(no subject)

[semperfiona]

This morning I passed a car with the following two bumper stickers: one that read "Doing my part to piss off the heathen left" and one that reproduced the ACLU logo exactly, except that the C was replaced by a red hammer-and-sickle.

Exactly what does an organization that fights for our Bill of Rights have to do with a fallen authoritarian regime? (Other than that both are "something [that driver] doesn't like", of course.) Just point out to me one case of the Soviet Union's support for freedom of speech or the
press, or of the right of the people to assemble, or ...

The first sticker amused me, briefly, as a twist on the far-more-common version "Doing my part to piss off the Religious Right." But it's insidious in a way that I don't think the original is: there is a big distinction made by those capital letters. "The Religious Right" is a faction, a more-or-less defined group. "The heathen left" imputes heathen-ness to every member of the left. And then there's the idiocy of treating heathen and religious as opposites: the opposite of "religious" is clearly and obviously "irreligious"!

Comments

[reannon.livejournal.com]

*waves hand* I'm a card-carrying member of the Religious Left! The Christian Left, even!

*looks around*

I know I've got company. :)

[gramina.livejournal.com]

And see, I was assuming they *meant* "Heathen" left -- which admittedly is a smaller group than the more generic "Pagan" left, but there y'go.

Your interpretation is probably more accurate, sadly.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I think people who identify the ACLU with communism would point to its (sort of) founder, Roger Nash Baldwin, who was definitely a communist in his youth, though after the Soviets made their deals with the Nazis in '39 he became disillusioned with the Soviet Union. (He was also responsible for the purge of Communist Party (and thus implicitly pro-Soviet) members from the ACLU in the forties.) You can see some of this thinking in the phrase "card-carrying..." so beloved of right-wingers, which can equally be ended "member of the ACLU" or "communist".

The error they're making is the same one as with the "heathen left" that you mention: that all communists are alike.

[semperfiona]

::Points down:: Meet gramina.

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

I think I want to print a bunch of bumper stickers to put next to that kind of tripe. My "add-on" bumper sticker would say:

Repeal the Constitution. Long Live King George III !

Or maybe that historical commentary is a little too subtle for that kind of mind. Perhaps

The Right is Right. Repeal the Constitution.

would get the message across?

[bzero]

Hmmmm... is it possible to be a heathen atheist? If so, I'm certainly doing my part... >B^)

[scottak.livejournal.com]

I think calling yourself heathen and atheist would be redundant. Since we seem to be living in Orwellian times, I've been debating whether or not I want to state my religious affiliations in Newspeak. I wouldn't be an atheist, I'd be double plus un-god.

Or something like that.

[scottak.livejournal.com]

Couldn't you define the word heathen as "one who is irreligious"? So in a sense, it's not totally incorrect. I do agree though that it implies that if your not on the political right you must be some kind of godless heathen.

Why is it the Religious Right, and not the Christian Right??? I mean, I'm fairly certain that they're not really meaning the Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan AND Christian Right. Are Christian Republicans the only religious people in the US???

And if they're trying to piss off the Heathen Left, I'm assuming that means that they are a part of the Religious (Christian?) Right. Last I checked, purposely pissing people off is NOT a Christian activity. I mean, we never played mock the heathens in sunday school. At least not in MY sunday school...

double plus un-god

[bzero]

I think that fits, yes. *grin*

mock the heathens

[(Anonymous)]

We played "mock the heathens" in Sunday school. At least, they certainly played "torment the atheist" in Catholic school, at least here in Indiana.

[semperfiona]

Couldn't you define the word heathen as "one who is irreligious"?

Not the way it's generally used. Sure, that might be the meaning here, but its usual connotation seems to be "one whose religion the speaker doesn't like", and its more recent, less common usage is specifically "member of the Asatru religion".

Even the phrase "godless heathen": the G is usually capitalized so one is meant to understand it to mean "person who does not believe in [the Christian] God".

[scottak.livejournal.com]

OK, so I had to google Asatru to even know what you were talking about. I learn such neat things from you. :D

Re: double plus un-god

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

You increment before un-godding?

Re: double plus un-god

[semperfiona]

*snerk!*