Inside the Homophobic Mind of a Nashi Organizer
Not to spoil the recent attempts by the Nashi to re-brand itself as a an independent youth movement at this year’s infamous Seliger camp, but it sometimes seems like very few Western audiences are exposed to the actual rhetoric and conversations shared among Nashi members. One Nashi spokeswoman, Kristina Potupchik (Кристина Потупчик), recently published a rant exploring everything from the death of Osama Bin Laden to the curiously specific and virulent homophobia shared by not just a few other members of the nationalist group. Do these comments highlight some sort of developing ideology, are they just an aberration, or maybe only the immature ranting of someone seeking attention? More and more, we are seeing arguments that the movement doesn’t even really matter any more (if that’s the case, you’d think that Surkov would be smart enough to dedicate the budget to other, more successful propaganda activities…). Read below to see the kind of talent and hate speech Russia is spending its taxpayer money on.
(A hat tip to A Good Treaty for sharing this link on his Twitter stream. Watch a video of him and Sean Guillory on Al Jazeera’s new crossover show, Stream.)
In the last week of June an unbearable heat came to Moscow, and so did the news that, metaphorically speaking, Osama bin Laden paddled his canoe with two oars. That is, it turns out that the possessor of five wives and countless children had been enjoying himself with some young Arab courier, and was caught in the act by the American Navy SEALs precisely because of his homosexual weaknesses.
Of course, the fact that the editors’ heads were overheated because of the unbearable weather conditions affected the distribution of this news. However, the news is interesting not only as a phenomenon of the unavoidable artificial mythologizing of the number one terrorist , but as a reflection of a broader trend that the dead are either good people, or they are gay.
Homosexuality, despite the veneer of tolerance and the thousands of gay pride parades, remains a bugbear for most of the modern world. What other media story could sting Al Qaeda in the same way? Well, except for the rumour that bin Laden was a communist, but only so as to miraculously survive the operation to eliminate him during the Cuban missile crisis. Calling a dead man gay is a sure-fire way to stir up scandal, so needed by the American military service, after they foolishly rejected the Walt Disney Corporation in the sale of the rights to souvenirs carrying the brand name of the US Seals who were directly involved in the liquidation of Osama.
However, apart from Osama, a dead gay can be good for media purposes, and over the last couple of years this has been used more than once. A false report/ canard about a certain wealthy anonymous benefactor that wanted to erect a monument to gays allegedly killed in the Ukrainian famine stirred up tensions in the strained Russo-Ukrainian relations. A month later, and discussion on social networking sites is on-going, initiated by somebody who decided to count how many gay Nazis there were in the leadership of the Third Reich. About the same time, users of Live Journal have been occupied by the discussion of a commemorative plaque to the gays and lesbians of Berlin hung opposite the monument to the dead of Fascist Germany (perhaps at the hands of these same gay-Nazis?) Even children’s writer JK Rowling managed to cause an “Adult” scandal when she decided to boost the sales of the last part of “Harry Potter” with a scandalous statement regarding the pederasty of the main character, Dumbledore, who was also, tellingly, listed at that time among the deceased participants of the “Harry Potter”. Even the now- obscure participant of one of the past Eurovision’s, Alexander Rybak, has managed to grab a few tabloid headlines with comments on his homosexual orientations/ inclinations. Although, taking part in Eurovision, in the eyes of the majority of the enlightened readers of this text, is a similar death, so Rybak can easily join the ranks of dead gays.
So live, dear readers, so that even after death, no one has a chance to turn you gay. Otherwise, it would be like a well-known anecdote – if they catch a scoop, the siege will stay. I wish you all distinguished heterosexuality. Posthumously.
