Signorile’s apology accurately describes what he was doing:

“After the caller said he voted for Romney, I said he should just get some arsenic, make a potion, and take it, which would be more painless. Not because I thought he should kill himself—I do not think gay Romney supporters should kill themselves—but because voting for someone who is committed to undermining your rights is a self-destructive behavior.”

I wasn’t defending Signorile on any of his comments. What I was pointing out was that GayPatriot and Andrew Sullivan who linked to his post, simply stated that Signorile told a caller to go off himself.

Regarding the “not allowed to vote” comment, Signorile is obviously frustrated with this caller who, in Signorile’s view, is expressly acting against his self-interest. Was Signorile a nice man at this point? Well, no. Unpacking his statement, one would probably conclude that the underlying belief is that people can make poor decisions with their freedoms. Again, I was merely unpacking what Signorile’s statements were and the ideas that may be behind them.

My attempt found itself in a weird little category called “Anything bad said about a liberal is a lie.” I don’t know how my post found itself in this corner of the universe when I wasn’t making any qualitative statements about Signorile’s comments–be they bad, good or indifferent.

Query: How does Signorile’s apology make me intellectually dishonest? I stated what Signorile was saying. Signorile agrees. It’s obviously an analogy. Your dislike of Signorile’s comments doesn’t make me intellectually dishonest for merely recording them.

But Rattlesnake, you have me stumped. By nuance, I meant the intellectual rigour required to realize that he was making an analogy, not some dastardly code word to let someone off the hook. It may have been passionate and you may disagree with the underlying premise. You think that this premise is “disgusting” since you put aside the analogy entirely (“whether or not he told him to go kill himself…) And, well, that’s your opinion of what he said.

What’s simultaneously fascinating and annoying is that my post landed me into membership of a tribe called “the lefties.” It’s HOW I got here. It would be equally stupid if what I said landed me in the Conservative camp (the “righties”??) I wasn’t aware I was participating in a fraternity rush! What was it that made me pass? Was it because I didn’t slit Signorile’s throat and therefore I can’t possibly be a Capulet? Is this what passes as research in your view, Rattlesnake?

Sorry folks, when it comes to American politics, I f___ing hate football. Liberal and Conservative? Useless terms in pseudo-intellectual American reality but really useful ones to find out what body paint the stranger in front of you is wearing so you don’t accidentally harpoon him.

NOTA BENE: I did not factually assert that I am a contemporary of either the Montague or Capulet families nor did I state to which I belonged. Nor did I imply that I have found a way to simultaneously keep my corporeal existence sustained for several centuries while I found a portal out of the pages of a play by William Shakespeare.

At least, that’s my theory at the moment. So I just try and stay as calm and detached as I can, but I don’t think any good can come from any of this vicious sectarianism. Respectful disagreement and debate are healthy and necessary. Hateful hyperbole and bigotry only escalate conflict and make problems more intractable.

NDT, I think Shelly seems like a nice person (excusing that she directed a comment that was obviously meant for you towards me, but that was obviously just a mistake); a rare self-described liberal who also seems to be decent (particularly towards gay conservatives). I have no idea if what she is saying is true (and there is obviously no way to verify it, like most other things people say on the internet, and I see no reason not to give her the benefit of the doubt at this point.

Fair enough, Rattlesnake.

Shelly, I apologize for popping off and offending you. Thank you for coming here in a spirit of true civility and conversation.

Pretty weak tea compared to, “People who intend to vote for Romney should commit suicide,” or Dan Savage wanting all Republicans to die.

Of course, it would be nice if Shelly explicitly condemns what Little Kiwi (and the other vile commenters herein) said, and she has a good opportunity here, even though it is implicit in her comments that she doesn’t approve of them.

As for “VeeToThak,” that certainly sounds like Little Kiwi, only less deranged. I’m not sure why some leftists (apparently the “sheeple” variety who repeat the narrative and not the elites who control it) are so delusional and/or stupid that they actually believe what they are saying (assuming they do). It is simply beyond comprehension.

@The_Livewire — I’m sorry to hear that. I think at this point in time both parties are leveraging tribalism and anxiety so a depressingly high percentage of people on both sides see the world and each other in black/white, good/evil, ally/enemy terms. I think living on the rural south and having lots of friends “on the other side of the fence” — Republicans, conservative Christians, etc. — and frequently finding myself defending friends on both sides against one another gives a certain perspective.

ND30 prefers the same shotgun that we often get sprayed with from the left. His citing of Little Fruit is an example of the quality of troll I see on this site. I myself prefer the sniper rifle to the shotgun, though I do see a purpose to a tactical nuke too

Glad you and your partner are able to get along. Unforunately, it has been my real life experience that the libs I talk to are more opposed to me being conservative than the cons I talk to are about my family, or personal preferences.

And that’s because he is Little Kiwi, who is attempting to lie and trash GayPatriot over on Towleroad.

Oddly enough, “Shelly” has not seen fit to call him out for it. Perhaps she is too frightened.

It’s always amusing to watch people like “Shelly” and “Dan” be exposed as malicious liars and hypocrites who whine about “civility” while refusing to hold Obama liberals like their friend Little Kiwi responsible for his statements.

Re: Little Kiwi — he can be as big an ass as Ratbastard and his various sock-puppets. They all from time to time make good points, but they’re so abusive to anybody that disagrees with them and so utterly predictable in their biases and unwillingness to even consider positions different than their own that they’re not worth arguing with. Only so many times you can bang your head against a brick wall before you start looking just as crazy as they do. But this is my first and only time at this site, so I have no idea of his history here nor of anybody else’s.

As for not standing up to Savage and Signorile, I am not a frequent contributor to any of these conversations and as I said, this was the one and only site I went to after reading about this from Andrew Sullivan, and only because it happened to appear near the top of the Google results and the URL sounded interesting. I’m not a frequent commenter anywhere on the internet and typically only follow a few sites, but I have criticized both Savage and Signorile in the past over other issues. I think they’re both self-serving asses.

You bemoan that Republicans are supposedly seen as a monolithic “evil” group by liberals, and yet your entire argument paints with a brush just as broad against liberals, and it seems to me most of your criticisms of liberals are common to die-hard partisans on both sides. Most of what passes for “politics” nowadays is nothing but tribalism, pure and simple, hence the viciousness.

You many not “hate liberals,” but you’re

why are gay republicans suddenly so silent about the entirely-bogus “gay liberal attack!” on Kyle Wood, Wisconsin GOP suckup?

Comment by Pineapple — November 2, 2012 @ 3:36 pm – November 2, 2012

You mean like here, here, and here?

Now, let’s see YOU cough up where you condemned the fake hate crimes that you and your fellow liberal bigots have been pushing.

Or you can just run away and demonstrate once again how liberals like yourself are nothing more than inferior amoral bigots who demand of others standards that they cannot follow.

Do you think your homosexuality is what makes you so ignorant and unable to do research before opening your mouth? Is that the excuse you’ve used to explain why you can’t do a simple Google search, or even a search of this blog?

You must be a new reader as of this hour. Because we covered the entire Kyle Wood story, including the hoax, quite thoroughly here.

So good bye, troll.

We have specific audio of Signorile’s bigotry and bullying.

You throw out misguided generalities and prejudices.

I’m not surprised.

And Signorile’s point is simple – since you’re allowing anti-gay hatred to continue unchecked, because none of you have the balls to stand up to it, especially from the anti-gay bigots in your own family.

Gay Liberals stand up to be counted and work toward ending prejudice and bigotry. You cowards sit there complaining about liberals in order to move the heat off of yourselves and onto “those liberal gays”

Stop blaming liberals for the fact that your own families are ashamed to call you “Son”

“oh, look! look what that liberal said!” – whatever you need to do to distract from the reality that your own party thinks you’re a bunch of wimps.