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Originally Posted by ratbastid
Set aside the whole "is it right or wrong" thing for a second. A closeted anti-gay politician is an easy target for a politically-motivated take-down, and it's just bad politics to be that vulnerable to attack. If your political tent is pitched on such shifty sand, I think you deserve what you have coming to you.
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Bad politics, yes. A justification for outers, no. Expected != justified. You've got a leap here to explain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizra
Imo, closeting yourself is not good.
I think Maher is all right. Hypocrites go home.
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Nope, not good. Also not your business, nor Maher's.
You've got to have a good reason to invade one's privacy and divulge the details to the world. There is simply no good reason here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pigglet
I'd have the same opinion if someone was a staunch supporter of the Drug War and MADD, and it turned out they were a heavy drug user who routinely drove drunk.
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Why? It wouldn't change the fact that they're doing good - or bad - politically.
'Course, drunk driving is a danger to other people. 'Course, if you believe in the drug laws (I don't), there's another good reason to 'out' him. And if you want to get him into rehab, that might maybe be a a third good reason to threaten him with a very public outing. Though I don't know how effective that'd be and a private discussion might be just as or more fruitful. Your comparison breaks down on at least two of these points.
Quote:
Originally Posted by host's article
He was motivated, he said, simply by being a gay man who's been around long enough to know how Ted's politics play out in the ordinary lives of people Jones cares about. That's about as good a motive for outing someone as I've ever heard.
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Sure, about as good a motive as I've ever heard, too. Which is to say, a pretty poor motive. A man's privacy gets violated and no good actually comes of it. Only the shallowest of the fence-sitters are actually going to think, "Hm... one of those traditional marriage advocates is a hypocrite... this proves that the cause is bunk!" People like Haggard simply get like-minded replacements. There's no real progress made.