Every couple of weeks I seem to pique the interest of some absolute raving nutter.
It usually goes something like this. I post an article on some current news item. The Queen spends $10 million on curtains for Windsor Castle, for example (she hasn’t, as far as I know). So I write a few words about whether the British public are getting good value for money from their Queen.
A couple of days later there is a long and outraged comment, demanding to know why I have used a word that is offensive to the whole gay commuity. Don’t I care that gay people have been oppressed for centuries?
Then there will be several paragraphs detailing incidents of oppression of homosexuals, and perhaps a quote or two from the Magna Carta thrown in for good measure.
Shortly afterwards I will find that this comment has been emailed to a couple of hundred people, pointing out what a hopeless homophobe I am.
Then there will be several more comments detailing at rambling and incoherent length, the hideous oppressions to which the gay community is still subjected. Some of these will include unpleasant personal insults directed at me and any other commenters who have asked what the heck is going through this person’s mind.
Some of those comments I will not allow through. Of course this proves what an unspeakable bastard I am, imposing my views on the gay community, using the power of censorship to silence the oppressed.
There may even be a little exchange demanding to know why I didn’t discuss my inflammatory and biased views with representatives of the gay community before publishing them.
I’ll reply that what I said was in response to a news article, and I was just expressing my own opinion. Others are welcome to do the same, and if any members of the gay community do want to speak with me, I’d be more than happy to talk with them.
That’s typical of my kind of ego-centric gender focussed personality, I’ll be told.
It’s very well for me to sit back and expect the oppressed minority to come to me. I wouldn’t think of making the effort to go to them, would I?
By now there will have been several more comments by the same person, perhaps on different articles.
For example, if I have written about climate change, I will be asked why I have, once again, failed to include the gay perspective, which will be detailed at length.
If I write about agricultural policy in Africa, my homophobia means I won’t even give passing recogniton to the plight of gay rice planters in Swaziland. My fortnightly weirdo will thoughtfully fill in the gaps, while continuing to send examples of my perfidious lack of concern to his or her extensive mailing list.
After the first couple of exchanges I usually recognise the pattern, and ask politely that the person stop emailing me. That request will be ignored.
Eventually, a week or so after I stop publishing any more comments and answering any more emails, my nutter will go away, presumably to pester some other blogger or public figure about why he or she is participating in the marginalisation of an oppressed minority by refusing to acknowledge the extensive gay contribution to highway traffic planning.
And then I’ll have a bit of peace for a week or so till the next nutter comes along.
