[trigger warning: anti gay bigotry, fire, dead horses. please visit this joyfully living otter instead.]
(ETA: trigger warning)
I used to hate that little ditty. I still do, but as a child, as a victim of bullying, I knew that was not true. Words hurt. Words hurt as much, if not more, than fists and weapons. Words are powerful. Words have power.
No, words are power.
Which is why I spend so much of my time talking about the use of words. Why is it important to discuss that atheist have morals, too? Because every time someone says that morals come from god, the idea is planted in another person's mind that atheists are immoral, dangerous perhaps. Maybe shouldn't be suffered to live. I mean, who knows what they might do to the children?
Why is it important to confront it, each and every time, when someone says that a man "cried/threw/whatever like a girl"? Because any time you compare undesirable behavior to being female you spread the belief that to be female is to be lesser. And people who believe that women are lesser have no problem raping women, taking away their rights, paying them less and generally oppressing them. And women who believe that they themselves are less have more trouble fighting against that.
It is important to hold people responsible for the words that they say because words are power. We should hold people as accountable for their words as we do for how they use their guns. If a person randomly fires off a gun into a crowd and kills someone, we do not accept the excuse that well, I wasn't really aiming for anyone in particular, I just wanted to see what people would do.
Which is why I'm holding accountable every single Christian who spreads hatred against gays for the deaths of 8 horses. If you stood up online, at a church, among your friends and spewed hatred and lies and vitriol against gays, then you may as well have held the torch. You may as well have slit the throats of these 8 horses because that would have been kinder than what did happen.
Seven adult horses and one foal died as a result of an arson fire at 874 West Richards Road in McConnelsville just after 11:30 p.m. on Sunday. Owner Brent Whitehouse said he woke to discover the barn engulfed in flames and immediately called 911, but it was too late.
"I couldn't get the door open I could still hear the horses kicking and I tried as hard as I could to get them out and I just couldn't get them out in time," he said.
Those who know Brent believe this was a hate crime, explicit words relating to his sexuality were spray painted in large white letters on the side of the barn before the fire was started.
You. You did it. You spread hatred and fear. It's your fault. Oh, I know, you didn't tell anyone to go torch a barn with 8 horses in it, but don't think that makes you innocent. You put the idea in a person's mind that gays are evil and wrong and will harm your children. You're responsible for that idea. It's that idea that led to 8 horses desperately trying to escape a raging fire and failing. Your idea. Your words.
Your fucking fault.
I... I should have just gone to look at the otter.
ReplyDeleteY'know, I find it quite odd to scroll past this entry and then see a Die in a Fire graphic immediately underneath...
ReplyDeleteI think you just divided by zero and now you're trying to make us all do it. Does not compute.
ReplyDeleteYes, because, "It's evil and horrible and wrong and bad if done to someone or something I like," but, "It's good and worth joking about for someone I don't like," is totally dividing by zero.
ReplyDeleteThe irony is palpable, given the name of the goddamn post.
Geds,
ReplyDeleteWas that directed at me? Because I'm not sure what makes you think that I think this is okay? I didn't mean it as a joke. The whole idea that someone would do such a thing as what was done in this post does not compute to me. I don't understand what goes through a person or people's mind to cause them to do the things they do to ANY other people. It is like dividing by zero. I can't make any sense of it. It wasn't a joke.
Sorry. The "you" was incredibly non-specific, and since it came in a post immediately after mine it seemed you were accusing me of something.
ReplyDeleteOh, no, the "you" was a "you" in general. I see now, it was incredibly non-specific. I'll be more mindful of how things can come across. I usually am commenting directly about the post itself.
ReplyDelete"Words are power" is a tricky subject for me, because (thanks to schoolground bullying) they don't hold any power... at least, not over me. I have long been the model of utter apathy about what others say about me.
ReplyDeleteBut they do hold power, lots of it, over other people. I've tried to explain this to my brother in the past when he was blathering on about going to beat up one of his (now former) friends for a percieved slight against his (also now former) girlfriend. I tried to explain that, given that the friend was still a friend at the time, expressing disappointment and sadness over the friends actions, quietly refusing to accept an apology, and expressing a wish not to communicate with them again, would hurt them more and for longer than merely beating them up, as well as not being able to be charged for assault. This sort of quiet manipulation of emotions is a far better way to get revenge, if that's your thing, than violence.
My brother, however, is a moron, and the situation ended in moronic fashion with him beating up his friend.
To Geds: I give PF a pass on that because D.I.A.F is a meme that has lost a lot of it's literal meaning by virtue of memetic mutation. It's become less of a expression of an actual wish and more an expression of generalised intense wrath, which is quite unlike the very sincere and serious condemnations given by christians towards homosexuals that lead to this shit.
To Geds: I give PF a pass on that because D.I.A.F is a meme that has lost a lot of it's literal meaning by virtue of memetic mutation. It's become less of a expression of an actual wish and more an expression of generalised intense wrath
ReplyDeleteOh, no, I get it. PF is someone you agree with and her violent metaphor is something that you know is meaningless and nothing more than a mark that you and she are in the same tribe. Nothing more.
That's totally cool.
I hereby withdraw my objection.
"Oh, no, I get it. PF is someone you agree with and her violent metaphor is something that you know is meaningless and nothing more than a mark that you and she are in the same tribe."
ReplyDeleteIf by "same tribe" you mean "the internet" then sure. We didn't invent the DIAF meme. 4chan probably did that, and it filtered down to us mere mortals through cultural osmosis.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to sacrifice a chicken to /b/ so that my next hunt will go well.
If by "same tribe" you mean "the internet" then sure. We didn't invent the DIAF meme.
ReplyDeleteUm, no. By "same tribe" I mean "people who disagree with conservative Christians." And, to a certain extent, I suppose "the internet."
See, I get that "Die in a Fire" is a substantively meaningless internet meme. But if you actually sit an think about it, it's an extremely mean thing to say.
And it's odd to me, too, that if I were to come on to this blog and refer to someone as a "retard," I'd probably get jumped all over for being insensitive, no matter if I were just generally using the colloquial meaning of, "giant idiot." And I certainly dare not refer to anyone as a "bitch."
But to (rightly, might I point out) describe the absolute, objective horror of burning eight live horses to death and blame people who were not actually there for using their words to foster an environment where it's decided that such things are okay (which, might I add, is painting with an extremely wide brush. I can't think of a single Christian I have ever met who would say this is okay. I can also think of a bunch of Christians who think that being gay is a sin and probably believe god will judge them) in the post right after the words "die in a fire" are glibly fired off as if words have absolutely no meaning.
Well, it's remarkably lacking in self-awareness.
I see your point, Geds. I suppose it comes back to what I was trying to say before: it's all subjective. Different words hold different levels of power over different people. Some people decry the n-word, others use it as punctuation without offending anybody. The gaming community in general seems to be okay with "raped" as a collequism for "beaten" (which in turn is a collequism for "defeated"), but it's a lot more sensitive on blogs like this one.
ReplyDeleteI suppose a suprisingly large number of even mild insults and swears are fairly mean-hearted if taken literally. "Bugger off", for example, or "Dork" (I think that's the word for a whales penis, but I'm not sure anymore).
But to (rightly, might I point out) describe the absolute, objective horror of burning eight live horses to death and blame people who were not actually there for using their words to foster an environment where it's decided that such things are okay (which, might I add, is painting with an extremely wide brush. I can't think of a single Christian I have ever met who would say this is okay.
ReplyDeleteThis begs the question, "when do we become responsible for our own actions?". It's not that I don't think that words have power, certainly they do. I've been on the receiving end, as have most of you, of insulting, degrading, inexcusable abusive language. But I can see the point that I think Geds is making here. Words do have power, but how much is up to the individual.
Quasar, for example, has said that words don't hold that much power over him/her.(sorry Quasar, just didn't want to assume). Ted Bundy used porn for an excuse for his horrific crimes. People tend to justify their actions in all sorts of ways.
I'm not saying that PF is wrong. Words do drive people. They can motivate people for good or bad. But doesn't it take someone screwed in the head to burn down a barn with 8 horses in it just because they don't like what it's owner is/does?
I've been a conservative Christian(I no longer am) for most of my life and I know no one who would, even given the anit-gay/lesbian fueled message in most of these circles do such a thing nor think this is okay.
I'm not trying to say that this message is blameless, but words are used everyday in positive and negative ways and they don't necessarily fuel violence. That's an individual's choice.
D'Ma: That's basically it.
ReplyDeleteThere's a difference between, "You're contributing to a Christian dialogue that makes it possible to keep gay people as second-class citizens," and, "It's you're fault that someone a thousand miles away burned down a barn full of horses." Without an actual direct incitement to violence that line cannot be drawn.
Where do we stop laying blame at that point? Is it all homophobic Christians? Is it all Evangelical Christians? Is it all Christians? Is it everyone named Fred?
And do we go after the person who sold the arsonist matches? Do we go after the company that manufactured those matches? Do we go after the dealership that sold that person the truck to drive to the barn and set the fire?
If we start to simply say, "It's your fault because you're tangentially related to this tragedy," well, eventually everyone did it.
And then there's the problem of strategy. If I want a Christian to agree it's their fault even though they did nothing, that means I open myself up to having to agree that, yes, I am a baby killer the next time a pro-lifer hurls that term at me. I never killed a baby. I've never impregnated anyone who then went on to have an abortion. I don't even believe that the idea of abortion as "killing a baby" is accurate. But I am pro-choice, which by this logic means that I am responsible for every abortion ever performed and, therefore, a baby killer.
So now that we've established that I am a baby killer and the person sitting across from me is a horse burner, let's sit down and have a nice chat and see if we can find some common ground.
That sounds like fun.
"Quasar, for example, has said that words don't hold that much power over him/her.(sorry Quasar, just didn't want to assume)."
ReplyDelete:) Nothing to apologise for. It's interesting watching which one people assume I am on the net. Usually the assumption is male unless stated otherwise, but there are always exceptions to the rule. One guy thought I was a girl for months without either of us realising the mistake.
For the record, I'm a guy (most of the time... goddamn timecube).
Oh hey... I was going to say I thought my avatar was fairly manly for a rediculously powerful celestial phenomena, but then I looked at it through the freud-tinted glasses. Oh. Oh my. What has been seen cannot be unseen.
Too funny Quasar! I actually thought that given the avatar and the name you were a guy, but I didn't want to assume. I've noticed my assumptions, well, you know, they make an ass out of me. :)
ReplyDeleteGeds;
ReplyDeletei don't think PF is saying "punish all homophobic people for this".
she's saying something like "as long as you keep saying "female humans are less intelligent than men, never ever mentally become adults, and are incapable of living without male guidance" then women are going to be stuck living as fucking property"
as long as people keep screaming "abortion murders babies! doctors who perform abortions murder babies!" we'll continue to have people trying [and, too often, succeeding] to assassainate abortion doctors.
as long as people scream hateful things about gay people, other people are going to DO hateful things TO gay people.
"DIAF" to ONE person may be hateful, but it's to ONE person.
and to be completely, frankly fucking honest, it's not even as much as many Christians wish on ME on a regular basis. i RARELY get a "come to Jesus" if something happens to let a person know i'm pagan. if it's a person who is friendly to me already, i generally get silence - but if it's a stranger, 9 times out of 10 the very first thing said will be "You're going to HELL!"
at least, if one is dying in a fire, once you're dead it's over. not true, with the apparant wish many fundy Christians have towards me.
[i don't blame all Christians, Christianity, or Christ - i blame the people IGNORING their holy book, especially the "thou shall NOT judge" bit]