Vox Day: dishonest, stupid, and immoral

As if that was news to anyone. I think I may need to start referring to him as my personal punching-bag by now.

It would seem that Vox has (rightfully) received some boisterous feedback regarding his previous claim about atheists decrying the Ugandan bill that would “ban homosexuality”, a statement that I qualified as simplistic and disingenuous. Speaking of the devil, Vox has now posted a longer expounding of his views on the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill, and … well, to put it plainly, you just know it’s gonna be a misery to go through when the very title is something like ‘Gay pederasts and their atheist enablers’. (Note that this used to be ‘Gay pedophiles’ before he changed it.)

You just can’t make this sort of obtuse dumbassery up. The post in question is far too saturated with a cheery combination of equal parts vileness and stupidity for me to post it in full, so here’s the dissection, bit by bit.

I found it difficult to believe that Uganda was on the verge of passing a law that would require the death penalty for merely being homosexual as various atheist sites have been reporting, especially since by all reports it is an extremely popular law. Unsurprisingly, about thirty seconds of research revealed that the critics of the law have played a little fast and loose in their portrayal of it. While homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and has been for more than 100 years, the death penalty attached to the new law is primarily intended to stop the homosexual rape of children and the disabled and passing on the HIV virus.

Okay. I suppose passing a bill aiming to “stop the rape of children and the disabled and passing on the HIV virus” (note I removed “homosexual” as one’s sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with them committing such acts or not) would indeed be an honorable intention. But even if this were the case (more on that in a moment), this particular bill is no way to achieve such ends. Quite simply, it is equal to trying to end the spread of Malaria by criminalizing Africans. Or, trying to get rid of lead-contaminated products by banning Chinese manufactured goods altogether. Not only does it make absolutely no sense in any practical manner, it is supremely unethical and, put mildly, wrong. You don’t ban an entire sexual identity and orientation, and a lifestyle, because of what a very small number of people, who happen to be gay, commit such acts. It’s completely asinine to think this way. Anyone with any shred of common sense would instead focus on banning rape and child molestation in themselves, rather than an entire minority/demographic.

However, that’s not the best part. What is the best part, you ask? Here it is, I answer: Vox is LYING. (Yes, yes, Vox being dishonest is about as Earth-shattering as the Sun being very hot and far away, but read on.) It is FALSE that the bill is aimed specifically at stopping the “homosexual rape of children and the disabled” and at curbing the spread of HIV, or any other disease. First of all, here’s the bill’s own descriptive text (you can read the bill here ^[PDF]):

The object of this Bill is to establish a comprehensive consolidated legislation to protect the traditional family by prohibiting (i) any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex; and (ii) the promotion or recognition of such sexual relations in public institutions and other places through or with the support of any Government entity in Uganda or any non governmental organization inside or outside the country.

This Bill aims at strengthening the nation’s capacity to deal with emerging internal and external threats to the traditional heterosexual family.

This legislation further recognizes the fact that same sex attraction is not an innate and immutable characteristic.

The Bill further aims at providing a comprehensive and enhanced legislation to protect the cherished culture of the people of Uganda. legal, religious, and traditional family values of the people of Uganda against the attempts of sexual rights activists seeking to impose their values of sexual promiscuity on the people of Uganda.

There is also need to protect the children and youths of Uganda who are made vulnerable to sexual abuse and deviation as a result of cultural changes, uncensored information technologies, parentless child developmental settings and increasing attempts by homosexuals to raise children in homosexual relationships through adoption, foster care, or otherwise.

[My underline]

There you have it. Five whole paragraphs, and the bill’s primary concern is instantly made clear: it aims at criminalizing homosexuality for the sake of protecting the heterosexual family, which is a standard excuse reached for by anti-gay lawmakers anywhere when they try to pass discriminatory legislation such as this. Even in the last paragraph, which does talk about “protecting the children”, the point is not, as Vox Day claimed it was, to protect them from gay child molesters. It talks about keeping kids safe from other horrors, such as “cultural changes”, a lack of censorship, parentless upbringings (which I presume means orphans or foster homes), and, of course, the attempts by those evil gay people to try and obtain the legal right to adopt and/or raise children of their own.

If this isn’t conclusive enough, just a few paragraphs later and we arrive at the bill’s actual objectives, in its own words:

3.0. The objectives of the Bill
The objectives of the Bill are to:

(a) provide for marriage in Uganda as that contracted only between a man and a woman;

(b) prohibit and penalize homosexual behavior and related practices in Uganda as they constitute a threat to the traditional family;

(e) prohibit ratification of any international treaties, conventions, protocols, agreements and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act;

(d) prohibit the licensing of organizations which promote homosexuality.

You see that? Not one single mention of defending kids from “gay pedophiles”, or homosexual rapists, or deviant child molesters, or any other combo of “[sexuality] + [offense to children]”. It’s nothing but “protecting” kids from culture, tolerance and potential loving families, all because some people are attracted to others of the same gender rather than the opposite. Claiming that atheists are decrying the Ugandan anti-gay bill to try and support gay child molesters is being nothing short of fundamentally dishonest and bigoted (and that’s not to mention any potential slanderous repercussions of such wild and utterly baseless claims).

Vox, you EPIC FAIL. Yet again.

Because I, myself, am terribly evil, here’s one last bit if stupidity, regarding Vox’s take on democracy:

This reaction against what is clearly a very popular law in Uganda highlights the anti-democratic aspect of Western progressivism. If the great majority of people in Uganda don't want to put up with homosexuality, why should they? It's clearly the sacred Will of the People, after all. And more importantly, how is this of concern to anyone who doesn't live in Uganda, barring those who will have to give up their pedophile safaris in the future? Given their opposition to such laws, you would think that banning the mass importation of Ugandans and other like-minded third-worlders who will support similar laws here in the United States would be a more urgent issue, but ironically, importing third-worlders is a policy favored by most progressives.

I love it when Vox writes stuff like this, if only because he demonstrates how pathetic his understanding of such concepts is. What he fails to comprehend about democracy, is that it’s a socio-political system built on more than merely the Will of the People (ie. Majority Rules). This is a large part of it, yes, but an equally crucial aspect of it, if not one that’s even more important, is that it’s a system built on the people’s rights and overall well-being, in theory (regardless of what actually occurs in practice, which is not the point, here). That people have the right to life, to safety, to happiness, and the likes, are all fundamental under any true democracy. And this, is exactly how and why atrocities such as the Ugandan anti-gay bill are not only inhumane and morally impermissible, but they are also anti-democratic as well, as the bill aims at nothing but discrimination, persecution, prosecution, and perpetuating a cycle of intolerance that so far has had homosexuality outlawed in Uganda for over a century.

There is nothing that’s remotely democratic about the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act. Not only are Vox’s claims about the bill being “extremely popular” and supported by “the great majority of people in Uganda” rather nebulous in their accuracy^[1], they also betray his own latent mischaracterization of democracy, and when he goes ahead and claims that such atrocities aren’t the concern of anyone who doesn’t live in Uganda, he also betrays his incredible (yet well-known) lack of morality and compassion. (Even, should I say, humanity.)

[1] There is in fact massive outcry against the bill, and even though most Ugandans are indeed against homosexuality and are in support of the bill as far as criminalizing homosexuality goes, the majority of them, including President Yoweri Museveni himself, are still all for toning down the inhumanity in removing the death penalty punishment and other barbaric atrocities. It’s not much, but it’s a tiny step in the right direction, which always counts.