Every so often a prominent
Christofascist will either warn of or call for a “revolution” in
response to the advancement of LGBT+ equality, women's rights,
immigrants' rights, or any positive social progress which offends
them. Here's a clip of one of the latest calls/warnings, this time
from Mat Staver, Chairman of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty
University School of Law:
He envisions this so-called
“revolution” as being akin to the American Revolution, but is
careful to add the disclaimer at the end that he hopes it would be a
peaceful revolution, though, wink wink, one never knows what will
happen.
Fear-mongering is a tried and true
tactic of the religious right, of course. It's been in their tool
kit from day one, long before they hacked a weeping hole in the
abdomen of politics and started fucking it for all they're worth.
They have little reason to abandon this approach; it has proven
effective for countless generations. Even when they trot out their
newest favorite, playing the victim, there is a strong undercurrent
of fear-mongering, if not an overcurrent.
Fear and loathing, indeed, appear to be
their primary modes when interacting with and commenting upon the
world at large. There are a plethora of reasons for this: they're
effective ways to rile up their base for votes and money, they neatly
plug in to their bizarre fondness for apocalyptic prophecy, and they
make for great sound-bites and click-bait. Hysteria sells, so it's
no wonder they start babbling about revolutions every time it occurs
to them that civilized society is swiftly passing them by.
When your life is characterized by
incessant extremism, it starts to seem rational after a while. This
is why they can make the most ridiculous statements with straight
faces; they are literally blind to their own lunacy. It would nearly
be sad if they weren't legitimately dangerous.
And make no mistake, they are
dangerous. For every bigoted fool who utters violent inanities on
television or writes them in a blog, there are dozens even dumber who
are willing to turn thoughts and words into actions. Mat Staver may
not be a physically dangerous person in and of himself, but the
unfocused halfwits who cling to his every word, many of them are.
What the fringe right lacks in numbers, it makes up in rabid fervor.
They fancy themselves modern Spartans, defending the gap against
overwhelming odds. They know, within themselves, that the battle is
lost, but they will go down fighting nonetheless, and their sole goal
is to take as many decent, patriotic Americans down with them as
possible.
Many of my fellow bloggers on the left
make a point of showing their readers the revolutionary battle cries
of our enemies, some to spur counter-action, some simply to publicize
these statements in hopes of arousing disgust, and a precious few
poke fun at these histrionic armchair soldiers. Those are all
excellent motives, of course, useful, helpful, socially acceptable.
They are righteous and good reactions.
But that ain't me. Not today, at least. For these would-be revolutionaries, I have two words:
Bring it.
And now, a few more words, because I'm
a wordy fatherfucker.
Grab those guns. You know, the ones
the government still hasn't taken from you yet? Go grab 'em. Slip
into your finest Duck Dynasty camo. Gather all of your burly,
non-cognitive buddies together. Hoist your rebel flag on the back of
the pickup truck you plan to ride into battle, but pretend it's not
emblematic of failure. Blare audio clips from Bryan Fischer, Tony
Perkins, and Matt Barber on crackly, thirty-dollar Wal-Mart speakers
to rouse and rally the troops. Get good and fired up, and then nut
up and march (or, you know, trudge) to the battlefield.
No, I don't know where the battlefield
is. You're the ones crying out for war, so that's your
responsibility. Pick a target. You don't have to worry about
thinking too much about it; most of the country is against you at
this point, so the enemy truly is everywhere. Just go forth, brave,
Christian soldiers, and spill some blood in the name of the Lord and
Dead Jerry Falwell. (Probably not in that order.) This is a
revolution, boys! Go prove you're real men! Real men don't sit
around wringing their hands and talking, after all. Real men do
stuff! Don't they? Your cause is righteous, isn't it? The Lord
will protect and strengthen you, won't he?
Or maybe, just maybe, you're all a
bunch of chickenshits. Maybe you already know that, outside of your
overwrought echo chambers, you're a dying breed. Maybe you
understand, at some primal level, that your worldview is fading, with
more bigots dying each day than being born. Perhaps you lack the
courage of your convictions, and prefer to sit comfortably in your
intellectual ghettos rather than risk losing life and limb for your
cause.
Because, make no mistake, even if you
somehow muster the gumption to actually do anything beyond whining
and griping, you will still lose. Women, LGBTs, racial and religious
minorities, the poor, the downtrodden, we're survivors. Our
continued presence in this world proves it. You've been trying to
destroy us for years, and still we rise. You knock us down, and we
stand once again. You try to put us in our place, and we are only
emboldened. You assemble to vote down our rights and our dignity,
and we take our rights anyway. We are not shrinking violets, taking
what we're given and liking it; we are Warriors.
And you know it. And that is why you
talk the talk but sit the walk. You fear us.
And if you would come against us, you
should.
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