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by Mike Malloy
So, it’s been awhile, truth-seeker, since last we
met on these pages. How’s it going? You doing
okay? Hit any large speed-bumps recently as you
cruise your Dharmic Interstate?
Yeah, so have I. But, let’s get to the topic at
hand.
Look, I know it’s fashionable to say no one
takes seriously all the weird shit heard in that
murky half-dimension known as Talk Radio. Per
haps you know what I’m talking about here; most
talk show hosts will tell you this particular use of
radio is first, last and always designed to be enter
tainment with an occasional side trip into Serious
Issues. Nothing to be alarmed about, they’ll say,
just a bunch of listeners blowing off frustration that
might otherwise be channelled into mass murder
or membership in a religious cult.
It may be fashionable to say that, but it’s
bullshit. For some of the more ardent “fans” of
right-wing talk radio (and make no mistake: 90%
of talk radio is right-wing), the medium has be
come the primary source of their information,
opinion and overview of this society. Think about
that for a moment, truth-seeker. Feel the hairs on
the back of your neck start to go all rigid?
So many of the True Believers embedded in
the microwaves of talk radio—the listeners, the
callers and especially the majority of the hosts—
seem to have one thing in common: they’re border
line fucking crazy. Near the edge and extremely
dangerous. And a large percentage of these folks, if
not all of them, have guns. Trust me.
Additionally, an alarming majority of the
program hosts use talk radio as a means of spread
ing a vile message of bigotry, stupidity and divisive
ness on all sorts of issues. Their followers (not
listeners; followers) take pride in claiming member
ship in what can only be categorized as an elec
tronic cult. These hosts use the immeasurable
power and the hypnotic effect of radio to move
their audiences into a sociopathic mind-set de
signed to further shatter whatever inclination to
wards national cohesion still remains in this soci
ety. And you, gentle reader, if you’re gay, have
become one of, if not the, primary Other to a vast
segment of these sociopathic assholes.
Yes, indeed. If you’re gay, you are the new
Commie, the ’90s equivalent of the Red* Menace
that swept this country for sixty years, reaching its
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apogee in that frighteningly wacky decade of the
’50s. (See: J. Edgar Hoover, Walt Disney, Ronald
Reagan, et al.)
However, there’s a decided difference in how
the Red Menace was handled and the manner in
which gays are being dehumanized, vilified and
attacked. I don’t have the energy to get into a
comparative analysis of’50s fear versus ’90s hatred.
However, this is a fact: There are more sociological
forces now aligned against the issue of gay human
rights than against any other issue that currently
crosses the talk radio spectrum. And if it’s on talk
radio, honey, it becomes An Issue Of Great Impor
tance, a total contradiction to the stupidly false
message that talk radio is “just entertainment.”
Starting with the demonic televangelist Pat
Robertson’s statement that “AIDS is God’s way of
weeding his garden,” to the near-hysteria of those
who would continue the official ban on gays in the
military, the masses, influenced and led by a snort
ing herd of red-eyed neo-Con talk show hosts, are
being force-fed huge bloody slabs of raw homo
phobia that is making the entire society exceed
ingly sicker than it already is.
Not enough space here to list all the recent
verbal attacks on gays by such media geeks as
Oliver North and Rush Limbaugh. However, it is
no longer enough to say take a break, not to worry
because these crazed bastards represent only a
small portion of the population as a whole. To
entertain this false perception is to muddle through
one’s daily business while the fires of a another
holocaust are slowly being ignited. In fact, these
crypto-Fascists are representative of a treacherous
undercurrent flowing through this society that is
gaining strength daily.
I am on the mailing list of dozens of booking
agencies, political action committees, religious or
ganizations, think tanks, foundations, etc., all seek
ing support for their particular issues, authors or
fund-raising pleas. And from the literature they
send me, I find a recurring theme among a large
percentage of them: homophobia, bashing, and the
steady pounding of hatred and dehumanization
against gays.
This assault is not to be taken as a fad, a
temporary redesigning of the American “nigger.”
Rather, to misquote Pat Buchanan—one of this
country 1 s leading and unabashed Nazis—there is a
declared war raging. Gays are the enemy, the
religious and political right are the jack-booted
Storm Troopers and scores of right-wing radio talk
show hosts are the ministers of propaganda. While
this maelstorm of bigotry swirls through the air
waves, the vast majority of the public is willing to
sit quietly and do nothing. One is reminded of
Martin Neimueller’s sad observation: “First they
came for the Communists and I did nothing be
cause I was not a Communist...etc.” And all the
while this “war machine" of ’90s America—rooted
in fundamentalist religion—metastasizes its way
through the soft tissue of this society.
In a recent issue of The Nation, writer Andrew
Kopkind mistakenly and foolishly presents a dif
ferent scenario altogether, what he labels “the gay
moment.” To Kopkind, gays are in the ascendancy
in the ’90s and “despite the difficulties, most gays
would agree that life as a homosexual is better now
than ever.before in American history.”
Andrew Kopkind is wrong. Dangerously
wrong. While he presents a laudable argument as
to the influences of the “gay culture” and touts the
new-found determination of gay consciousness, he
seems to be willing to ignore the depth of murder
ous rage these “advances” in gay awareness are
creating in non-gay America.
The single most perverse reaction of this
society as a whole around the issue of gay human
rights erupts when the subject of gays in the
military is broached. The avalanche of bigotry that
thunders through my program each time I bring
this topic up for discussion is nearly overwhelm
ing. In fact, gays in the military has become the
metaphor for gays in society as a whole. Take some
time to listen to the rhetoric and be terrified.
Gosh, at this point I hope I haven’t ruined
your day, truth seeker. I know you have other
concerns, pedestrian concerns that determine the
ebb and flow of your life sunrise to sunrise. Me, too.
Like right now I have to go pick up my kid at
school. However, being back in the disoriented
dimension of talk radio has reinforced a critical
observation of mine where it concerns America as
the Millenium rushes toward us: This society truly
is filled with Demons. Y
Spuing 1993