It Gets Bitter: Bullied by Anti-Bully Activist Dan Savage

Opinion   |   Ryan Bomberger   |   Nov 28, 2012   |   5:57PM   |   Washington, DC

Bullying. It’s a word so over-hyped that it’s abused. We’ve been beaten into submission with it. Anti-bullying programs are being forced upon our children in public schools across the country. Adults must sit through “sensitivity” training in the workplace. Most of the time, freedom of our fellow students or co-workers trumps our own freedoms, especially those of religion or expression.

Don’t get me wrong. No one should ever be physically assaulted or threatened because of who they are perceived, or claim, to be (unless, of course, you’re being robbed or abducted or in some other violent situation, which gives you full license to pummel the person.)

What happens though, when the White House-endorsed “Anti-Bully” becomes the “Bully in Chief”?

It gets bitter. Really bitter.

Dan Savage, x-rated sex columnist, LGBT activist, abortion advocate, and founder of “anti-bullying” website, ItGetsBetter.org, does the very thing he decries on MTV, and on campuses and news programs across the country. He’s a bully.

His shtick of hyperbole and flagrantly falsified stats reinforce his bitter tirades against those he considers his enemies.  Whether expressing his pro-abortion worldview, gay marriage, atheism, or the “ridiculousness” of monogamy, Savage has an obscenity-laced opinion. And if he doesn’t like who you are, things will definitely not get better.

According to Savage, for instance, prolifers want abortions to be “more dangerous and kill women”. Invoking conjured stats from the Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood’s affiliate), he says that American opponents of ‘reproductive freedom’ are “trying to kill American women.” He didn’t seem broken up about the death of Tonya Reaves inside a Planned Parenthood clinic last July or the more than 347 other women killed by “safe” abortion.

Sadly, we can’t count on mainstream media to call him out.

Family Research Council, through FRCAction, however, has released a powerful video, which compiles the vile words Savage has for those who disagree with him. There is no doubt, after watching this video, that this Obama-backed activist is a loose cannon who shouldn’t be endorsed by any branch of our government.

One of Savage’s greatest “accomplishments” has been to redefine prolife, pro-family, pro traditional marriage Rick Santorum’s name on Google. Apparently, it gets better when you become a cyber-bully.

And yet he gets invited to speak on high school (recently calling Christian teens who walked out on him “pansy-a**ed”) and college campuses without any regard to these easily discoverable and vile attacks.

He denigrates those he disagrees with and even calls for their deaths.

But it seems that public schools and our colleges and universities operate in a different universe. Diversity of thought is not often encouraged; conformity is. This explains why so many conservative or Christian speakers (or even student groups) are banned or disinvited from campuses, while those who proudly and loudly espouse a liberal point of view are embraced and celebrated. CampusReform.org does an excellent job documenting this kind of true discrimination.

It’s become standard procedure for students to become ideologically and verbally bullied by the arbiters of what constitutes “acceptable” speech. I’m all about freedom of speech, but not every form of expression is worth supporting. That’s the issue. Not censorship, but ownership. If Savage’s words were about blacks or Jews, would there even be a question as to his invitation to speak?

As the principle of a high school or president of a college or university, imagine having to defend these comments from an individual paid to speak on campus:

  • “I wish they (blacks) were all f**king dead.”
  • “There’s something wrong with blacks. There’s something wrong with Jews. There’s something wrong with women. And f**k those people.”
  • Black people should be dragged behind a pickup truck until there’s nothing left but the rope.

But it’s okay if the italicized words are ‘Christian’, ‘conservative’, ‘Republican’, ‘parents’, ‘teachers’, or ‘preachers’, though. Savage’s actual words (all seen in the video) were:

  • “I wish they (Republicans) were all f**king dead.”
  • “There’s something wrong with your parents. There’s something wrong with your teachers. There’s something wrong with your preachers. And f**k those people.”
  • Carl Romanelli [Green Party candidate] should be dragged behind a pickup truck until there’s nothing left but the rope.”
  • “Right-wing, bat-sh*t, fundamentalist conservative, evangelical, pieces of sh*t.”

This is the caliber of speaker that has been invited to speak at the University of Oklahoma tomorrow night with the invitation of the Student Activities Council and the college.  You can see the innocuous article about this event here. Notice Savage is described as a “journalist”. An OU student is trying to petition the college, not to censor, but to fund another speaker sometime during the school year who would offer a counter perspective.

Oklahoma’s not exactly a liberal bastion. Parents of students would be shocked to see the “Bully In Chief” video, or better yet hear him live and unedited, and know their money funds activists like him to travel across the country delivering his brand of “tolerance”.

Upholding the dignity of each human being demands that this kind of rhetoric is denounced. In an increasingly coarsened culture, we must reject this kind of speech, not by banning it, but by doubling our efforts to speak life into those with deep-seated personal wounds who seek to wound others.

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