To me it's great entertainment to see those on the far right lose it and launch into total batshitery which does nothing other than to expose their insanity and their contempt for the truth. Or at least any truth that gets in the way of their psychotic religious extremist agenda. One of the nuttiest of the nutcases is Scott Lively (pictured at right), who has been a frequent subject on this blog for his extreme anti-gay lunacy which has ranged from his totally discredited box, The Pink Swastika, that claims the Nazi regime was founded and run by a gay conspiracy, to his advocacy for the "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda. The latest target of Lively's spittle spraying ranting is Warren Throckmorton who for years preached the "ex-gay" myth and supported reparative therapy until he apparently became convinced that it simply doesn't work (and probably saw that his license would be in jeopardy if he kept pushing that snake oil). What has launched this right wing contretemps is Throckmorton's repeated criticisms of David Barton's fraudulent book on Thomas Jefferson. Box Trutle Bulletin looks at the cat fight and here are some highlights:
Purported historian David Barton has not had a good week. His NYT bestseller, The Jefferson Lies (which presents Jefferson as more of an orthodox Christian than evil secular historians would have you believe), has been pulled by its publisher, which “lost confidence” in the book after a host of historians — including many conservative Christians — pointed out its abundant flaws.
Barton has a few champions left. One of them — Scott Lively, author of The Pink Swastika — may be familiar to you, and he offers the most hilarious defense of all: The whole thing is a gay conspiracy. And you (yes, you) are involved.
Lively points out that Warren Throckmorton is one of Barton’s harshest critics. Throckmorton is a professor at a Christian university who has made a fascinating journey when it comes to his views on homosexuality. I doubt he would describe himself as pro-gay, but his steady and determined search for what is true has led him to speak out for the dignity and humanity of LGBT folk.
That’s enough for Lively: Throckmorton is a villain. And if you don’t think so…
just do a search of his name on the websites of the nastiest of these anti-Christ blogs such as Box Turtle Bulletin [!], Truth Wins Out and Joe My God. You will find that Throckmorton is a hero to these people and apparently a willing collaborator with some of them.See, if gays admire Throckmorton, then Throckmorton must be bad — and therefore, David Barton must be good. Seriously, that’s the crux of Lively’s 1500-word analysis. And nowhere in those 1500 words does he actually debunk a single criticism against the Barton. In fact, Lively suggests that minor issues like accuracy and truth are of secondary importance.
Scott Lively provides us with some insight here — not into the working of the vast gay conspiracy, but into his own head. Lots of people are delighted by this setback to Barton and his alternative reality; gays are just a small subset of that population, and a minor one at that. But if you’re as obsessed with homosexuality as Lively is, then anything with a remote and tenuous connection to the gays must be all about the gays.
Rarely have I seen such a direct and blatant statement that something so trivial as the truth must never get in the way of what is, um, right. It’s nice to have stuff like that from our opponents out in the open, stuff we later outrage them with by quoting it verbatim.
Lively is a certifiable nutcase in my opinion. He'd be laughable except for the fact that the ignorant and uneducated can be easily misled by such a fraud - Uganda being perhaps the best example of the evil that Lively seeks to perpetrate.
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