Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Schadenfreude!

Yes, there was a blemish on last night, which is that Christian Hate gets to crow about at least one victory. I am a little baffled about the Californians this morning. After all, they managed to deliver the state pretty handily for Obama, giving him no less than 61% of the popular vote there. So how they could have folded to fundamentalist fear so completely on the same night is rather strange. Still, I hope that this is just the beginning of Supreme Court challenges. There's simply no room for this in an enlightened culture. And an enlightened culture is what I'm sincerely hoping America may start slouching towards during the next (being optimistic here) eight years of the Obama presidency.

But for now, I thought, for schadenfreude purposes, we'd take a look at a little of the morning-after whining from the fundie camp in response to the election. My oh my, I do believe it's time to call the waaaambulance!

From the American "Family" Association, Donald Wildmon's homophobic hate club, we get some advice for Christians: "Defend Life, Prepare for Persecution." Since there's nothing these people love more than to feel "persecuted," I expect this is, perversely, good news for them.

[Tony] Perkins says Christians should pray for and return to a biblical model of holiness and righteousness. And believers in America, he adds, should prepare for persecution.

"We are going to see, I think, unprecedented attacks against our faith through measures like the hate crimes [legislation] to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act," he says. "We're going to see attacks on innocent human life through the Freedom of Choice Act, trying to erase all the gains that have been made in the pro-life movement. And I think even our freedoms are going to come under attack."

Obama stated during the presidential campaign that one of his top priorities upon taking office would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Perkins says Christians will have to be resolute in defense of what they know to be right.

Hate, fear, ignorance and bigotry, of course, being the top four items on that list of what they "know to be right." It's amazing how upset they get when they're told, by civilized, decent people, that it really isn't nice to hate those different from you and that you should try to be more compassionate and tolerant. Those are two concepts just not in their lexicon.

Over at that delightful nuthouse, the Christian Worldview Network, columnist Jan Markell reveals another problem they have with Obama: they worry that he's unfair competition for Jesus!

Two years ago came a charismatic man named Barack Obama who was engulfed in a cult-like atmosphere. Some actually called him "the messiah." Shrines were built to him. A Web site said, "Obama is god." There has been a messianic fervor, adoration and a worship-like atmosphere surrounding him. At some rallies people fainted at the sight of him. Young children recorded on YouTube sang songs to him stating he would change the world...

Well, Jan, if you're actually worried that our president-elect is actually competition that the son of God has to worry about, sounds as if you aren't giving your God enough credit, eh? Anyway, the above is all followed up by the usual butt-ignorant whining about "socialism."

And of course, over at the WorldNutDaily, that repository of all things most ludicrous and histrionic that erupt from the crusty bowels of the extremist right, they couldn't resist this headline:

Hamas praises Obama win as 'historic victory for world'
Terrorists drafting letter of congrats to be sent directly to president-elect

I'm sure there's more of this hysteria out there, and if you want to dig it up, please be my guest. Meanwhile, I'm going to sit back, eat myself a heaping slice of schadenfreude pie (thanks for the recipe, Scalzi), with a side of schadenfreude cobbler and washed down with a big old extra-fattening schadenfreude milkshake. Yum!

20 comments:

  1. After the depressing losses progressives suffered in 2000 and 2004, and the resultant dominance of the religious right for the past eight years (though admittedly it has been on the wane the last couple years), I am particularly enjoying this new day.

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  2. Wait... so the thought that their God might actually have been on Obama's side instead of theirs has never crossed their mind?

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  3. The reason for the win of the odious Prop 8 is apparently attributed to the huge black vote.

    Apparently they like Obama, but they don't like gays.

    It makes me sad when one group that is historically been persecuted and maligned doesn't help another in similar circumstances.

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  4. Two years ago came a charismatic man named Barack Obama who was engulfed in a cult-like atmosphere. Some actually called him "the messiah."

    Why yes, they did! Let me see, who called him that? Oh, I remember, it was JOHN MCCAIN, in an over-the-top ATTACK AD.

    Nice try, though, Wildmon.

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  5. It makes me sad when one group that is historically been persecuted and maligned doesn't help another in similar circumstances.

    /signed. Something else we can thank religion for.

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  6. It's amazing how upset they get when they're told, by civilized, decent people, that it really isn't nice to hate those different from you and that you should try to be more compassionate and tolerant. Those are two concepts just not in their lexicon.


    Well, it isn't that unexpected. Doesn't their mythology have something to say about what happened to the last guy that told them to be nice to other people...

    wait, they nailed him to a tree.. I forgot about that part...

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  7. The greatest irony here, of course, is that just two days ago I was listening to some of some very godly folks (Dobson, Palin, et al) who were saying that Gods will would be done on election day.

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  8. I guess He was too busy helping a football team win somewhere.

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  9. I suppose they missed that whole lead the crowd in prayer by a minister before Obama came out to give his speech. I'll tell you what, when losing and persecution means every candidate jumps through hoops to show how much they're just like you, put out brochures about how they're committed to what you believe in, the winner promises to expand the unconstitutional program which is beyond taxpayer scrutiny to help get your organizations federal funds, gave affirmations to your beliefs at the end of his speech, and the label for your ideological opponents is accepted by all, including the media, as a pejorative, fuck, persecute me. Sounds fucking great.

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  10. "even our freedoms are going to come under attack."

    You have got to be kidding me. This immediately following several states banned gay marriage and adoption. Pot, meet kettle.

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  11. 'Wait... so the thought that their God might actually have been on Obama's side instead of theirs has never crossed their mind?'

    Welcome to fundamentalism. The sincere and total belief that you are always absolutely 100% right.

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  12. So how they could have folded to fundamentalist fear so completely on the same night is rather strange.

    The actual answer is somewhat strange - African-Americans, who voted 69% to 31% for Prop 8. I don't have numbers, but I heard African-American males were more in favor than females. Hispanics and whites were more against it than for it.

    Obama overwhelmingly won African-American votes, but Proposition 8 did not. There is still an important culture amongst black males that admonishes homosexuality as much as if not more than Christianity. And thus, there's still a lot of cultural progress to make.

    It's fun to note "Californians who never attend church" voted 86% to 14% against Prop 8. Folks try to say this isn't a religious issue, but the statistics show that it is.

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  13. Dear Christians,

    We've been pretty much catering to your doctrine since ohhhh... Constantine or so. Please shut the fuck up.

    Sincerely,
    The World.

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  14. Dear Sparrowhawk,

    Nice.

    Sincerely,
    Me.

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  15. Off topic, but possummomma is back for anyone that read her blog. She does have a post about Prop 8 if that helps make it on topic again.

    http://possummomma.blogspot.com/2008/11/prop-8.html

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  16. Also a bit of the topic but those idiots from WBO are planning to protest during Obama's grandma's funeral...

    http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/262082

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  17. @r:

    Best thing to do is to ignore it, or hold a counter-protest fund-raiser. People have done it before. You basically just take pledges for every --insert amount of time-- that Phelps is there, then donate the money to a cause they'd hate. Of course, they try to act like they don't care, but it's the only good way to get back at them.

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  18. Christopher, of those who voted for the first time in California, some 63% voted for Obama, including the black vote, which was only a few percent. If all of the newly voting blacks had been taken out, neither the Presidential election nor Prop. 8 would have gone the other way. In other words, since the vote on Prop. 8 was so close, all of the voting blocks were equally culpable, and to single out the blacks as 'hypocritical' is illogical. The very same can be said for the Hispanic, Chinese, and Jewish blocks, all who have traditionally been discriminated against with regards to marriage (in California).

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  19. rogerdr: That's an interesting interpretation of statistics. Take out all the new voters, and African-American voters were still more in favor of Prop 8 than any other ethnic group.

    It's not pretty, but nor is this fact any sort of "race-baiting". You're correct in saying it doesn't make those black voters "hypocrits" - as much as we draw comparisons to interracial marriage, gay marriage is not the same thing.

    But this phenomena is something to examine. It's something to think about. Perhaps those of us who favor same-sex marriage have not been making good arguments to the black community.

    Certainly, though, the numbers do say something about a tendency amongst African-American voters, and it's something to be seriously considered.

    (And of course, I don't propose we stop working on the whites, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, Martians or anyone else who is against same-sex marriage.)

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  20. In case anyone hasn't seen it, this is one of the most moving things I've seen in a while.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVUecPhQPqY
    Keith Olbermann ( I have no idea who he is ) talks about Prop 8 but not in the manner that you'd usually expect.

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