The fact that I had the temerity to voice a difference of opinion with Brad of Sadly No, still has him riled up, and I learned today that he recently compared me to an unappealing right wing “Christian,” writing:
I love how people like Creech feel they have the authority to tell people that they aren’t true Christians because they don’t believe the universe was created in a fucking week. It’s kind of like how Ann Bartow, a.k.a. the Mighty Enforcer of All True Leftism, can can [sic] take away my left-winger badge just because I had the unmitigated gall to make jokes about David Horowitz’s name.
I didn’t know Brad had a left-winger badge, and I didn’t know that posting a few comments at his blog vested me with the power to strip that badge away. Well, at least his gonads are safe, right? Obviously, when Brad and his cohorts started pounding on me in the Sadly, No comments threads, I was expected to cringe and retreat quietly. I wasn’t supposed to repost the comments over here, or challenge the content, proportionality or sexism of the responses. I dared to defend myself, so the angry campaign of attempted intimidation continues.
If being the Mighty Enforcer of All True Leftism left me with more free time, I’d question in more detail why some of the “left wing” humor at Sadly, No seems to be homophobic in nature and/or to have an element of sexism. Stuff like this, this, this, (“Andrew Sullivan dealt the President a double blow yesterday (no, not that kind of blow …”) this (“Finally, Marshall Wittless, in what is surely the most unseemly episode of adhesive wingnut-love since Hindsocket’s “George Bush is a genius” post, puts his elastic mandible to use by roundmouthing John McCain.”), this and this.
I don’t like “humor” that leverages a person’s gender, race or sexual orientation in a pejorative way, because I find it contrary to the tenets of liberalism, as I understand them. In fairness, there are posts at Sadly, No which can be read as mocking, rather than practicing, homophobia, such as this and this. And this actually seems mildly feminist, if you ignore the rape reference, at least until you read the comments that follow. But the overall tone and perspective of the blog seems to be that because right-wingers are so odious and evil, they deserve anything thrown at them, even if the subtext of a jibe is that being gay or female is something bad. I have this crazy idea that there is a positive value system associated with being a leftist, one that aspires to reduce the amount of sexism, racism and homophobia in the world for everyone. So their humor is not my cup of tea, and I’d be happy to leave them alone, if only they’d extend me the same courtesy.
–Ann Bartow
