One of America's top concern trolls, Dana Millbank, is once again bothering the country with his opinions. He believes that the Southern Poverty Law Center ought not to call the Family Research Council a "hate group," because of the shooting a few days ago.
I took issue with Glenn Beck before his fall for stirring up the unstable by promoting conspiracy theories in the mass media; more than one Beck follower became violent. What the Southern Poverty Law Center and Human Rights Campaign have done isn’t close to the level of provocation Beck achieved, but that doesn’t justify their actions. The National Organization for Marriage, which opposes gay marriage, is right to say that the attack “is the clearest sign we’ve seen that labeling pro-marriage groups as ‘hateful’ must end.”
Gays and lesbians are winning the fight for equality by example and persuasion. Those who support gay rights will gain nothing by sticking inflammatory labels on their opponents, many of whom are driven by deeply held religious beliefs.
My fanny. Gays and lesbians -- and, you know, us straights who have gays and lesbians in our families, or else who just happen not to be bigots on principle -- are prefectly correct to call anyone who actively works to deny them equal rights under the law mean names like "hateful bigots." That is because trying to deny someone equal rights under the law is, as it happens, hateful bigotry.
And when it is as widely considered bigotry to openly call for denying equal rights to gays and lesbians as it is to call for open racism, we'll have come pretty far. Oh, we won't have ended homophobia, just like we haven't ended racism. But we will have crossed a pretty damn important line. Bigotry is bigotry and hate is hate, and that is that.
Or to come at this from a different angle, I missed where Milbank demanded that right wing groups like, oh, the FRC, stop referring to abortion as baby-killing, because that has stirred up doctor killing, which has happened pretty often. Look, if you are genuinely anti-abortion, you think it's murder, and if the state isn't stopping murderers, shouldn't you do something? Talk about an incitement to violence!
All this kinda speaks volumes about the Official Village Position on Violent Rhetoric and the Polite Deference Due to Certain Groups. Phooey.