Too funny!
Little Rick Santorum shoulda kept his mouth shut:
The website that’s still giving Rick Santorum fits—www.spreadingsantorum.com—hasn’t been updated since 2004. But we will be relaunching the site in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
Fun!
[h/t Taegan Goddard]
ROFL. Indeed. The only thing Santorum did was increase publicity for the site and the special definition of his name. He reaps as he sows, again, but of course he’s the victim…
REALLY!!!! Out of ALL the problems facing us in the U.S. this is what is important? I would like to see some people standing up, steping back and taking a serious look at our issues in our country. I don’t understand the need to act so childish.
Amy, no one said this was important. People can’t be about problems all of the time, sometimes we need to sit back and have a laugh for a bit.
I’m with Amy. This kind of foolishness is not helping our side. It makes Santorum appear to be a victim. Not to mention, it’s not even funny.
Jack, you may be right that its not helping our side, but to a lot of us its very funny.
Well, what I should have said is that it is hurting our side. THAT is definitely not funny.
I am disgusted at DAN SAVAGE!!! this makes our side look TERRIBLE!!! We are NOT in an eye for an eye society!
We are in this world to lessen the suffering of others. He has caused tremoundous hurt to his family and children. Yes, what Santorum said was hurtful but the way to counteract his statments is focusing on victories like New York. Dan Savage is Such a COLD HEARTED EVIL man! I don’t want him representing this movement.
Savage should read ethics more: Why are we humans here in this world, to cause LESS suffering NOT more as clearly Dan Savage has with Santorum’s family ” We can make the fourth dimensional world a better place by causing there to be less pointless suffering in one partciular palce, at one particular time, than there would otherwise have been. As long as we do not thereby Increase suffering at some other place or time or cause any other comparable loss of valuse, we will have had a positive effect on the universe” Peter Singer
Cindy–Santorum has compared my marriage to man-on-dog sex, and my life to child molestation. He who calls the tune must pay the piper.
Ben, I’m sure that Santorum secretly loves what Savage has done because it takes the focus off of what Santorum has said. Maybe this makes Savage feel good, but it does NOTHING to advance gay rights and actually sets us back.
I respect Dan Savage, and while I loath Rick Santorum, I also loath Savage’s definition of Santorum, and the website devoted to it. It actually aids our opponent’s efforts to keep people focused exclusively on sexual mechanics, and not on the human affection and love. And now, recently there has been another wave of publicity for it. I wish it would stop, and that the website would be removed.
I think Dan Savage has a good mind, and usually has helpful insightful things to say. But “Santorum” was not one of them.
I agree with Savage.
1) The term has single-handedly turned the creep into a joke, thus sparing civilization the possibility the possibility of a Santorum presidency.
2) There must be a heavy price to pay for such disguting political gay bashing.
In terms of people focusing on sexual images? There will be more than enough lovey-dovey couples in New York the media will beam down to the public to offset and nauseating vision of Santorum.
Ricky deserves what he has brought on himself. I have no sympathy for him.
Wayne, it’s not about sympathy for Santorum. It’s about not getting down in the mud and distracting from the real work. In middle America, this type of foolishness will set us back, way back. And it will not hurt Santorum’s chances of being president.
… and Wayne, all of the progress that you’ve made fighting the ex-gay myth has been through speaking the truth. That is something to be proud of. When you have the truth on your side, you don’t need to resort to childish name calling. If this is the extent of Savage’s debate against Santorum, then we will be in trouble.
Jack:
I don’t agree in this case. Sometimes getting in the mud works. That us why politicians who run negative ads often win. I don’t think dan’s action has been a distraction. Since this incident, Santorum’s popularity has fallen, while popularity for lgbt equality has gone up. I’ve seen no negative effect whatsoever.
Richard makes a good point, but so does Wayne.
Jack said “this type of foolishness will set us back, way back. And it will not hurt Santorum’s chances of being president.”.
I don’t know where you get that from, Santorum has no chance of being president, he’s a joke in the Republican field of contenders.
Jack, Dan Savage did this many years ago and it didn’t seem to set us back. And no, this isn’t the full extent of Dan’s writing on Santorum. Santorum is a bigot and has said extremely vile things about the GLBT community. I have no sympathy for him on this.
Daniel, I never said I had sympathy for Santorum.
Priya, you are probably right that Santorum has no chance of being President, but this type of act does our side no good at all. I’m not sure if you’ve lived in America before or do so now, but I can tell you that the majority of Americans would frown on this type of thing. It will not move our cause forward.
Good God Jack…where do YOU live in the US?
Politics is a blood sport, and with someone like Santorum who ONLY appeals to an EXTREEEEMMLY small UBER right wing crowd, and who HAS said some of the odeous things that Ben pointed out he has said about us and our relationships, the gloves come off!
Hell…even most conservatives I know who UTTERLY oppose us admit to me (and I have asked..and they were already aware if the site/jokes/definition) think its just a case of “all’s fair in love and war” political pay back. Have you heard what they say at their rallies about us? Or what people say on talk radio? Or what a lot of liberals say about conservatives online.
I think you 1) overestimate how much traction this will get in the first place 2) really overestimate the tone of American political discourse (and overall concern for not hirting the feelings of an extreme nut politician!). The proof of this hurting us in not in the pudding (or mud…or, thank god, the santorum ;) (ewwwwww!) lol
Jack, I’ve lived in Canada all my life. I’m kind of on the fence about this, I think those on both sides make good points.
Gene,
Welcome back! Interesting that you pick me out to respond to on this. I think you are just making this personal because I called you out on being too lazy to show up for jury duty.
Anyway, as always, your logic is sloppy and you appear to make things up in an attempt to make your point. In the jury duty thread, you said that you have relatives involved in all aspects of the judicial and police systems (police, court reporters, etc.). In a later comment, you said that you have many relatives who are minorities who have “been through” the judicial system. I asked you if these are the same relatives (crooked cops) or different ones. You never responded. Are your family reunions like an episode of COPS?
Now you, someone who said that they don’t have a patriotic bone in their body, also now have conservative friends that you have discussed the Santorum issue with, and SURPRISE, they agree with you! (even though you said it didn’t get much traction anyway, but your conservative friends all just happened to be aware of it) You are a piece of work my friend.
Ok, here’s the deal. We would have never gotten this far in our fight for equality with this type of Santorum prank. We had to look like the reasonable ones in order to make the other side look unreasonable to the general public. That’s how we won. It’s all been about speaking truth and standing up to liars with the truth, not insults. I think everyone on our side may be getting excited, thinking that we’ve won the war and it’s payback time. I think we should be cautious in going down that road. We’ve won many battles, but the war is not yet won. I wish someone would put this Santorum issue in front of a focus group of a cross section of Americans. I don’t think most would find it funny, and I believe it would hurt our cause.
Gene,
You also have Korean American relatives? Just saw that on another post.
yup. Several (3, much older, obviously, than me) cousins married Korean women while stationed there soon after the Korean War, and two of THEIR kids married Korean women while THEY were stationed there (!) and several of their children married other half and 1/4 Korean Americans. Some married blue eyed blonds, some native Americans, etc. But ALL, regardless of how “korean” they look, are proud of their heritage (some, I should add, look very Korean…which can be humorous, as we are a southern family, and we all have pretty thick accents ;)
NONE of them would appreciate the idea that New York, which a lot of them fought to defend (along with the rest of this country…LOT of military in he family!), is ANYTHING like North Korea. And, sad to say, most of them are pretty socially conservative, especially the older ones, but…That womans comment was way, way, way over the line!
trouble posting for some reason
Oh No Jack…not at all. I disagree with you (still don’t get the fascination with civic involvement with something one does not agree with out of some sense of ‘duty’) but, lets agree to just let that one go! This is a time of celebration after all!
I just think you are a little to much above the fray perhaps, concerning people like Santorum, and have a (way) higher opinion of the culture, and politics, than I admit I do. Its a blood sport. Thats one of the more wholesome substances involved actually, once someone like Santorum opens his mouth. Savage has done more to sink any career he might have than anybody else.
This is becoming a society where politics are a blood sport. And with someone like Santorum, all’s fair in love and war. Savage seems to understand this all to well. And, notice he is not using this against, say, Romney. You have to GET in the mud first (Santorum did) at which point, no holds barred. As my granddad used to tell me “Play to win”. With a guy like Santorum, this just humiliates him. I see no real blowback towards our side from it. It may be nasty of Mr Savage, but, no point in playing nice of you did not “start it” afterall. American politics seldomly awards anyone for being nice, that was my main point.
I agree that we don’t have to play nice. Kathy Griffin certainly wasn’t being “nice” to Bachmann, but she did it in a way that highlighted Bachmann’s character, not some made up insult.
And American politics may not reward someone for being nice, but I think slurs are not rewarded either. Just highlight the things that Santorum has already said! That’s our winning strategy. Make Santorum look like an a*s for his own views and statements!
Jack, I said that Dan originally did this several years ago and it didn’t set us back. I understand why you want to ignore that because it does prove you wrong, but I didn’t say you were sympathetic to Santorum–I din’t even imply it.
The Santorum re-defining project hasn’t hurt us a bit, and it’s marginalized Rick Santorum a hell of a lot.
Daniel,
I’m not ignoring anything. My point is not that this one instance alone would set us back, but a pattern of this definitely would.
I don’t think its that clear cut Evan. I think there’s a strong case to be made that it hasn’t set equality back, but it still may be that its slowed down the pace of equality.
Evan,
It hasn’t hurt as a bit? With anyone? That’s a very broad statement. Care to back that up? There are several of us on here that disagree with it, so I assume that there have got to be people in the general public who are put off by it.
Oh, I’m sure there might be one or two people out there who don’t like it, but there’s no evidence that it’s had a negative effect, on balance. The fact is, Rick Santorum is an extremely marginal figure, and he’s laughed at on both sides of the aisle.
… and Gene,
About this whole “Santorum” thing, a very wise man once said to me that when you have to resort to name calling, you’ve lost the argument. We’re winning, no need for childish name calling!
Evan,
There’s no evidence that it hasn’t had a negative effect. Why even go down this road? It is not necessary. Let’s go after Santorum’s views!
and Evan, you’ve more than one or two people ON HERE who don’t like it!
Just in case it got lost in the other post, this sums up my feelings on this:
Ok, here’s the deal. We would have never gotten this far in our fight for equality with this type of Santorum prank. We had to look like the reasonable ones in order to make the other side look unreasonable to the general public. That’s how we won. It’s all been about speaking truth and standing up to liars with the truth, not insults. I think everyone on our side may be getting excited, thinking that we’ve won the war and it’s payback time. I think we should be cautious in going down that road. We’ve won many battles, but the war is not yet won. I wish someone would put this Santorum issue in front of a focus group of a cross section of Americans. I don’t think most would find it funny, and I believe it would hurt our cause.