EPISODE 483: GUN VIOLENCE IN MOVIES

Ryan says:

I didn’t see any comments from my fellow liberals saying that Rubio or Bondi were totally OK with the massacre because the victims were gay, But the Internet is full of ugly people so it’s certainly possible and even probable that some did do that.
But yes, I do think a culture that holds anti-gay views as valid is also a culture that can create violence against gays. The killer’s father posted anti-gay views on his pro-Taliban YouTube page. Hard to argue that didn’t affect the killer’s attitude. I do not believe that opposition to gay marriage automatically equals “homophobe”, but I would also note that until very recently the mainstream Republican attitude towards gays went far beyond mere opposition to gay marriage. That’s the position that they retreated to at this point, but it wasn’t very long ago it all that they oppossed any gay rights at all, and even supported anti-sodomy laws. And in fact, though they’ve been pushed aside mostly, there’s still a fairly large evangelical portion of the Republican Party that still feels this way. (And yes, if you go back even further, there were many Democrats who also felt that way). David mentioned the AIDS crisis, and at that time most politicians were in fact what some internet trolls accused Bondi and Rubio of being–apathetic because the dead were mostly gay. I think it’s naive to suggest that violence against gays is not related in large part to religious opposition to homosexuality, be it Christian or Muslim. And there is a lot of it still, not usually this flashy, so it doesn’t get the press coverage.
That said, in general the Christian opposition nowadays seems far less violent. I’m very glad I live here and not in Saudi Arabia.
I also think that if a man slaughtered 50 Christians in a church and Richard Dawkins made a huge, splashy statement about how devastated he was, most Christians would say “thanks, but we don’t need to hear from you right now”.