What's the point of these kinds of "right-wingers-say-the-darndest-things" posts? Anyone can trawl around online and dredge up malodorous, bigoted views, whether left- or right-wing. (Loopy conservatives like Michelle Malkin do it all the time.) To present such views as capturing something important about our culture strikes me as wrong-headed, and designed more to feed lefty self-righteousness than shed light.

Your point is well-made; however, with the exception of the well-known Republican message board (and I think that alone is worthy of a public display), these are just general discussion boards. The viciousness of anti-gay remarks is widespread and frequent in nature, which makes the exercise more than cherry-picking, in my opinion.

Diane, I think there is hatred everywhere and this is part of the human condition.

What would be more illuminating is illustrating whether the number of these sort of comments is large/widespread/increasing. For all we know from the information given, the total percentage of all 'fag dead' sentiments may be .000000005% of the blogosphere bloviating.

As sor said above, it is nothing at all to troll FReeper or LGF threads to find mouth-breathing outrage. Let's not stoop to their level. Let's actually do analysis and set ourselves apart.

Best,

D

I'm glad to oblige Let's use the popular Republican message board as an example. When the original story was published, there were 21 responses. 18 of them were either outright gay-bashing or, in a few cases, rants against the existence of hate crimes.

The latest story--of the attacker's death--produced around 3 dozens responses, exactly half of which decried the fact that the deceased will hereafter be known as a "homophobe killer" despite the fact that he killed others. And even those who were not too upset over that made it clear they wished gay people did not have "special rights."

Unbelievable- but, very, very believable.

As for "lefty self-righteousness", well, consider humanity and stop breaking this down into a "game" between left and right.

We're talking about human life- not some bet on some distant game played by others for the observer's gratification (more likely than not, one who has never played the game).

Whoever doesn't get that is stunningly stilted.

Who said anything about a game? (Or, if you must, a "game"?) The issue is whether it's useful to inflate hateful comments by fringe types into some kind of larger truth about people who happen not to be liberals. (And by the way, given that Diane's post exerpts submissions to, in one case, a Republican message board as a way of implying something about Republicans, you can't really say I plucked the left-right frame out of thin air.) I think Diane's response was a good one, as far as it goes. I also notice she was able to make it without resorting to insinuation, insult, or alliteration.

I'd just like to point out, even though Jacob Robita listened to and was a fan of Insane Clown Posse, he is in NO way and example of ANYTHING that is juggalo, he was a bigot, a facist, and a very troubled kid... Don't descriminate or blame the rest of the Juggalo world because of this idiots actions.

The internet is a big mess of hate. Basically any discussion of something done by a woman will turn into misogyny and calling her a lesbian, no matter what the forum.

Anything involving gay people will turn to a bunch of people repeating anti-gay garbage.

Anything involving black people usually eventually includes racism.

Everything turns racist, sexist and homophobic on yahoo, no matter what.

So why do people act this way? Does being online unleash a bunch of inner evil? Do they do it because they know there will be no repercussions? When I ran a feminist website, people would show up on the message boards saying all kinds of crap. If you asked them why they did it, they just said "because everyone else was. " it seemed like fun" "no reason, i actually kind of agree with you." All the people I had these exchanges with were men. I think they do it because they have privilege and are blind to it. They think they're being funny and no "uptight" person can really tell them to stop.

The Puzzles Victim Fund organized and directed by the victims of the violent attacks of several gay men at the Puzzles Lounge, I would like to extend its appreciation for the attention given to this most heinous crime.

The attack occurred late in the evening of Wednesday, February 1, 2006. 18 year old Jacob Robida came into Puzzles Lounge, in New Bedford, MA.  After confirming that it was a gay bar with Phillip Daggett the bartender at the time, he began his brutal attack on the patrons of the bar. The attacks ranged from shooting three patrons, Robert Perry, Alex Taylor, and Luis Rosado; to cutting the faces and heads of two of these patrons, Mr. Perry and Mr. Taylor. Jacob Robida then fled the bar.

Three victims were very seriously injured and were sent to the hospital after a highly questionable interaction with the paramedics, who arrived on the scene. Many other patrons at the bar are still remain in horror and shock because of what they witnessed in terms of the attack.

The Puzzles Victim Fund is the only fund that has been established, organized and directed by the victims to assist in the treatment of the victims of the February 1, 2006 attack, specifically those victims in need of further medical treatment.

The organization will also focus on educating youth on the topic of hate and sexual orientation as a prevention method of any future attacks such as this most recent one in New Bedford. As a long term goal, the organization plans to provide support for the passing of a National Bill towards hate crime laws, as well as trying to implement a registry of hate crime suspects which would mandate that anyone convicted of a hate crime be entered into a data base which would contain a profile of the individual and details of the attack. The idea is to quickly identify and apprehend a possible suspect in any future attacks and to prevent them leaving behind even more victim's.

For Donations:

Email: Puzzleslounge@yahoo.com

Or mail donations to:

St. Anne's Credit Union
Puzzles Victim Fund
P.O. BOX 0 (zero)
Fall River, MA 02724

All donations should be made payable to the “Puzzles Victim Fund”

To donate using a credit card either click on this link or copy and paste this link into your browser...

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=puzzleslounge%40yahoo%2ecom&item_name=Puzzles%20Victim%20Fund&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8