Re: [UUPoly-L] Tangental Note - Savage

["Laura Stewart" <mathlaura@gmail.com>]

On 3/1/07, Fritz Neumann <fritzcat66@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Laura Stewart <mathlaura@gmail.com> wrote:
> > ...[Dan Savage is]
> > very well-known and influential in the gay community, but it's very
> > clear if one looks closely that he's happy to be a GAY community
> > member, and is not at all an LGBTQ community member.
>
> In all fairness, Savage has pissed off plenty of Gay activists at times as
> well.

I'm not speaking to whether I think that gays like him.  I'm speaking
that I think he embraces being "gay" but not being "GLBTQ".

> Hmmm... now, I have no idea why the GA organizers asked him to speak. Seems
> like kind of a bad idea to begin with. I mean, part of Savage's schtick
> involves being kind of outrageous and insulting. Folks who are so PC that they
> get sickened when confronted with any language they deem offensive to
> themselves or others probably shouldn't read or listen to Dan Savage.
>
> Or South Park, either. Another equal-opportunity insulter there.
>
> ...but in my opinion, it is they who are missing out.
>
> "Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who
> want crops without plowing up ground." -- Frederick Douglass
>
> "Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!" - Frederick Douglass
>
> Sometimes its worth even agitating Unitarians. The smugness can get rather
> caked up...

Agitation for the mere sake of agitation is assinine.  If he's
actually saying something helpful, and agitating someone out of a
comfortable accepted limitation or bigotry, I shall applause.  But
"sometimes it's good to agitate" does not equal "agitation is
inherrently good, even if it's because of bigotry!"

-_|aura