Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

A few days ago, I was reading something from, or in support of, that group that was complaining that Spongebob Squarepants is encouraging homosexuality (one of the groups with "Family" in their name, which is actually relevant here), and ran across an interesting meme in it (yeah, more interesting than the expected anti-gay memes). The author referred to "bigotry" as a liberal "code word".

Except that it's not. "Bigotry" isn't code, it's blunt. It means exactly what it says. It doesn't dress up the concept in prettier phrasing to make it harder to argue with or to sneak past someone's "Wha'd they just say?" filter. It doesn't hide an agenda behind an innocuous-sounding phrase. It doesn't even try to be polite. It's raw. Maybe even rude. It's the antithesis of a "code word".

Calling it a code word is a distraction. An attempt to encourage the reader to dismiss it henceforth as either meaningless or deceitful. And the meme that says "you can ignore statements the other side makes about 'bigotry' without feeling bad" is snuck in there as part of the scenery. Sneaky and malignant.

Admittedly none of us are perfect, and sometimes when we say the word "bigotry" we focus on certain forms of it and overlook others. But we get called on that when we do, and we expect each other to call us on it. The fact that the group complaining about it is trying to defend a particular example of bigotry does not make it our code word.

The irony, of course, is that this is coming from one of the so-called "family" organizations. "Family" and "family values" are the code phrases most often used as examples of the concept of a code word! "Family" is not used by conservatives to denote a comprehensively -- nor even consistently -- pro-families approach. It is a shorthand for "anti-liberal, anti-homosexual, and reactionary" and usually has anti-sex and "strict-father" family-model elements added. Much of the "family values" agenda actually opposes families that don't fit their particular "moral" crusade. They say "family" because that sounds nicer than "anti-gay" and frames it as something dangerous to argue against: "How could you be anti-family?" And they do this while working to make life harder for existing families in the real world who fail to fit their narrow model. As far as I can tell, there's little done in the "pro family" name that actually helps families -- even "corect" ones -- beyond a few token feelgood speeches. That is, what I've seen isn't even pro-"the right kind of" family; only anti-"the wrong kind" (and, frequently, pro-censorship using "the children" as an excuse).

And this is a group that has the gall to issue a statement that refers to "bigotry" as a liberal code word? They can't even say "But think of the children!" sincerely because there's a footnote that says, "unless the children are gay, have gay parents, have a non-Norman-Rockwell family structure, or fail to be cowed into narrow social roles." What are they arguing against in the article I read? A video that tells children, more or less, "don't beat people up for being different".

So it's not hard to see why a "family"-agenda group would want to defang the word "bigotry" by convincing people to dismiss it as a code word.

Be careful out there, and don't step on the meme-mines.