The Corollary

by Sean – crossposted from Hiding in the Backwaters

“I am trying to see things from your perspective, but I’m having a hard time getting my head that far up my ass.”

But, certainly, there — there certainly are concerns about having, you know, openly gay people in the military. I mean, the example I like to give is if — for example, if you put me in a platoon with nothing but, let’s say, Hooter waitresses, that’s going to distract me, and I’m not going to be focused on winning the war. I am going to be focused on other things.

Mark Smith, Conservative Commentator & Constitutional Attorney, commenting on CNN

Is this guy for real? Did he really just admit on national television that a big set of hooters would be so distracting to him he would be unable to focus on keeping himself and his companions alive in the heat of combat? (We’ll ignore for the moment the fact that combat fatigues are a far cry from a Hooters uniform.) OK. So this guy has his own perspective. He is exercising his God given right to be a complete and total idiot. And I am more than happy to let him be an idiot. The problem is he is trying to force his idiocy on the rest of the nation via public policy. What we have here is a classic example of the transference that runs rampant in conservative circles.

Someone who is completely untrustworthy is also unable to trust others. That person will assume that everyone else will try to screw him over in the same way he they will try to rip everyone else off. Conservatives are constantly accusing homosexuals (and the left in general) of harboring agendas which are actually their own. Mr. Smith is apparently such a slobbering Neanderthal that he cannot wrest his attention from an attractive set of mammary glads. He therefore assumes that everyone else is equally incapable of reigning in their sexual impulses.

If you read between the lines of right wing hysteria about the homosexual agenda, their fear is not that homosexuals want America to simply accept homosexuality as a reality with which some people live. Their fear is that homosexuals want America to adopt homosexuality. Apparently homosexuality is so enticing that without strict religious and social injunctions every man in American would start chasing cock. Cigar anyone?

Think about what’s really going on for a minute. Who is trying to force their way of life on whom? The laws GLBT people are trying to get passed are basically laws that dictate wingnuts like Mark Smith have leave us the hell alone. I am not aware of any statute that would require Mark Smith to take a male paramour. On the other hand, conservatives are doing their best to re-criminalize homosexuality and make sure that GLBT people remain marginalized in society.

Transference: because I am an ass who believes everyone should think and f*** like I do, and because I am willing to try to use the law to enforce my views on the rest of the nation, everyone else be equally an ass.

Idiots.

Via Pam’s House Blend and Think Progress