Wednesday IBR Recap

[daddytodd]

A dozen early IBR arrivals wound up eating at a Chinese place a couple blocks from the hotel last night; Carousel Gourmet, I believe it was called. It was cheap, and not bad. Oh, and did I mention it was cheap?

Sat in the lobby before dinner and talked at length with Stevo Harris of "A Bear's Life" magazine. He told me about his interview with Andrew Sullivan, which will be in the next issue (out in a couple weeks.) He said Sullivan was genuinely contrite about having carried water for the Bush Regime, and honestly sorry... that Sullivan became quite emotional talking about it. I asked if Sullivan seemed sincere, or if he was just doing bullshit damage control to salvage a wrecked reputation with the LGBT community. Stevo believes Sullivan to be sincere in his regrets. I'm not yet convinced; I'd need to ask Andrew my own set of questions before I believed his repentance, but I did start to get a sense of Sullivan as a man, and not as PURE EVIL, which is, quite frankly, how I have perceived him since 1999 or so, when I first became aware of him.

So I said to Stevo, "Please, don't  humanize Andrew Sullivan! I don't want my villains humanized. I don't want to know that Hannibal Lecter is just a misunderstood little boy, or that Darth Vader was an adorable moppet!" But alas, I fear I might have to approach Sullivan as a flawed (deeply flawed, from my perspective) human being, and not as the essence of quisling backstabber, willing to sacrifice his LGBT brothers and sisters for a tiny shred of political glory and financial gain.

Hmmm, not sure I'm ready to abandon that last bit. It's gonna take some time before I can see Andrew Sullivan as anything but  "a deeply flawed, though human, quisling backstabber willing to sacrifice his LGBT brothers and sisters for a tiny shred of political glory and financial gain." Yeah, that works!

I hadn't intended to talk so much about politics.

So, after dinner, we went over to the Lone Star for a couple hours. It was slow at first, but got busier by 11pm or so. John was having a great time, getting all kinds of attention from handsome daddies and bears. Yay John!

Comments

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Nobody deserves that treatment for his opinions

Hold yer horses, Tony. I believe you are setting up a bit of a strawman in couching this as a simple matter of freedom to hold whatever opinion one will. In fact, Mr. Sullivan actively works to promulgate his views under a representational banner many gay people do not willingly cede to him. That he does so for personal gain and aggrandisement at the expense of others makes it more odious, but is a secondary point. The main point, as I see it, is that Sullivan is well on the other side of the line between thinking whatever one will, and acting upon those thoughts.

If that argument holds no water for you, try this one: For better and/or worse, public figures' views—even their private ones—are routinely scrutinised, critiqued and lambasted in public. Sullivan has deliberately set himself up as a public figure, and regularly makes especial effort to make his views very public. As a direct result, he cannot reasonably expect to hold views that hurt others and not be blasted for it by a lot of people on a regular basis. It simply goes with the territory.

[that-dang-otter.livejournal.com]

For better and/or worse, public figures' views—even their private ones—are routinely scrutinised, critiqued and lambasted in public.

Oh, I fully support that kind of thing. The more the merrier. What I don't like to see is to have someone used as a human pinata, subject to unexplained and gleeful whacking for no obvious purpose.

I would be curious to know how you think his views hurt others.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Welp, I must not be seeing or hearing the piñata party. Most of the criticisms I've seen of Sullivan have been solidly based in stuff he actually said and did.

I am sure your curiosity regarding my thoughts is genuine, but it is a discussion I would rather not have right now, sorry.