Warning, long. And contains bad puns about Nazis.
As you will no doubt remember, we recently went through the unpleasant ordeal of a national referendum. Chief amongst the interest groups involved was the creepy Catholic Coir organisation. It strikes me that we don't hear very much of Coir these days.
But don't worry! Someone is stepping into the breach, and bringing the case for religious control of civil institutions back into the limelight! Meet
Renew (or RENEW; they appear unable to make up their minds).
Renew/RENEW is very much of the new breed of bigot organisations. Back in the good old days, pro-bigotry organisations were pretty upfront about it. They would say things like "WE HATE GAYS BECAUSE GOD/ALLAH/YAHWEH/RATZINGER/HITLER SAYS SO" or "BECAUSE THEY ARE ICKY!" In a way, well, you've got to admire the honesty. However, they make it pretty clear that they hate the gays either because their invisible friend tells them to or because they're Nazis or both, and this get less convincing as imaginary friends and Fascism fall out of favour in polite society.
The new sort of bigot-friendly pressure group takes a more stealthy approach; they will say things like
"Oh, we don't hate gays! We love gays, and respect them as humans! We just think that they have made a poor choice/are intrinsically disordered (doesn't that horrible phrase make you just want to slap that loathsome Pope?), and we would prefer that they be treated as second-class citizens."At this point, some might be tempted to say
"does this not rather glaringly resemble the 60s American reactionary position on black people?" To which the response will be that of course it is not. If pressed, the bigots will probably say that this is because it would be disrespectful of black people to say so (comparing them to the HORRID GAYS, you see), or something. In fact, of course, the real reason it is different is that it is now completely politically unacceptable to say that people should be second-class citizens for reasons of pigmentation, or gender, or whatever; sexuality, however, is still up for grabs and it would be foolish of the enterprising bigot to ignore it.
Another tool in the belt of the modern bigot is Family. Not family, you understand. Family, with a capital F. When people like Joseph Ratzinger or George Bush or Pat Robertson or Adolf Hitler talk about how important and wonderful Families are, they do not mean the flawed families which most of us are familiar with; families which might have only one parent, which might have an atheist or homosexual or other dangerous deviant in them, which might ultimately be rended by divorce, or by parental estrangement or by other unpleasant human issues. These people do not
like complex, imperfect real-life families. They mean fantasy Families, perfect in every way as dictated by their ideologies.
So, let us take a look at Renew's campaign issues.
The promotion and protection of marriage and family life
To influence government legislation which protects and supports family life
That ain't family. That's Family.
The protection of children against sexualisation by the media and the entertainment and commercial industries.
Censorship.
The teaching of sex education is primarily the role of the parent and must be taught in accordance with Catholic principles which always respects the child's natural modesty
Telling children the truth about
scary sex would clearly traumatise them; better just lie to them as the Catholic Church lies to Africans about condoms, then. It's worth sacrificing a few thousand kids to HIV if we can only do as Mr Ratzinger prefers, after all.
To lobby the government to strengthen the obscenity laws and to impose heavy sanctions for the breaking of those laws
Fascism!
The regulation of the media and advertising industry by an impartial body, independent of the industries concerned
Censorship. And, by the way, 'impartial' my ass.
Their 'Useful Links' section includes a link to fucking
Youth Defence (
a little information on this unpleasant group). What more can I say?
From their page on civil partnership:
Mary Doherty says, “this Bill imposes the agenda of same sex couples on us. What about the rights of Catholics and Christians who do not believe that same sex couples should get married or have children? What is the Government going to do about our rights? The government represents the common good not the minority.”
Yes! Mary Doherty has it right! The
Untermenschen are imposing their evil agenda on the helpless majority of Real People! Filthy, dirty, minorities! Why should they expect rights?
I mean, really, what's next? The gays stabbed us in the back in the struggle against the Lisbon Treaty? The gays dominate international banking, and make up most of the politburo of the Soviet Union? The Protocols of the Elders of Buttsex?
From their page on Civil Partnership again:
RENEW likens the Bill to Communist Europe and says that Communism is alive and well with publication of this Bill.
See? SEE? What did I tell you? They are auto-Godwinating! TROTSKY IS A SECRET GAY.
According to Mary Doherty, “we see our organisaiton as promoting progression through renewal, that is, re-introducing traditional values into family life. With the advent of the recession and the decline in living standards in Irish society we believe that there is a need to reaffirm tradtional family and moral values.
And they're destroying our economy too, the filthy fags. They have brought the Versailles Treaty...
excuse me, I haven't slept since 1945... the Global Recession upon us. Only Mary Doherty can save us! Heil Mary, full of grace! SHE WILL RENEW THE FATHERLAND!
Prepare for the Leinster House Fire, and the sack of Dublin's gay district by Youth Defence! Though, as Youth Defence is made up largely of mentally subnormal teenagers, they might be rather less effective than the SA (the existence of
Rohm, actually, rather complicates the issue). They could probably be scared off by
Panti.
But anyway, before I started reading Mary's creepy 'Majority rules, fuck the minority, only not up the arse because they might enjoy it' manifesto, I had
intended this post to largely make fun of their stupid logo:
That, there, is a stoat. Now, this is unfortunate on multiple levels. First, as I've mentioned, Renew is one of the modern form of weaselly pro-bigotry organisations, as opposed to the old-style religious maniacs and Neo-Nazis (though real Nazis, of course, were also rather weaselly, at least at first; see Hitler on the subject of the importance of family, morality, and the threat of the Jewish Agenda). A stoat is basically a fancy weasel; both are of the family
Mustelidae.
Secondly, of course, it is a
white stoat. Now, stoats are white in winter, brown in summer. Except!
Irish stoats are always brown; they do
not turn white in winter. That, then, must be an
immigrant stoat. So, remember, bigots; Renew may appear to support your position on the FILTHY GAYS, but they are in league with the AWFUL FOREIGNS (or, at least, foreign wildlife). Proceed with caution.
Now, a serious bit. Obviously, I do not think that Renew are actually Nazis. While Hitler did harp on about family a lot, and did use the approach of associating Jews with various things considered unpleasant (Communism, international banking, the Versailles Treaty, 'stab in the back'), he did not
originate these techniques; they were standard fare for the right-wing. He merely, perhaps, perfected them. I doubt that Mary Doherty is consciously imitating Adolf, though the bizarre allusion to Communism...
However, this sort of thing is dangerous.
"The government represents the common good not the minority" is the very cornerstone of populist bigotry; that it makes a mockery of actual workable democracy is beside the point. 'Renew' are unpleasant and sneaky, and would be far
less dangerous if they simply came out and screamed about how much they hate the gays. Their technique of insinuating nasty things about us, and implying that we wish to strip the majority of rights, is potentially far more effective.
