Ronald Reagan Death Day

[Yukaphile]

I don't agree, certainly, but... at the same time, isn't this still part of freedom of expression? Lots of right-wing racists defend their hatred with "free speech," so seriously, why not apply the same to lefties too? Even if at this point they've just devolved into tribes that want each other dead...

I mean, I understand Fuzzy. He is a damaged individual, and he suffers a lot, and Reagan did a lot of damage not just in terms of setting in motion the problems we have now, but also in the spread of things like AIDS out of homophobia. His LGBT empowerment views are as important to him as women's rights and proper Feminism are to me.

[G-Man]

I don't agree, certainly, but... at the same time, isn't this still part of freedom of expression? Lots of right-wing racists defend their hatred with "free speech," so seriously, why not apply the same to lefties too? Even if at this point they've just devolved into tribes that want each other dead...

I'm not opposed to this being up here, I'm just asking for consistency. I don't even mind that my thread got closed, but changing the title of my thread which mocked Pelosi, while allowing this post seems rather hypocritical.

[G-Man]

I mean, I understand Fuzzy. He is a damaged individual, and he suffers a lot, and Reagan did a lot of damage not just in terms of setting in motion the problems we have now, but also in the spread of things like AIDS out of homophobia. His LGBT empowerment views are as important to him as women's rights and proper Feminism are to me.

Homophobia is not what spread AIDS. Gay promiscuity is what spread AIDS.

[Yukaphile]

I can respect that view. I do think your call for consistency is valid.

It was lack of government regulation (like the technology that Clinton improved on in the 1990s that made AIDS transferable by blood transfusions a thing of the past) that spread AIDS. Besides, if that's the case, how do you explain straight people getting it? People are not that much sluts that you can trace it to that kind of ABC logic to the point it hits millions of straight people. Seems like you're victim-blaming. Calling AIDS a "gay person's" disease.

[Darth Wedgius]

Reagan was a major influence in stopping an anti-gay bill in California. He wasn't a homophobe. Remember, he was an actor, and was a friend of Rock Hudson and was fully aware that Hudson was gay.

[Darth Wedgius]

I can respect that view. I do think your call for consistency is valid.

It was lack of government regulation (like the technology that Clinton improved on in the 1990s that made AIDS transferable by blood transfusions a thing of the past) that spread AIDS. Besides, if that's the case, how do you explain straight people getting it? People are not that much sluts that you can trace it to that kind of ABC logic to the point it hits millions of straight people. Seems like you're victim-blaming. Calling AIDS a "gay person's" disease.

It's easier for gay people to get AIDS, but not impossible for straight people to get it. HIV finds the rectum a more friendly route for invasion than the vagina, and many gay men will both penetrate and be penetrated in sex, making them excellent ways for the virus to propagate.

Most HIV was not spread through blood transfusions, so I wouldn't blame a lack of government regulation for spreading it.

[Darth Wedgius]

The thread may seem like it started with pointless, tasteless bile, and that's not impossible, but it does provide an opportunity to correct some misinformation.

My grandma always said, when life hands you a lemon, make an overpriced, calorie-dense drink to sell where the high-fructose corn syrup overwhelms any nutritional value from the lemon juice. My family's been conservative for a log time.

[pilight]

Perhaps Reagan could have done more to slow the spread of AIDS, but he was severely limited by the Democrat controlled congress. Tip O'Neill and company weren't adding to the Health department budget or passing legislation aimed at fighting the epidemic. For all that's said about Reagan not mentioning AIDS during the 1984 election campaign, it's always overlooked that Mondale never mentioned it either. There was very little political will devoted to combating AIDS on either side of the aisle.

[Admiral X]

I don't agree, certainly, but... at the same time, isn't this still part of freedom of expression? Lots of right-wing racists defend their hatred with "free speech," so seriously, why not apply the same to lefties too? Even if at this point they've just devolved into tribes that want each other dead...

I'm not opposed to this being up here, I'm just asking for consistency. I don't even mind that my thread got closed, but changing the title of my thread which mocked Pelosi, while allowing this post seems rather hypocritical.

Yeah, it is. TexasRed, I am disappoint. :-[

[G-Man]

It was lack of government regulation (like the technology that Clinton improved on in the 1990s that made AIDS transferable by blood transfusions a thing of the past) that spread AIDS. Besides, if [gay promiscuity is what spread AIDS], how do you explain straight people getting it?

It's like saying "smoking causes lung cancer." I am not saying that all men who engage in promiscuous sex with other men get AIDS, or that everyone who got AIDS was gay or was promiscuous. What I am saying is that the single biggest factor in AIDS becoming an epidemic - at least in the First World - was a gay subculture that celebrated sex with large numbers of partners, often anonymous, often coupled with drug use that helped to weaken the immune system and make it easier for HIV to take hold. Even the people outside of that subculture who were infected in most cases would likely not have been infected had the disease not been able to infect so many people in the gay subculture.

People are not that much sluts that you can trace it to that kind of ABC logic to the point it hits millions of straight people. Seems like you're victim-blaming. Calling AIDS a "gay person's" disease.

I don't care if it's victim-blaming if it is true.

More to the point though, I am not trying to argue that anyone "deserved" to get AIDS or something like that. I just think that when a disease is so linked to avoidable behaviors (I'm not arguing people should stop being gay, but bathhouse culture was extremely irresponsible, and there were well-known health hazards long before HIV came along), it is extremely churlish to try to shift the primary blame to other people for not doing enough to cure the disease.

It's as if smokers were blaming anti-smoking activists for lung cancer, because they did not spend enough time and money researching safer cigarettes.