Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Dennis Prager is a moron

http://townhall.com/columnists/DennisPrager/2010/08/17/same-sex_marriage_and_the_insignificance_of_men_and_women/page/full

“The left passionately supports the most remarkable and radical change in modern social history -- the redefinition of marriage from male-female to include male-male and female-female.”


*GASP* [dies of shock]

“Marriage is the building block of society. “


Defend this assertion, please.

“Changing its nature will therefore change society. Among other things, same-sex marriage means that because sex (now called "gender") no longer matters for society's most important institution, it no longer matters in general.”


The underlying claim here being that changing society is always a bad thing? Please also defend that assertion. Additionally, you do not understand the definitions of “sex” and “gender.” Sex is not now called gender; sex is biological sex and gender is the complex system of markers associated with what gets labeled “feminine” or “masculine.” Try to keep up with the basic terminology.


“Men and women as distinct entities no longer have significance. Which is exactly what the cultural left and the gay rights movement advocate -- even though the vast majority of Americans who support same-sex marriage do not realize that this is what they are supporting. Most Americans who support same-sex marriage feel (and "feel" is the crucial verb here, as the change to same-sex marriage is much more felt than thought through) that gays should have the right to marry a member of their own sex. It is perceived as unfair to gays that they cannot do so. And that is true. It is unfair to gays. But the price paid for eliminating this unfairness is enormous: It is the end of marriage as every society has known it. And it is more than that. It is the end of any significance to gender. Men and women are now declared interchangeable.”


Are you high right now? I don’t even know where to start with this steaming pile of crazy. What “significance” are you so desperate to preserve with regard to the difference between men and women? I literally do not understand what you are trying to describe. Also, “every society” has defined marriage exactly as America defines it in 2010? Are you really ignorant enough to believe this or are you merely hoping your readers are? It’s so far from true I can’t even get to a place where I can start telling you how untrue it is. Besides which, who gives a shit? “It’s always been this way,” even when accurate, is not an argument for maintaining anything. Oh, and, by “unfair” do you perhaps mean “unconstitutional?” I give up trying to parse the last bit about men and women being interchangeable. It sounds like you’re all worked up because girls are walking around in pants instead of skirts or something?


“That is why, as I noted in a recent column -- the "T" has been added to "GLB:" "Transgendered" has been added to "Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual." "T" does not represent transsexuals -- people who choose to change their sex. No one is arguing against such people.”


Really? Golly, that’s a relief!

“Transgendered" refers to people who are members of one sex and who wish to publicly act as if they are members of the other sex, e.g., men wearing women's clothing in public. The transgendered who publicly act out are living the cultural Left's primary agenda: rendering gender insignificant. Your sex is what you feel it is; and if you feel both, you are both.”


I love your use of “act out” here, as if these people are children who need discipline. I guess you would classify me as part of this devious cultural Left (?) so I’ll tip you a wink: That’s not our primary agenda. In fact, we’re the ones who have pissed you guys off all this time by MAKING GENDER SIGNIFICANT. Jesus Christ, what do you WANT? You don’t like women’s studies or feminism or gender studies or queer theory or anything that pays attention to gender as an actual force in culture and society, and now you’re accusing us of what…DENYING the influence of gender? SPEAK SENSE, MAN.


“Gender doesn't matter.”


It really does. More than it should, in point of fact. Look how wadded up your utterly masculine shorts are about it right now, if you need an example.


“That is why Judge Walker and his supporters dismiss the argument that, all things being equal, it is better for children to be raised by a married man and woman than by two men or two women. If Walker or GLBT activists and their supporters admitted that children need a mother and father, they would be affirming that there is great significance to the differences between men and women.”


What do you mean by “need?” It’s demonstrable that children do not “need” a mother and a father to survive, or to grow up well-adjusted and happy. Why do you keep saying things that you do not make any effort to back up with evidence, as if everyone should simply take your word for it? You don’t even know what “sex” means; forgive me if I mistrust your research skillz.


“They reject that. Instead, they and Walker offer studies that purport to prove that it makes no difference whether or not a child has parents of both sexes. These academic studies are as unserious as all those academic studies of a generation ago that "proved" that boys do not prefer to play with trucks and soldiers but would be just as happy to play with dolls and tea sets, and that girls do not prefer dolls and tea sets but would be just as happy to play with trucks and soldiers.”


OK? By unserious do you mean to charge the researchers with playing a joke?

“These newer "studies" of same-sex parents are as valid as the earlier propaganda in the guise of scientific studies. Like the boy-girl studies, these were conducted by academics with agendas: the denial of male-female differences and the promotion of same-sex marriage.”


“Studies.” I see what you did there with the scare quotes. When did “academics” become a pejorative, by the way? I’m still trying to figure out what you’re frothing to protect. “Male-female differences?” Meaning what, exactly? I do make a habit of denying essentialism, I confess, because I think it’s bollocks, not because I have an “agenda” to think it’s bollocks. I also do indeed promote same-sex marriage. Guilty!


“That many Americans believe these studies -- studies that are in any case based on a small number of same-sex couples raising a small number of children, during a short amount of time (a couple of decades), based on the researchers' own notions of what a healthy and successful young person is -- only proves how effectively colleges and graduate schools have succeeded in teaching a generation of Americans not to think critically but to accept "studies" in place of common sense.”


A tangled web of wtf that I don’t want to read again, except to point out the insidious anti-intellectual rhetorical strategy of pitting science (“studies”) against personal “common sense” or “gut feelings.” AKA prejudice and bigotry and superstition. Someone has to stand up to the experts! With their data and their “studies” and their “notions!” They think they’re so smart!

“Ask anyone who supports same-sex marriage this: Do you believe that a mother has something unique to give to a child that no father can give and that a father has something unique to give a child that no mother can give?”


No.


“One has to assume that most people -- including supporters of same-sex marriage -- would respond in the affirmative.”



Shit. Did I fail? Can I take the test again?

“How, then, can they support same-sex marriage? The left's trinity -- compassion, fairness and equality -- is one reason. And "studies" and "facts" are another.”



Oh noes, not FACTS!!1111!eleventy!! OK, look, Prager, you ridiculous ass, I will only say this once: I support gay marriage because it’s right. No one has to like it. No one has to declare gender (or sex) over and go home and lop his parts off. We just have to look at our constitution, do what’s right, and go on with our goddamn lives. No, I am not the same as a man. I’m not the same as anyone, actually; your whole premise smells so foul my cats would scrape litter over it if they weren’t too smart to read this shite.


“That is exactly how so many college graduates came to believe that boys would be happy with tea sets, and girls would be happy with trucks -- compassion, fairness, equality and "studies."


Ah, the evils of college. Keep your kids away from education and facts, parents. Nothing good can come of them!


“That is also how many Americans, including a judge who overturned a state's constitutional amendment, have come to believe that never having a mother or never having a father makes absolutely no difference to a child.”


Did anyone ever say such a stupid thing? I call straw man.


“And if mothers and fathers are interchangeable, men as men and women as women lose their significance.”


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