DC Trawler

It’s wrong to call somebody gay because there’s nothing wrong with being gay

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It’s weird how that works, isn’t it? A few weeks ago, Monica Crowley joined the ever-growing list of people forced to apologize to Sandra Fluke after making this joke:

According to Fluke, this was “hate speech” and “blatant homophobia” because… well, because a Republican said it.

Now it’s Rand Paul’s turn in the barrel, after saying:

“The president recently weighed in on marriage, and he said his views were evolving on marriage. Call me cynical, but I wasn’t sure his views on marriage could get any gayer.”

I’m not really sure what that means, but clearly it’s a criticism of Obama by a Republican and it has the word “gay” in it. Therefore, it must be hate speech and so forth.

Whereas this definitely isn’t hate speech:

The reason this isn’t hate speech, even though Andrew Sullivan calls himself a Republican, is because he worships Obama. (And I think Sullivan might be gay? I’m not sure. Just a suspicion. If I’m wrong about that, Mr. Sullivan, no offense. I don’t mean to cast aspersions or insult you, even though there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it if you are.)

It’s just another example of the personal identity doublethink I’ve been talking about. “It’s okay when we say it. When you say it, it’s mean and we’re going to yell at you a lot!” James Taranto has more on this odd phenomenon.

If you honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with being gay, then it shouldn’t bother you if somebody says you’re gay, even if they’re saying it to disparage you. But that’s not how the liberal mind works. Once again, it’s all about good ol’ identity politics. The truth or falsity of a statement all depends on who’s saying it. It’s not that they can’t take a joke… just not from you.

Liberals want conservatives to shut up, while we want nothing more than for them to keep talking.

Yes, please. Please keep talking, kids.

For the next 25 weeks.