Saturday, April 25, 2009

Hypocrisy: The phony Out-rage of identity politics

From a discussion on outing of gay Republicans, a liberal says "The whole idea is about outing hypocrisy. ... We are only out to expose hypocritical behavior in politics." I weighed in on why this is wrong:

What the identity politics activists call ‘hypocrisy’ is really those members of the ‘group’ who dare to dissent from the Party Line. Liberals speak of “gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered issues” as if there is one One Right Way for a gay person to think about such things. Open-minded people call BS on that. Consider the possibility that closeted gay politician voted based on their consciences or different personal viewpoint.

When a conservative individual who is outside the white/male/hetero stereotype rises up in prominence, the Liberals are particularly unforgiving. The Liberals went after Clarence Thomas. They saw a black conservative as an impossible and illegitimate thing. Black conservatives are not lockstep with the NAACP agenda; conservative gays are NOT lock-step with the “Gay Agenda” so to speak. They may not think, for example, that gay marriage is necessary nor desirable. They go AGAINST THE GRAIN OF GAY IDENTITY POLITICS, just as Clarence Thomas when against the grain of black identity politics (or for that matter Sarah Palin goes against feminist grain). Such individuals are considered even worse than the white/male/hetero conservatives - they are traitors to their ‘group’.

As such, the outing can be seen as an attempt to personally destroy any individuals (ie gay conservatives) who hard-core identity politics leftists think are illegitimate. That expression of illegitimacy we see in the false charge of ‘hypocrisy’. Yet it is not hypocrisy to have an opinion about the rights of a group that goes agains the identity politics grain; it is merely a DIFFERENT opinion.

Once you unwrap the faux moral-superiority built around this phony ‘hypocrisy’ claim, you are left with naked political bullying combined with the arrogant an prejudicial attitude that members of a group should “stay in line” with the Group Identity Party Line. The ‘escape hatch’ for any such closeted gay is to Vote the Party Line, So the threat becomes: “Do as we want - OR ELSE.” As such, its modern political Brown-shirt-ism.

The bottom-line is to not fall for the phony hypocrisy claim. This is a weapon used by the forces of political correctness. There are far greater evils in the world than a person who some activist thinks is 'hypocritical' for having a disagreeable opinion.

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