I’ve done a quick check of the major intellectual magazines on the right—such as National Review, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, The American Conservative, Christianity Today, First Things, The American, Chronicles, etc., plus the Opinion Journal, TCS Daily, FrontPage magazine, and Focus on the Family sites, and I found not a single article on the controversy over former NBA star Tim Hardaway’s comments opposing homosexuality.
This is rather surprising given that Hardaway’s comments set off a fusillade of hatred toward him and a blatant attempt to destroy not only his reputation but his livelihood as an example to all who would question the elite’s attitude on this matter or any other it finds particularly important to its agenda.
This is very interesting given that on the whole these excellent publications cover just about everything of any import (and many of very little significance), including a wide variety of cultural questions. One can find reviews of the new movie Ghost Rider on several of these sites, for example. On the Hardaway matter, however, there has been an eerie silence on the right, even though the major media have been all over the story for the past week, and have been greatly on the attack against Hardaway for his opinions.
These opinions that are being attacked (once we set aside Hardaway’s intemperate use of the word hate), moreover, are in fact the opinions that most people on the right—and indeed most people in the nation—hold: a deep, fundamental discomfort with the idea of homosexual behavior. People feel and advocate differing degrees of toleration toward homosexuality, of course, but there’s clearly a basic feeling among regular people that there is indeed something wrong with homosexuality and that it is hence something to be tolerated, not put on an equal footing with heterosexuality.
That’s simply the reality of people’s attitudes, and this feeling has been common throughout human history.
None of that should be controversial or surprise anyone. The fact that the contemprary American elites strongly support a contrary opinion does not change the reality. It only exemplifies the vast divide between the elite and hoi polloi today.
Certainly this is a subject that most political-intellectual publications should find perfectly fascinating. Typically these publications are ever-ready to report on and analyze any big differences between elite and mass opinions and attitudes. Yet in this case, interest seems surprisingly weak.
It is possible that I have missed some brief discussions of this matter in major publications on the right, but the paucity of treatment of the story among conservatives is very clear from a check of their websites, including use of their search engines to make sure that I haven’t missed anything major.
The only conclusion that one can draw from this eerie silence on the right regarding the deliberate destruction of Tim Hardaway is that most publications are simply afraid to touch it.
Given what has happened to Hardaway, I can’t blame them. The silence speaks eloquently of the power being arrayed against the public expression of a very normal human attitude.
Carl, your conclusion is the only plausible one I can think of, too. Mike, a shame it is indeed.
Sam: You are correct; it is eerie. And irritating. Interestingly enough, my lengthy post on this over at Insight Scoop (which relies heavily on your excellent posts), has drawn just one comment. My sense is that people are either afraid or, for some reason, think it is a non-story. But the lack of coverage in conservative/Christian circles just adds evidence to what I believe is the case: this battle is essentially lost. We have allowed the MSM and the intellectual elites to brow-beat people into thinking that being “gay” is not a big deal, and that opposing it, or believing that homosexuality is unnatural, is homophobic. I hope I’m wrong. But I fear I’m not.
Sam, this is an indication of the power of our cultural elites and their PC attitudes to silence any diversity of thought. It was painful to watch certain athletes ripping Hardaway, when you know they were basically mouthing platitudes, lest they be seen as on the wrong side of the PC divide.
To these elites, homosexuality is seen as something not to be tolerated, but celebrated. As you say, most Americans will tolerate homosexuals, but that assumes there is something wrong with it. And the reason for this fanatical embrace of what many think is sexual perversion, is that it is blatantly against everything about the Judeo/Christian moral universe.
That conservatives would remain quiet with such a wonderful opportunity to explain exactly what you have is a shame.