Old News, Same Response

I tend to get a little more than fed up with the politically correct left from time to time, particularly when their comments reveal that they obviously don't get it. I just ran across this article at Pink News, a reaction to the reaction to that atrocious article about Stephen Gately's death by that homophobic bitch Jan Moir, which I commented on as part of this post.

This one is by someone named Adrian Tippets, and he is sooo lost.

But silencing viewpoints is more likely to breed homophobia than end it. How, other than by debate, does one challenge prejudice? When we deny the freedom to speak each time we hear something we don’t like, as Thomas Paine reminds us, everyone becomes a slave to their own opinions.

Freedom of speech is not just about the right to speak your mind. It is also the right to listen, to have opinions of all sides exposed to scrutiny. It has no value without the freedom to think differently. Moir gives expression to doubts that are lingering in the back of many people’s minds. For all we know, there may even be a grain of truth, somewhere among her bizarre utterances.

Can we see the obvious? No one "silenced" Jan Moir. She not only had her piece published in a newspaper with a circulation of some 2 million, she did a follow-up piece in which she played the victim card, as well as dodging the issue:

The point of my column – which I wonder how many of the people complaining have fully read – was to suggest that, in my honest opinion, his death raises many unanswered questions.

That's a flat lie. The point of her column was to cast aspersions on Stephen Gately and demean gay men as a group. I don't see any other possible interpretation. The "unanswered questions" are in her own head (and I shudder to think what it must be like in there). If she maintains that 33-year-old men don't just drop dead, well, she's wrong. I happen to have known someone of about that age who died of exactly the same causes. In his case it took longer, but it was beyond anything the doctors could do -- they simply could not drain his lungs fast enough. If he hadn't been in the hospital, he would have gone much more quickly. As for "intimacy with a stranger," that's certainly none of her business, and bringing it up is nothing more than a naked attempt to buy into the "unhealthy lifestyle" mantra so beloved of the professional homophobes. If open relationships or three-ways give her the willies, she shouldn't participate in them.

Now Tippets is trying to justify her, as you can see from the quote above. And if you read his commentary, it becomes painfully obvious that he has no idea what he's talking about. It's straw man followed by red herring followed by logical disconnects that don't even have names yet, used to argue positions that have nothing to do with this story at all.

Let me state it clearly: Jan Moir stated her opinion on something that was really none of her business to begin with. She did so offensively and quite obviously to damage as many people as possible with her insinuations. Now, of course, she can't deal with the criticism (have you noticed how that works) and is squawking about freedom of speech. And here's some airhead who, presumably, is to the left of Attila the Hun, trying to defend her from the legitimate consequences of that "free speech."

Got news for you Adrian, and Jan Moir as well -- nothing's free in this world. And whatever you do or say is going to come back and bite you in the ass.