I have lost my illusions

Now, I have a lot of pretty strong beliefs - personal responsibility, religious and political freedom, the right of consenting adults to do whatever the hell that want together. The usuals. Free speech is pretty high up that list. Lately, though, I've been reading more and more of this sort of bullshit:

(Taken from the Eugene Weekly's letters to the editor, 2.8.07)

Once again you have shown that this paper has gotten away from what it should be. ... I am totally disgusted ... I refer to "Savage Love." This idiot who is not qualified to write anything, and for sure is not a professional. A slime ball who can only write porn, and you print it. WHY?

This community deserves better than a piece of garbage. I will do whatever I can to stop this. I am sending a copy of the article to the Attorney General's office and to the prosecutor here in Eugene, and anyone else I can. If this is the type of crap you want to put in your paper and give it away free so every kid has access to it then I believe you should move your paper out of town. At least The Register-Guard prints news.

You spout your paper as an alternative; is that what you believe? At one time maybe you were; what happened to common sense and the ability to write things that can help or benefit the community? Respect, morals, you have not shown you have any.

Maybe you and this Mr. Savage should rim each other if you like this crap so much that you cannot find anything important to write about.

I will go as far as I have to with this — freedom of speech and press never intended for you to abuse it in such a flagrant way.

Larry Lippert, Eugene



Let's deconstruct Larry's arguments one at a time.

"Once again you have shown that this paper has gotten away from what it should be" "This community deserves better than a piece of garbage."

Right off the bat Larry here shows some pretty strong preconceptions about what a newspaper 'ought' to publish. Stories that advance the community morals? More likely stories that agree with his version of morality - which doesn't seem to include frank talk about gay sex. Anything contrary to those morals is bad for the community, clearly!

This is a pretty presumptuous statement - who the hell gave Larry the power to decide what the Weekly 'ought' to be printing? And who the hell made him the voice of the community?


"I refer to "Savage Love." This idiot who is not qualified to write anything, and for sure is not a professional. A slime ball who can only write porn, and you print it. WHY?"

Now we get into the meat of the matter. Is Dan Savage an 'idiot', or does he merely write things which our good friend Larry finds offensive? Are the two equal? I've been known to call people with whom I disagree with idiots, so maybe I'm no better. I would not, however, attempt to pass personal judgment off as fact.

Calling Savage a slime ball is about on par with calling him a big ugly meanie. It shows that the writer has no real argument, other then namecalling. As Robert Heinlein once said, vulgar idioms denote an inferior mind - but I think that was obvious in Larry's case.

If this is the type of crap you want to put in your paper and give it away free so every kid has access to it then I believe you should move your paper out of town. At least The Register-Guard prints news.

Now this is a little bit trickier - I can certainly understand a parent wanting to control what his or her child reads. I can even understand why a parent might not want their child reading Savage Love, as graphic and honest as it is. I've met Dan Savage, and he's just as graphic and outrageous in real life. His writing is no different.

But is the solution to this suggesting that a newspaper leave town? Certainly not. There are many things in life I don't like, don't agree with. Have you seen Fox News? As humans, we will occasionally disagree. The solution is not, however, to attempt to erase these disagreements. The solution is to learn to live happily in a world that doesn't always agree with you.


"I will do whatever I can to stop this. I am sending a copy of the article to the Attorney General's office and to the prosecutor here in Eugene, and anyone else I can."
"I will go as far as I have to with this — freedom of speech and press never intended for you to abuse it in such a flagrant way."

By far the most horrifying and hilarious part of this letter, these lines made me laugh out loud. If freedom of speech applies only to speech you agree with, then what the hell good is it? Of the many rights we, as Americans, are privileged to enjoy, freedom of the press is one of my favorites. The right of a person to publish in written form anything he damn well pleases is the foundation of a free society. Again, I must quote Heinlein:

"Secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy, censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives."

When the news is censored, no man is free. I believe that it is the end goal of any government to control, subjugate and indoctrinate it's subjects, so tyranny never surprises me. What does offend me deeply is when this subjugation comes from the people. It starts with screaming about 'morals' and 'common decency' - and the next thing you know we're presenting papers to cross city lines. When the people further their own subjugation, there's no more hope for them.

So basically, fuck you Larry Lippert. Fuck you for contributing to the downfall of our once tolerable society. Fuck you for trying to legislate your morals. Fuck you for thinking you can silence free expression.