Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Amazingly Clueless Shit Andrew Sullivan Says, Ctd.



I do not know whether, when he says the amazingly clueless shit he says, Mr. Sullivan is maybe just too high to notice how utterly he contradicts himself, or if he is suffering from some form of slowly encircling dementia, or whether this is just the standard-issue clueless-as-a-plank factory defect with which all Conservative public intellectuals are hardwire.  But from whatever deep well of fucked-in-the-head it comes, it genuinely amuses me that the same person who made a very public cause célèbre out of getting Alec Baldwin fired for saying something mean to a paparazzi who was stalking his infant child could turn right around and publish this without someone within his inner circle staging an intervention (emphasis added with gleeful abandon):
...
Policing language is something no gay person should ever countenance – if only because our language and our speech, as tiny minorities, could be the first to be policed in that brave new world. And what does it say about someone’s self-esteem that they run crying out of a seminar because they cannot handle a simple fricking word (and that they do that, while preferring to be referred to as “it”!). I know life as a member of a sexual minority is not exactly an easy one. But what happened to self-empowerment? Whatever happened to the proud, fearless trans people fighting back against the cops at Stonewall? Whatever happened to the great tradition of flouting all sorts of public norms and parading down main street in full Pride regalia? Or the tradition of bawdy outrage perfected by generations of drag queens, gay satirists, cultural provocateurs, and performance artists whose goals often include the salutary impact of – precisely – offense?

All of this is to be buried in a ghastly, quivering, defensive crouch of affirming claptrap, with trans people whining to teacher that someone said a naughty word, and incapable of taking in even a completely benign discussion without collapsing into trauma and tears. There is only one word for this and it is pathetic. I’m all in favor of avoiding words that some people find distressing if at all possible. It can get in the way of an argument, or simple manners. But I am more in favor of free, bold and fearless speech and argument, in which every t and l and g and b can give as good as they get, and in which this sad and pathetic recourse to fathomless victimology is called out for the disgrace it is. It is entirely self-defeating. No one else can give you the self-respect you may want. No one else’s words have any more power over you than you decide to give to them.
...
There is indeed only one word for this.

And that word is indeed "pathetic".

9 comments:

Tom said...

Huh. I have vague memories of, oh, around 2009 or so, Sulliconniptions around who was saying "sexual preference" and who was saying "sexual orientation" having to do with the qualifications of Elena Kagan to sit on the Supreme Court. And I do mean vague -- I'm sorry, the distinction was and is still lost on me, which I know is politically incorrect and renders me unfit to, according to Andrew, to sit on the side of the righteous. Anyhoo, it got ugly with Andrew ending up sniffing Justice Kagan's panties and demanding to know who she was having sex with and she should announce her sexuality publicly so he could support the nomination or not support it. So he was tracking very closely who on the Obama team was saying "preference" and who was saying "orientation" and it was a huge huge thing for like a couple of weeks. I think that's when I quit the Dish-reading habit I had developed. Pretty disgusting to be publicly sniffing the panties of a fairly asexual grown woman, day after day after day. Maybe it's just me.

Anonymous said...

From an earlier comment of mine that I'd like to repeat:

One more thing, I really don’t have a problem with this from the Politico word salad: “The Andrew Sullivan era of journalism is over”. Oh, please, let it be so. Think of a world with no more stupid shit from the Sullivan traveling fetch, grovel and pomposity act.

Anonymous said...

Please don’t misunderstand my little piece about the Sullivan traveling fetch, grovel and pomposity act. I believe he has every right to say as much stupid shit (Driftglass, do you have a registered trade mark on “The stupid shit Andrew Sullivan says”? I may owe you some money at this point if you do) as he desires, and continues to do. But you would think that if he had even a modicum of self reflection, given the body of written and recorded crap he has, he would notice something is askew in his shit salad.

Anonymous @12:27

Cinesias said...

Shorter Sullivan:

Do as I say, not as I do.

Which is pretty much SOP for conservatives, no?

Anonymous said...

If only you could be paid for pointing out Sullivan's blind spots then you would never go without work ever again. He is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

--Nonny Mouse

Anonymous said...

I believe the esteemed Blue Gal has a tag, "Such a Goddamned Fuckwit".

Andrew Sullivan is such a Goddamned Fuckwit.

Mike.K.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and Tom,

"Sexual Preference" is used by some to imply "prefer" means "they choose to be", and therefore, they are evil sinning deviants by choice who deserve what the world heaps on them.

"Sexual Orientation" sounds more like an innate, immutable characteristic, which the Christopaths and many conservatives dislike. (Being grossly obese on a diet of fried food and snack cakes is "genetic", but being gay is a choice.)

Initially, "sexual preference" was a more polite term, as it allowed for more nuance, but that didn't last.

Mike.K.

Neo Tuxedo said...

He spews this shit precisely because his inner circle has never contained the sort of people whom it would prompt to stage an intervention.

DRickard said...

For someone who fetishizes "To see what is in front of one's nose," Sullivan is asoundingly unself-aware.
Consider his recent post on Gore Vidal:
I’d like to admire Vidal – and his early novels are breathtakingly good. But the precious posturing, the all-too-defensive lambasting, and the cheap sneers always force me to keep my distance. As for Pearl Harbor, well, sheesh. And we’re supposed to admire someone for this conspiratorial nonsense?
Is there a line in that chunk that couldn't be applied to dear Andrew? But if anyone were to point that out, he would at best ignore it.