Did you really need another reason to conclude that Charlotte Allen from the Independent (And by ‘independent’ we actually mean woman-hating lapdogs to the Republican party) Women’s Forum is a complete idiot?
We’ve already established that she’s a racist asshole. Then there was that whole “Immunizing people against cancer will turn 9-year-olds into WHORES!” thing. Before immunizations, it was the children’s clothing departments that were slutifying the youth of America. She also apparently enjoys mocking other people for being less than perfectly attractive, going so far as to argue that women who don’t fit a particular beauty ideal (including age and weight) shouldn’t hold particular jobs.
So we know she’s a grade-A moron, and a mean one at that (Charlotte, the ladies against feminism would not approve). She’s the kind of person who advocates boycotting silly movies like Superman Returns, because the writers had the audacity to make Superman a character who stands up for people all over the world. And if that’s not communism, I don’t know what is. Plus, Superman is a dirty illegal.
But it turns out, Charlotte is also a liar (or as she likes to put it, someone who “exaggerate[s] a bit for rhetorical effect”).
In her essay on how immunizing girls against HPV will cause 9-year-olds to give in to their wildest sexual urges, Charlotte writes:
A couple of days ago, my hometown, Washington, D.C., announced a plan to force every single D.C. resident between the ages of 14 and 84 (yes you read that right: 84) to be tested for the AIDS virus, at the cost of God knows how much money. Oh, so what if AIDs in this country in confined to just a few subgroups: mainly gay men plus intravenous drug-users? The idea, I guess, is that if you make everyone take the test, even though the vast majority don’t need it, you won’t make the subgroups feel bad about themselves. This in a city that apparently can’t afford to pay janitors to keep its public schools clean–but let’s test Grandma for HIV!
Which would be interesting, if it were true at all. From Charlotte’s own mailbag:
“Charlotte writes that [the District of Columbia] is trying to ’force’ residents to be tested for AIDS. In fact, D.C. has started a campaign to test everyone between 18 and 84–but no force whatsoever is involved. Government overreach, to be sure–but there’s a big difference between coerced and voluntary testing.”
I would say so. Ms. Allen’s response? It was a rhetorical move, you nimwit! When I said “force,” I clearly actually meant “not force at all”:
Well, yes, I admit that I exaggerated a bit for rhetorical effect. But when a program aims to make something universal–to test “everyone”–there are going to be plenty of holdouts and plenty of people who just don’t care one way or other, and sooner or later, I predict that a coercive element to the program will arise. Watch the public schools and other public-assistance programs get involved. Then there’s going to be an awfully fine line between forcing people to take the test and making it quite unpleasant for those who don’t.
Ookay, Char.
And what was that Zuzu wrote a while back about invoking Jonathan Swift to defend rabid partisan frothing? Because Charlotte was just kidding when she wrote that HPV article! It was satire, you fools!
And reader Pope2 has evidently never heard of Jonathan Swift