism is "bolshevism" and that there is no "hard evidence" that Obama doesn't want ebola in America)
Guy Benson (on the boy wonders of wingnuttia writing for TownHall)
Dave Blount (far-right blogger at Moonbattery.com, rabidly homophobic and xenophobic, and completely paranoid about "marxists" (by which he means anyone who doesn't agree with him 100% of the time on any issue), leftists, immigration and "black thugs" being a threat to good hard-working white men like him...his deranged screed accusing TIME Magazine of propagandizing against child-birth when TIME published an article on childfree couples would qualify him for an entry even if it were the only crazy thing he ever wrote, and it most definitely is not)
Cathy Brennan (virulently transphobic radfem)
Gregg Braden (New Age woo-meister and author of some inane nonsense about the 2012 Mayan apocalypse; thinks that human emotions can alter DNA)
Autism denialist John Best (to bolster his candidacy, he believes in the Iluminati and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion)
Michael Brown (no relation to the unarmed teenager shot in Fergusson last year nor to the former director of FEMA; this guy thinks that demons cause homosexuality and that gay rights amounts to persecution of Christians)
Bruce Bawer (conspiracy theorist who rails about "Eurabia" and "Cultural Marxism," also racist towards the Romani as well (he wrote a screed about them that was practically indistinguishable from the Anti-Jewish diatribes of the leaders of Nazi Germany. Ironically, he thinks that the "leftists" (wingnut-speak for "anyone who disagrees with me for any reasons whatsoever") who criticize him for his bigotry are the ones are like the Nazis because they are trying to silence criticism of Islam because they are pro-Jihad. Or something.
Don Black (founder of Stormfront)
Neal Boortz (did you know that not only are black people the only people that are on welfare, but all black people are on welfare? Because Boortz does! He also is well-informed about the lifestyles of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, who are "parasites" that live off of food stamps and turn to prostitution. His evidence? He says so!)
Matthew Bracken (a Freeper who has written three books so I guess he has some influence, if only marginal. He makes up for it in sheer incoherent craziness and cognitive dissonance. Read his Rationalwiki page and you'll get the idea)
Yeah, these are worthy candidates, and some of them are new to me. We'll try to cover at least some of them. I even remember considering Michael Brown for round 1, but feeling that I didn't have enough stuff to pin on him - that has definitely changed. We have, however, already covered Don Black and Gregg Braden :)
Delete(Things may, however, be a bit on the slow side here the next few weeks as other, extra-blogging activities pile up).