If you've spent time on the Internet surfing political sites, you know them. They're the inhabitants of the right-wing site called The Free Republic.com, and are accordingly called freepers by fans and foes.
Although they number in the thousands, they make their presence known by moving as one entity, like the sheep in Brokeback Mountain. When one freeper spots something in society he or she finds noxious, they rise up in unison, spewing out vast and angry e-mail campaigns against the object of their derision.
It's worth an occasional visit to their site, because freepers demonstrate a great deal about what the far-right is thinking, and the remarkable depth of their fury toward anything running counter to the far-right movement.
While they are willing to take on anything across a wide spectrum of subjects, from their hatred of freedom of the press to their horror of tolerance, their attitude toward love is noteworthy. Most freepers claim to be reverent Christians, but their Christianity is one more reminiscent of pagan ferocity than anything Jesus ever preached. When they talk of love, they talk about an obedient experience that can only be shared by like-minded freepers; people who dare love in a fashion not acceptable to the freepers deserves to rot in hell for eternity--and the freepers would be happy to send them there. Secular Jews, gays, atheists, agnostics, liberals--none of these know what love truly is, because love is something that exists only among the righteous far-right.
But let the freepers speak for the themselves. Here are some actual quotes from the Free Republic board concerning gay love.
Posted after the (now deceased) teenager gained admission into a gay bar in New Bedford, Mass with a false id and brutally shot and stabbed several patrons: "You can't help wondering whether these lunatics are put up to this by the left simply to create 'victims' and provoke public outrage over 'hate crimes' and thereby advance the left's various agenda of 'reparations,' 'affirmative action,' 'gay marriage,' 'diversity leadership' and anything else that they can think of to drive wealth transfer and the amoral secularization of society."
The response to two lesbians marrying in Europe: "How special. HURL."
A remark on a man who died from AIDS: "Sorry--not interested in watching nor supporting homosexual sodomy. These people are sick and I will never "tolerate" their behavior. Oh, and enough about raising money for AIDS. Just stop gay sex and the disease will decline rapidly. Stop stealing my tax dollars to cure it."
Recently Depaul University instituted courses on homosexuality gays. The freeper comment: "Why not a bestiality course?"
An observation about teenagers' attempts to bring gay-straight alliance to their high school: "I'm still wondering why there are groups in state-supported schools who define themselves by what they do with their genitals. How pathetic an excuse for a human being does one have to be to resort to that to define themselves? Is there nothing else to these pathetic little people. If it wasn't so sick it would just be sad."
Sometimes the comments are so harsh the freeper must be temporarily thrown off the board; usually these remarks center not on hate, but on thoughts of actual murder. One freeper who was ejected said, "There is only one solution to the Klintons, two 45 rounds and a nice little spot in Marcy Park."
Now consider this: these freepers are the same men and women who complain that this country's young show no respect for their elders, and bemoan the lack of civility. Makes you kind of wonder what freepers talk about when they talk about manners.
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