June 14, 2008
From the Mailbag: Speaking the Truth About Obama is “Vile Vomit”
Somebody tell me: What is the point of comments like the following? Do people actually believe they’re going to get me to change my mind, or shut up, or pledge my allegiance to Obama, or jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, or whatever it is they want me to do, by sending messages like this? Really, I’d like to know:
Date: Sat, June 14, 2008 11:23 am
Name: Ryan
emailaddress: ryanclary@ —.comMessage: This is the most humorless and nasty blog I’ve ever read. You spew vile on a nearly daily basis about Obama and his supporters but then scream at people not to “bully” you. The internet is perfect for people like you. You dish but don’t seem to want to take it.
By the way, I agree with some of the substance behind your arguments (as hard as it is to find the substance underneath all the vomit). I strongly support Obama, but was appalled by the sexism towards Clinton by the media, general public, and some in the Obama campaign. It’s too bad your point is badly lost amidst the insults and sweeping statements you make against the candidate and his supporters.
Ryan Clary
Oh, brother.
What irony: You chew me out for making “sweeping statements,” while lumping me into some vague category of “people like you.”
Who are “people like me,” Ryan? Strong women with strong opinions who won’t sit back like good little girls and let the big, tough boys tell us what to think, when to speak, what to say, and how to vote? Newsflash: I left the Catholic church when I was 15, and, more than 30 years later, I have no intention of kowtowing to self-ordained priests in the Mighty Church of Obama.
And how is the Internet “perfect” for “people like me,” Ryan? If you think I’m afraid to get out in the street for a good, loud protest, you’re sadly mistaken. I think it’s the Obama 101st Keyboard Brigade who, if forced to confront someone like me IRL, would wet their pants, burst into tears, and run home to the safe haven of Mom’s basement.
And if I “don’t seem to want to take” any more bullying, why should I? I’ve taken more than my fair share. I’m a lesbian, remember? You know — one of those middle-aged, white, feminist lesbians your camp delights in marginalizing as a bunch of irrelevant old biddies you don’t want or need in your Great New Society. And when I’m not standing up against attempts (by “people like you,” Ryan) to intimidate and silence me, I’m standing up against people who have made it their lives’ work to harass, threaten, and demonize gay and lesbian Americans.
You think I’m “dishing out” anything even remotely comparable, Ryan? Think again. In the real world, I’ve been physically shoved, pushed up against a wall, accosted with a pool cue turned weapon, and threatened with rape — all just to “prove” to me that my lesbianism (and, I suppose, my feminist uppitiness) could be “cured” by “the right man.”
Now, you tell me again how I can “dish it out,” but I can’t take it. I’ve never “dished out” half of what I’ve received. By comparison, my words are a love tap — and if you’re so upset by what I say (and it’s obvious you are; I appreciate you letting me know I’ve struck a raw nerve in you), you try living with what I get, and then get back to me.
I’ve had a lifetime of being bullied, Ryan, and I don’t need one more minute of it, from you or anyone else.
Next, about this “vile” thing: I love how you fail to tell me what you find “vile” here.
I guess, in your book, Ryan, telling the truth about Obama and his supporters is just “spewing vile.” Funny, but I don’t ever recall expressing the desire to see Obama “self-immolate on the steps of the Capitol” — which would be vile indeed. Funny, but I don’t ever recall telling an Obama supporter, “No one cares if you shove a
Or is it just that strong criticism of Obama and Obamanation is “vile,” Ryan? Is it my constant armchair psychoanalysis of Obamamania that bothers you (maybe, ’cause, I’m, like, right?)
Are your feathers ruffled because I produced the most faithful recounting of the Obama LGBT conference call available — and still didn’t buy into the “Let’s rally around the Unity Pony!” snow job? Or is it that you’re supremely frustrated because you don’t have the answers to the 14 questions I have for Barack — which you and I both know will never be addressed?
Maybe you’re just embarrassed by the fact that I call your fellow Obama supporters on their most despicable — and downright craziest — behavior, such as when Obots everywhere took Clinton’s RFK remark as a silent “dog whistle” to her supporters, or when your fellow Obama supporters express the certainty that, given the opportunity, Hillary herself would literally kill you-know-who.
Or maybe you’re mad because I was right about the Obots marching in lockstep to the orders of their Beloved Leader.
Or maybe you just don’t like people who shove the truth about the self-destruction of the Democratic Party in your face.
Oh, did any of those words offend your fragile sensibilities — “Obamabot,” “Obot,” “Obamaniac,” “Obamanation”? I’ll make you a deal, buddy: You get the Obamabots to stop flinging every sexist, ageist, elitist, lying epithet (”bitch,” “old,” “uneducated,” “paleofeminist,” “postsexual,” and worse) at those of us not swept away by your precious Obama, and I’ll think about striking “Obamabot” and all its variants from my vocabulary. (I don’t think there’s anything you can say or do to get me to stop using the word “cult” — at least, not until Obamanation stops acting like one.)
I will give you some credit for admitting — even if you can’t stop yourself from slapping me around in the process — that even a tiny sliver of truth in my words has managed to seep into your consciousness. But I hope you’re not reserving your ire at the sexism you’ve seen just for little ol’ me; I hope you’ve raged against the machine in which you are a cog. ‘Cause, see, Ryan, I’m the last person you need to educate about sexism; you’d be spending your time far more constructively educating the sexists in your own camp. Are you doing that? Do you “considerest the beam that is in thine own eye” as you “beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye”?
Oh, and if you want me to take your claim of outrage at sexism seriously, you might find another word to characterize my writing besides
And if you don’t like what you read here, then why are you reading it — especially “on a nearly daily basis”? Are you just trolling all non-Kool-Aid-fueled blogs looking for something to get indignant about? Did you just want to unload your anger with us non-Kool-Aid drinkers onto the first one you found, and I happened to be the lucky one?
Oh, and by the way: You’re the one without a sense of humor. Have you seen the Pocket Guide to the Obamaniac Behavior Cycle? I created that — and everybody but Obama supporters thinks it’s a freaking laugh riot. And what about “If You’re An Obama Supporter… / If You’re A Clinton Supporter…” (Part 1, Part 2)? Didn’tcha like that, Ryan? No? Well, maybe you’re just not a fan of “it’s funny because it’s true” humor.
And if you think I’m “humorless and nasty,” you’ve obviously never read The Rude Pundit (he lurrrrrves using the C-word, and he seems to be obsessed with the visual of— well, just go search for the word “skull” over there, and you’ll see what I mean) or Annotated Rant.
G’wan, I dare ya: Go read them, and then come back and tell me how “humorless,” “nasty,” and “vile” I am.
Finally, what is it you hoped to achieve with your message to me, Ryan? You can’t possibly believe that I was going to read it, sit back, and think: “Gosh, you know, he’s right. I’m vile, nasty, and humorless, and I’ve been terribly unfair to poor, saintly Mr. Obama, and to his perfectly innocent, butter-wouldn’t-melt supporters. I’m going to mend my ways right now, and throw my full support behind a ‘movement’ that, when it’s not dismissing my existence entirely, treats me like total crap. Why, I think I’ll use next week’s grocery money to make a big, fat donation to Obama right this minute — that should be an appropriate ritual sacrifice to get me started on atoning for my horrible, morally reprehensible sin of telling it like it is.”
So, there you are, Ryan: If you were looking for attention today, you got it. You got the vile, nasty, humorless old lesbian to take a few minutes out of her day just for you.
P.S. You know what’s really sad? The way you characterize this blog, while conveniently ignoring all the extremely positive pro-gay news and opinion here — and the constant, consistent, full-frontal assaults on the Radical Righties who hate us queers with a passion far more “vile” than anything I’ve ever written in my life. It’s also a damned shame you haven’t the first clue about the years I spent blogging against BushCo, when precious few dared — which brought me more “vile” hate mail (including the occasional death threat) than you could ever imagine.
You know, Ryan, you’d probably think I was a great blogger if I didn’t disagree with you, vehemently, on Obama. But I do, so you dismiss everything I write, and worse, you dismiss me.
Some Unity Pony ya got going there, Ryan.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, Women
