It’s been a while for me (again) so I said aside some time the other day and read a few news stories, you know to get the old creative juices flowing (and no, that isn’t a dirty reference).

by Scott Sammons | 28th January 2014

To my amazement I found that apparently we have started 2014 with some amazing news that that certain members of the human race have super powers or even have influence of God and/or Mother Nature. No boys and girls this isn’t news that x-men is finally coming true it’s the news that where there be gays there be floods (and wet t-shirt competitions…?).

ENLIGHTENED LIGHTING?

For those that haven’t heard, an enlightened political party councillor from UKIP decreed after months of research that gays are to blame for the bad weather experienced by the UK in recent weeks. The lead researcher, Mr Sylvester, decreed that since the passing of gay marriage there has been a marked increase in bad weather leading to only 1 logical conclusion… that’s right, it is literally raining men.

There is only a hint of sarcasm in that; however this news should be treated with a level of distain that it deserves. But should be pay any attention to the crazed ramblings of a UKIP party member? If it was a homeless man on the street shouting similar nonsense would he get such an audience? No, he would be ignored or labelled as crazy and with any luck be given the help he needs. Why is this man any different? I’m all for challenging opinions but when an opinion is so “unrealistic” what is the worth? Surely the person saying such nonsense gets more out of it as they get limelight and something that resembles celebrity (rightly or wrongly).

Now, in the interests of fairness it is worth noting that Mr Sylvester has been suspended from UKIP and the UK Independence Party have never commissioned such research nor have any evidence to back up such a statement. Kind of an obvious point but I thought I’d make it anyway. It’s also worth noting that conservative party allowed him to voice such opinions while he was a councillor for them before defecting to UKIP. A small detail our glorious saviour (that’s David Cameron to you and me) likes to overlook.

LOCK UP YOUR CHILDREN THE GAYS ARE COMING

Meanwhile however, in the legion of doom that is Putin’s Russia the grand homophobe of them all is currently issuing guidance to Russian parents stating that gay men coming to the Olympics (and in general) should be kept away from children at all costs otherwise they will be eaten or come out in a nasty rash. I paraphrase, however not only can a gay man control Mother Nature but for breakfast he eats children… very much like the giants from BFG. I believe Roald Dahl would be appalled to know that his Big Friendly Giants are now Big Mutant (un)Friendly Gays.

Some say that people like that shouldn’t be saying such things and that they should be cast out of society for doing so. I agree, to an extent. If you do what I have done here, and poke holes (and humour) at what has been said then soon enough someone that was once taken seriously (or not at all in the UKIP case) becomes marginalised and stupid. Personally I think it’s a phase that all marginalised minorities go through. Take a look at the race equality history, not so long ago senators in the US would say that marrying a black man or woman would bring about the 2nd coming of Christ… and oh look, we are still here.

I really do think that this sort of nonsense should be laughed at, treated as nonsense and then written into the history books as examples of the backwardness of our time. I hope (and / or dream) that at some point 50 years or so from now people will look back and comment on the nonsense that has come out and commend our community for ignoring it and pursuing our march towards equality for all. Do we not teach our kids that bullies often use stupid arguments and the best way to show a bully up is to reveal his stupidity and challenge his views? Same principle here surely…?

On the other side of course, it would be fun to be a real life ‘storm’ with super human abilities. A black leather suit, ability to fly, control the weather… UKIP might actually be on to something there you know…

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