Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Bark louder, little dog.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Let there be snark.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Repubs in Disarray! Open Thread: “Conservatives” Suspect Justice Gorsuch Has Some Gay Friends

Repubs in Disarray! Open Thread: “Conservatives” Suspect Justice Gorsuch Has Some Gay Friends

by | 110 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

It is, of course, the fault of Title VII, which struck down the sacred traditionalist concept of ‘girl cooties’. Once normal hardworking bosses were forbidden to keep out the ladyfolk, sooner or later the ‘deviants’ were bound to start whining for a loophole to protect them, as well!

(I give it 36 hours, at most, before they remember that LBJ originally ‘rammed Title VII down their throats’ to protect… African-Americans. The equal-protection-against-sexual-discrimination line had only been added to the original law in an attempt to make the whole concept ridiculous — imagine letting a woman into the boardroom, har har har!)


To end where we began…

Reminder: Erickson first bubbled to public attention for calling David Souter ‘a goat-fvking child molestor’. He remains a monster, albeit the Voice of the GOP Gated Community:

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    Matt

    All those evangelicals who sided with Trump in 2016 to protect them from the cultural currents, just found their excuse to stay home in 2020

    Imagine being a nominal “Christian” and being so utterly full of hate that the _only_ thing you’ve objected to over the last three years is a Supreme Court decision that didn’t hurt the people you wanted.

    Every time one of these people opens their mouth and says “the moral position is…” they should be shouted down with shouts of “DONALD F**KING TRUMP” until leave the room.

  2. 2.

    Miss Bianca

    Every time I think I’ve finally determined who the most loathsome little article on the RW pundit circuit is, along comes someone else who manages to take the cake. Erick Erickson, COME ON DOWN, you heartless, soulless pricklouse!

  3. 3.

    HumboldtBlue

    The equal-protection-against-sexual-discrimination line had only been added to the original law in an attempt to make the whole concept ridiculous — imagine letting a woman into the boardroom, har har har!)

    I read a twitter thread last night dedicated to the fact that the addition of “sex” to the law was done by a virulent Virginia racist and now it’s suddenly “textual”.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    Huh. Guess I’ll take it and watch SCOTUS leerily for the next year. Turmoil within the sketchy Republican coalition? Gold Jerry, pure gold!

  5. 5.

    Brachiator

    I’ve been having too much fun enjoying this Supreme Court decision to pay much attention to the helps of those who don’t like it, but I find it appalling that a common thread seems to be the belief that religious freedom by definition includes the right to discriminate against people you fear or dislike and that Christians have a special right to have their theology enshrined into law.

    Once again, the issue we will have to contend with for some time is that the right wing have convinced their base to reject democracy and the Constitution.

  7. 7.

    Yutsano

    @trollhattan: Watch this: this will be the sop for denying any records releases from the Squatter in Chief. “That should ameliorate the lefties enough so we can cover for our patron.”

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    Given the virulence of Alito’s attacks on The Gays, should we start an over/under on how long before we hear about Alito’s “something on the side,” and it turns out to be a 15-year-old boy?

    Or would it be irresponsible to speculate?

  10. 10.

    MattF

    One hopes that ‘Christian’ conservatives, given a moment to ponder what’s happened, note that 1) Trump obviously doesn’t give a shit, one way or another, about gay rights, 2) making this a big issue made them easy pickings for Trump’s long con. And yeah, agreeing with Erickson, I think they should stay home in November.

  11. 11.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Brachiator: Once again, the issue we will have to contend with for some time is that the right wing have convinced their base to reject democracy and the Constitution.

    That’s what they get for siding with Republicans as the Rs supplanted their god with a dogmatic form of capitalism while justifying this with coded racist, sexist, and homophobic messages.

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    I get the feeling that, as with socialism, the reason the RWMFs hates gays is … well, “JUST BECAUSE, libtard!!! OK?”

  14. 14.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @SFAW: Given the virulence of Alito’s attacks on The Gays, should we start an over/under on how long before we hear about Alito’s “something on the side,” and it turns out to be a 15-year-old boy?

    He does have a bit of gay face going on, though I don’t have a guess as to the age group he prefers to fornicate with.

    Or would it be irresponsible to speculate?

    It would be irresponsible not to…

  16. 16.

    HumboldtBlue

    @opiejeanne:

    That was my simple ass trying to ‘splain the constant stream of “Gorsuch textualism is horrible!!!!” I read when the ruling was announced.

    Textualism:

    the belief that the meaning of a law turns on its words alone, not on the intentions of the law’s drafters.

    And somehow that violates originalism or onanism or whatever fucking ‘ism the christianists suffer from.

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    So many feelings in response to all those tweets!

    Alito via Lemieux: “Oh GREAT, so now we can only go on their job performance when we fire them? Not their gayness??  What kind of world is THAT??!?”

    trumpov via Drezner: “durrrh…durrh…durrh…”

    Erickson all by his own self: “I’m confused. If a white cop can’t shoot a black guy in the back without consequence, what the hell kind of world is this? Not one worth living in, that’s for sure.”

    tempted to click on Erickson’s tweet and read his “reasoning” further, but I don’t want my brain to get infected by even getting near his insanity.

    We desperately need a high school course in this country called ‘Flip It’. For any given situation you read about in the media, just flip the groups involved – male/female, black/white, rich/poor, Republican/Democrat – and see if you’re okay with how it was reported, and how it all shook out. If not, maybe you have some learning, changing, growth in your future.

    I have a funny feeling that Erickson would feel differently if this was two black cops shooting down a white guy in the back over a DUI call. Maybe he needs to report for ‘Flip It’ training, stat.

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    @opiejeanne:

    I just realized that I don’t know what textual means.

    Textual: ‘Whatever is convenient for reaching the conclusion Antonin Scalia wanted to reach’

    Hope that helps.

  20. 20.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @HumboldtBlue: the belief that the meaning of a law turns on its words alone, not on the intentions of the law’s drafters.

    This actually sounds like far more reasonable way to go about interpreting law than psychoanalyzing and asserting motives of the drafters of laws.  Especially since hundreds of people are involved in drafting laws and each will have different intentions.

    ETA: Provided, of course, this is applied consistently and not broken in the service of partisan political gain.

  23. 23.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @dmsilev: And damn CNN to hell forever for plucking him from obscurity. The people who approved that position and hire define the banality of evil.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    Erickson all by his own self: “I’m confused. If a white cop can’t shoot a black guy in the back without consequence, what the hell kind of world is this? Not one worth living in, that’s for sure.”

    He didn’t mean this ironically?

  25. 25.

    HumboldtBlue

    @opiejeanne:

    Oh sweet mother of felonious ignorance, neither am I.

    But I follow lawyers on Twitter. (if I could do a wink emoji I would)

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope:

    This actually sounds like far more reasonable way to go about interpreting law than psychoanalyzing and asserting motives of the drafters of laws. Especially since hundreds of people are involved in drafting laws and each will have different intentions.

    I’m with ya.

  26. 26.

    Uncle Omar

    If I remember my Con Law, the basic rule of Supreme Court opinions is that the Chief Justice assigns the opinion to whomever he (so far) wishes if he is in the majority.  This being the case, I would guess that Roberts joined the majority after he discovered that Gorsuch had joined the libs.  Then he assigned the opinion to him expecting one of two results: A) a narrow holding that didn’t include, for example, bathrooms, or B) Gorsuch trips over a manhole cover and goes under the bus.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope:

    That’s what they get for siding with Republicans as the Rs supplanted their god with a dogmatic form of capitalism while justifying this with coded racist, sexist, and homophobic messages.

    The base loves Trump. They would happily dump the GOP and start a third party with Trump as their leader if it meant that they could continue to get what they wanted.

  29. 29.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Framers of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act never intended to include “sexual orientation” and “transgenderism.”

    “Liberal Orginalism” from the far Right now. ROFL.

  32. 32.

    cain

    BLM conversations between black folks have turned very interesting – because not are they talking about the outward ‘black lives matter’, but the misogyny within their community and black women are now having some frank conversations with black males about a lot of things. Some of it is the churn between genders, but some of it is real issues that black women face – because not only do they have to face the society’s racism but also dealing with family, their men, and the work place issues. Some men don’t get it and others do.

    But the way they talk to each other? Respectful. It doesn’t devolve into the kind of shit that I’ve seen between other people on twitter. Very fascinating – I don’t know if we indians have similar conversations but then again I’m not on Indian twitter. I don’t even knwo where indian twitter is.

  33. 33.

    Aleta

    Kav’s dissent seems sketchy to me… the time for  that argument is over  … the SC agreed to hear the case.   If he’s  on the court, which we were told must be, how does he get to say,  ‘I don’t believe deciding this case is my job.’   He’s such a decaying weasel.

  39. 39.

    frosty

    Thanks again for all the links in all your posts AL. You read twitter so I don’t have to! This is news I wouldn’t see otherwise from the papers and pundits. Of course, it costs me 4+ hours a day to go through it all, but I blame that on 2020. Too much damn news.

  40. 40.

    CaseyL

    This was a good and important decision, but I am still waiting fearfully for the SCOTUS ruling on the ACA, abortion, and T*’s tax returns.

    Regarding abortion in particular, Gorsuch’s emphasis on “textual analysis” will very likely allow him to reverse Roe v. Wade on the basis that “privacy rights” are found nowhere in the Constitution – SCOTUS could, in fact, strike down Griswold at the same time on the same basis.

    That being said, the hysterics, tears, denunciation, and high-decibel angst erupting from the Religious Right are deeply satisfying.

  41. 41.

    Joey Maloney

    I just learned that Live From Here has been cancelled and I feel the need to grieve.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope:

    The GOP was pulling this shit a long time before Trump ran for office.

    Trump forced the GOP to go further than the mainstream Republicans wanted to go on issues such as immigration.

    But this Supreme Court decision is driving the GOP crazy, and is revealing a coalition of Deplorables who could not give a shit about conservative principles and are in it just to see that the right people are hurt.

    Senator Josh Hawley said the quiet part out loud.

    “We’re supposed to keep our mouth shut while the party establishment pursues ruinous trade policies. We’re supposed to keep our mouths shut while those at the upper end of the income bracket get all the attention,” he said. “Because there would be pro-Constitution religious liberty judges? Except for they aren’t. These judges don’t follow the Constitution.”

    No pretense that trade and tax policy is meant to help anyone who is not a plutocrat. Just straight up authoritarian populism.

  44. 44.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    @Jeffro: trumpov via Drezner: “durrrh…durrh…durrh…”

    I finally read Izumaki by Junji Ito. (for those that don’t know, Junji Ito is THE horror master for Japanese manga, like from the early 90’s, he is the spiritual successor to Lovecraft across the pacific ocean [heh])  Disturbingly, it was strangely calming because the normalization of most people in increasing horror is absoutley terrifying.

    Everybody dies in the end, but at the micro-scale you can understand why people go along to the increasing horror that envelops them.

    Perfect encapsulation of this:  One of the high school students turns into a LITERAL SNAIL, and everyone else in the school builds a (human-sized) snail enclosure because, “well he’s a student, we can’t let him slime his way around and on the school…..”

    It’s clarifying on how fucked up things have gotten (major political journals are talking about how Trump may try to invalidate the election in various ways pre and post election) yet life seems to go on, and there is this inertia to not make waves. Even with myself.  It’s insane.

  45. 45.

    prostratedragon

    Found myself momentarily gobsmacked by Alito’s steeltrap mind:

    The problem with applying civil rights law to sexual orientation or gender identity is that it will make it more difficult for employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity

    As for Erickson, for our convenience and further edification he should gather all those things with which he struggles and put them into a single book. He could call it … ummm, let me see …

  46. 46.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @HumboldtBlue:

    If you really believe in the originalism of the constitution, don’t you therefore have to believe that n4ither women nor blacks have the right to vote?

    And are amendments after really covered by iriginalist?

  47. 47.

    Anne Laurie

    @Miss Bianca: Every time I think I’ve finally determined who the most loathsome little article on the RW pundit circuit is, along comes someone else who manages to take the cake. Erick Erickson, COME ON DOWN…

    Never take your eye off the Voice of the GOP Gated Community.  For the past 15 years or more (remember when TBogg used to mock ‘Tragic: the Gathering’, or whatever RedState’s annual Atlanta convention was called?) he’s been a reliable fixture.  Never quite talented enough to hold a real media or legislative postion, but never quite ‘outrageous’ enough to get banned from what passes for decent among the RWNJs.  Always a useful indicator as to the most up-to-date outrage that’s about to be smeared all over Fox News and the GOP electoral platform…

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    I’m watching the (new) American Masters episode on Mae West. It’s very good, as are many of the episodes in this series. Saw a snippet of her singing “My Old Flame” with Duke Ellington and his orchestra from Belle of the Nineties (1934). The song was written for the movie, and West lobbied to have Ellington included in the production.

    One of my favorite versions, by Charlie Parker, with Miles Davis.

    The doc is well worth looking up. (Probably will be shown several times this week.)

  50. 50.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: That’s the beauty of Ito’s work IMO. Even though he traffics in supernatural horror, it’s grounded in a surreal way by how the characters react to the horror.

    And it shows the human capacity for self-delusion and/or carrying on in the face of something that should, by all rights, leave you catatonic and ‘paralyzed’ in fear.

     

    And I do agree that is how I feel with the current malAdministration, people are having to learn how to live in spite of it, because it’s not going to help staying in your bed with the covers over your head. It also explains why the resistance has been so sustained: for the people with the energy to actively participate, it’s a case of “If not me, then who?”

     

    And there’s is always an issue to ask yourself that question about, across the entire spectrum of issues.

  51. 51.

    mdblanche

    Conservatives are showing way more anger towards Gorsuch than Roberts, which shows how desperate they were for a non-racist excuse to like Trump.

    But apparently a homophobic one is fine.

  53. 53.

    Aleta

    That Gagnon is all worked up:

    This is a hard SCOTUS body blow to the abdomen of the Church, with many further blows to come. Today’s decision is the gravest threat to the civil liberties of faithful Christians in the history of the Republic, overshadowing even Obergefell.

  57. 57.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Matt: *cough*  Uh, no, the words should be “you goat fucking child molester!”[1]  And when they blanch and say “whaaa?  I’m not that!” you can say “take it up with your asshole tribune Erick Erickson and get outta my face!”

    [1] It’s what he called David Souter, back in the day.

  58. 58.

    Kent

    What this decision actually seems to be doing is splitting the business conservatives (Koch brothers types) who want low taxes and low regulation and who are perfectly happy to make rainbow tennis shoes, sponsor corporate floats in pride parades, support gay marriage, and employ LGBT employees if it will make them money.

    From the fundie evangelical conservatives who have been giving the business conservatives their votes for two decades in exchange for endorsing their hatred and bigotry

    Roberts and Gorsuch seem to be siding with the business conservatives.  They will vote in a heartbeat to trash regulations, crush unions, and do all that sort of evil corporate bidding.  But the don’t see the point in hating on LGBT folks because there really isn’t any profit in it anymore.

  59. 59.

    tokyokie

    @patrick II:

    I never say “Billy Williams” without saying “Sweet Swinging” first.

    I can never think of Billy Williams without thinking of Henry Aaron’s second wife.

  61. 61.

    patrick II

    @Steeplejack:

    I watched an American Masters broadcast about Sammy Davis Jr. a couple of weeks ago.  He was a man of amazing talent.  His story was one of those heartbreaking/uplifting stories in very confusing times.  A member of the Rat Pack and once seen hugging Richard Nixon, and marrying tall blondes, he was accused of selling out.

    One thing I think about is the way they would joke with each other, the others teasing Sammy about being a black Jew, Sammy telling Italian jokes about Dean and Frank, and all of them giving Joey Bishop a hard time about being Jewish.  In some ways that seems better to me than the way it is now.  Race and religion unimportant enough that you could joke about it (as long as it went both ways) like we joke about many less important things.  But, though they tried, in the broader culture the jokes were too much one way and too derogatory and too serious. So, things change, and that sort of thing is frowned upon now as it should be in the world we live in.

  62. 62.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Aleta: Today’s decision is the gravest threat to the civil liberties of faithful Christians in the history of the Republic, overshadowing even Obergefell.

    Just goes to show that they don’t understand the concept of civil liberties at all that they think it is within one*’s civil liberties to deny others their liberties.

    *OK, only their own

  64. 64.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Miss Bianca: Every time I think I’ve finally determined who the most loathsome little article on the RW pundit circuit is, along comes someone else who manages to take the cake.

    Sometimes I like to consider who is the least loathsome pundit still associated with the RW.  I nominate David Brooks of Team Bobo.  He writes a lot about community and working together, a fundamental good lacking in a lot of right wing thinking that can help me occasionally overlook his tortured logic in support of R economics.

  66. 66.

    piratedan

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope: comes with that whole master race, holier than thou vibe they exude.  They see themselves as the pinnacle and thus deserving of all of the benefits thereof and anyone else has to depend upon their largesse and benevolence… and this is a key critical component, acknowledge their position and show the appropriate gratitude.

  67. 67.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @piratedan: comes with that whole master race, holier than thou vibe they exude.  They see themselves as the pinnacle and thus deserving of all of the benefits thereof

    Just wait til we gays have all the power and get to enact our agenda. Bwahahahaha!!!

  68. 68.

    Kent

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope:Sometimes I like to consider who is the least loathsome pundit still associated with the RW.  I nominate David Brooks of Team Bobo.  He writes a lot about community and working together, a fundamental good lacking in a lot of right wing thinking that can help me occasionally overlook his tortured logic in support of R economics.

    I don’t think he was ever really right wing.  He’s more of a professional bootlicker and still is.

    I think George Will has come the furthest from die-hard Right Wing to profoundly anti-Trump and anti-GOP in it’s current form.  Brooks has never written anything remotely like this recent screed from George Will:

    “In life’s unforgiving arithmetic, we are the sum of our choices. Congressional Republicans have made theirs for more than 1,200 days. We cannot know all the measures necessary to restore the nation’s domestic health and international standing, but we know the first step: Senate Republicans must be routed, as condign punishment for their Vichyite collaboration, leaving the Republican remnant to wonder: Was it sensible to sacrifice dignity, such as it ever was, and to shed principles, if convictions so easily jettisoned could be dignified as principles, for … what? Praying people should pray, and all others should hope: May I never crave anything as much as these people crave membership in the world’s most risible deliberative body.”

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @patrick II:

    True, and also celebrity cushioned a lot of the cruelty. “I don’t like Negroes, but that Sammy Davis Jr. is sure talented!”

  71. 71.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Brachiator:

    that Christians have a special right to have their theology enshrined into law.

    It’s a tell that the bible humpers always accuse LGBTQ folks of demanding “special rights.” More projection that a multiplex theater…

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Waah waah waah.  The whiny ass titty babies that are the insane reactionaries go full blizzard of snowflakes.

    Suffer, assholes.  Suffer.

  76. 76.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Villago Delenda Est: Waah waah waah.  The whiny ass titty babies that are the insane reactionaries go full blizzard of snowflakes.

    They were always the true whiners and complainers, always the ones trying to prevent others from speaking their minds.  All the “political correctness” BS is just a way for them to assert they have a right to not be disagreed with or argued against.

  77. 77.

    Mike G

    Emperor Palpatine voice: “Good, good…let the butthurt flow through you.”

    Now go take it out on Moscow Mitch, installing Gorsuch was all his idea.

  78. 78.

    Kent

    @Mike G: Emperor Palpatine voice: “Good, good…let the butthurt flow through you.”

    Now go take it out on Moscow Mitch, installing Gorsuch was all his idea.

    Mitch never struck me as a fundie.  He’s more of a Koch creature, grasping for GOP power above all else in order to perpetuate his anti-tax and anti-regulatory and anti-government pro-oligarchy ideology, and a generation of judges to preserve it.  I don’t think he gives a flying fuck about LGBT rights or any rights for that matter.

    I’m guessing that the real GOP power brokers like Mitch are reading polls and know that the anti-LGBT bullshit is losing them a generation of otherwise potential conservatives.  They know the fundies have nowhere else to go because they have wrapped themselves into such an endless lather about abortion and are racists to the core.

  79. 79.

    Kent

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Local reporting from Iridian Casarez and photos from Mark McKenna.

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    If you really believe in the originalism of the constitution, don’t you therefore have to believe that n4ither women nor blacks have the right to vote?

    That question always stumped me.

    How so?   The Constitution is subject to amendment.  That process itself is in the constitution.

    You just don’t get tiniest bit more rights than are expressly laid out in the Constitution unless you can marshal 2/3rds votes in each house of Congress and in 2/3rds of the state legislatures.  So good luck with that you women’s libbers!

  80. 80.

    Mohagan

    @SFAW: As we all know, it would be irresponsible not to speculate

    ETA: I’m late to the party with this comment, but it’s still true!

  82. 82.

    Ian R

    All those evangelicals who sided with Trump in 2016 to protect them from the cultural currents, just found their excuse to stay home in 2020 thank to Trump’s Supreme Court picks.

    This is the first time Erik, son or Erik has ever said anything which made me respond, “From your mouth to God’s ear.”

  83. 83.

    Bruce K

    @Mohagan: Well, in the old days, in a lot of places, marriages were often treated like business partnerships, and loving or even liking one’s partner in marriage was a secondary concern at best, irrelevant at worst. So maybe there’s a cost-benefit analysis that concludes that maintaining the partnership is more beneficial than dissolving it.

    Or maybe it’s like a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan in the same household.

  88. 88.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Kent:

    I had to google “condign” and it fits perfectly

    It was one of J. K. Galbraith’s favourite words. The world has turned full circle when Wills is emulating Galbraith.

  91. 91.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Amir Khalid: Oh, don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with him on much and recognize his persistent sloppy thinking.  A little platitude every once in a while can be a nice thing though.  And I’m happy there’s at least one person in the Republican tent pushing the idea of community against their fanatical individualism.

  92. 92.

    Chyron HR

    Republicans: “People in the 1960s didn’t know what transgender was!”

    Also Republicans: “The Bible forbids hormone replacement therapy!”

  95. 95.

    trnc

    Gorsuch once ruled in favor of businesses letting their employees freeze to death

    It’s true. He is still the Ice Truck Killer.

  96. 96.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Brachiator:I find it appalling that a common thread seems to be the belief that religious freedom by definition includes the right to discriminate against people you fear or dislike and that Christians have a special right to have their theology enshrined into law.

    What I’d like to hear from the likes of Dreher or Erickson is just why this decision should matter to conservative Christians.

    If they believe that Jesus told them to love their neighbors as they love themselves (and that’s one of his two Great Commandments, so there’s no other rule that trumps this), then discriminating against LGBT people – why should this be something they want to do??

    I know the real answer, of course: conservative Christians aren’t particularly Christian, and like most conservatives, they’re really about sticking it to the people they don’t like, good and hard.

    But I’d love to see what convoluted, half-ass pretend reason these guys would come up with.

  97. 97.

    joel hanes

    @SFAW:

    the reason the RWMFs hate gays is

    … because their parents and their pastor taught them to hate gays.   (And for many of the men, at least, because their boyhood peer group used “gay” as the worst possible insult, and brutally punished any deviation from toxic masculinity.)

    You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late
    Before you are six or seven or eight
    To hate all the people your relatives hate
    You’ve got to be carefully taught

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    @low-tech cyclist

    But I’d love to see what convoluted, half-ass pretend reason these guys would come up with.

    *mumble mumble* icky *mumble mumble* procreate *mumble mumble* did we remember to say icky? *mumble mumble*

    //

  99. 99.

    low-tech cyclist

    @trnc:It’s true. He is still the Ice Truck Killer.

    Yeppers.  He and Roberts may cast the occasional decent SCOTUS vote, but >95% of the time, they’re going to be sticking it to everyday people on behalf of the corporatocracy.

    And conservatives are such crybabies, they whine like hell over the rare decision that doesn’t go their way, and now Gorsuch is a traitor, and all the effort that went into denying Obama the right to fill Scalia’s seat was wasted.

    They’re bullies when they can bully, and they’re whiners and crybabies when they can’t.

  101. 101.

    Ken

    Alito and Kavanaugh’s dissents are a collective 138 pages.

    Yeah, but that’s because Alito did that high-school stunt of copying large chunks of the dictionary and encyclopedia into an appendix to increase the page count. Actual new content is much less. Actual legal reasoning, even less.

  104. 104.

    chopper

    everybody knows that homosexuality was invented in 1974, so the writers of title VII couldn’t possibly have even considered it applying to gay folks.

  105. 105.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: I get the feeling that, as with socialism, the reason the RWMFs hates gays is … well, “JUST BECAUSE, libtard!!! OK?”

    Oh no. No no. Nonononono!

    What they hate is the fact that human sexuality is a complex, curious, often contradictory mishmosh of all sorts of passions, triggers and compulsions – and their belief system requires it to be on/off, one/zero, yin/yang, with one specific form permitted (within rigid theocratic limits) and all others the work of Satan. The 110% heteroerotic (or for that matter, homoerotic) individual has almost surely never walked the earth, and for the truebeliever, that sliver of forbidden nonstandard sexuality in his (or her) makeup terrifies them. Among other things, it explain why they all think Teh Ghey is out to recruit them – they’re frightened they’re recruitable (& of course “going over” => eternal damnation). And why they’re damned&determined to foist “conversion therapy” on homosexuals – if they themselves could be recruited for the Satanic side, then there must be enough of Teh Strait in those others that they might be “won” to Standard Hetero. And why they get so furious whenver any sort of nonstandard sexuality comes out of the closet and “pretends” to be a valid lifestyle choice (an inelegant term but nothing better occurs to me as I type) – no option to “live & let live” because the temptations of Satan are being shoved in their face. (Go look up “occasion of sin” in Catholic dogma for a nice Catch-XXII on that one.)

    And all this fits into the abject existential insecurity that underlays every proselytizing religion in history, the fear that you might have picked an untrue religion to follow & therefore anyone who’s made a different choice can at best be tolerated, but only so long as their beliefs & practice are kept hidden away from the prevailing societal consensus – and anyone with doubts has to be firmly yanked back into line.

    (I despise proselytizing religions in direct proportion to the amount and vigor of their proselytizing.)

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    @Ladyraxterinok: And the Constitution doesn’t say that the SCOTUS’s job is to interpret laws duly passed by Congress, either!!1

    The RWNJs on the SCOTUS always start from the result they want and work backwards.

    “The Text doesn’t say that!!1”, except when it clearly does (the 2nd Amendment)…

    Grrr…

    Seriously, as OO says, the law always needs to be interpreted because things and society changes and any law that is comprehensive enough to cover everything is so mind-numbingly long and complex that nobody will ever be able to read and understand it (e.g. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s 484 page “TREATY ESTABLISHING A CONSTITUTION FOR EUROPE”).

    We know that Gorsuch put various poison pills in this ruling, but it is incremental progress and that’s important.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @Kent: Sounds plausible, until you think of how they’re likely to rule on Roe v Wade and the like given the chance…

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Another Scott

    @Chyron HR: +1 rofl.

    I’m constantly amazed that the RWNJs still want us to believe that non-missionary sex was invented circa 1967.  That DeSade never wrote and published all kinds of extreme novels in the late 1700s; that contraceptive potions and devices were around in ancient Egypt; that Paul Brown, the founder of the American Life League, scoffed in 1982, “Jerry Falwell couldn’t spell ‘abortion’ five years ago.”.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  110. 110.

    pajaro

    @Brachiator:

    The “conservative” freekout is really weird.  Hawley bitches about the way that the majority interprets the Constitution in a case that doesn’t actually involve the Constitution.

    I think this kills them for three reasons:  first, they know they will never have a majority in Congress to change the language to allow them to discriminate; second, they thought they had bought themselves protections against the majority of their country by supporting Trumpov; and finally, they hate, hate, hate that they have been “owned.”

Comments are closed.