I’d hate to be as delusional as Bryan Fischer, but I’m sure his ignorance brings him some sort of bliss. In this interview with David Pakman, Bryan claims that he’s happy when sites like Right Wing Watch (and presumably, this site and others) post his clips, because they’re exactly the ones he would post:
When I look at the clips that RightWingWatch has chosen to use from my program, I’ll go there, I’ll view the clips, I’ll see what they have picked to post and in every case so far, they have picked a clip that would be exactly the same one that I would have picked if it had been up to me. So RightWingWatch is simply helping me to get my message out … I know that RightWingWatch is cyberstalking me, but from my vantage point, there actually helping me get my message out and frequently what I will do, David, is I will send a tweet out to the link of RightWingWatch’s coverage of my program because I like the clip that they picked and I will thank them, give them credit, for helping me get my message out.
Poor thing doesn’t realize that normal people watch those clips, either because the insanity entertains them, or to become more aware of just how hateful the Religious Right is today. Indeed, the dissemination of those clips to a wider audience does more to relegate people like Bryan to the same fringes of society occupied by the Klan than any commentary we could proffer.
Again, his ignorance must be a special kind of bliss.
But since he so loves having his ideas heard by people who otherwise wouldn’t, let me run down the highlights of the interview. Ready? Let’s go:
0:00 – 2:00: Bryan being excited about Right Wing Watch. Boring. Skip it.
2:30 – 3:00: Bryan repeats the stupid, incoherent belief that gays already have marriage equality in all fifty states, because we can marry someone of the opposite sex. I only suggest that we turn this around and ask Bryan, if the tables were turned and gay marriages were the norm and he were fighting for straight marriage, would he feel comfortable marrying a man? I mean, it’s only equal, right, Bryan?
3:00 – 4:00: Bryan repeats the stupid, incoherent claim that when people are allowed to vote on marriage equality, they vote against it, conveniently not noting that most of those votes were between eight and ten years ago when people’s beliefs on the subject were entirely different from what they are today. He also drops the “activist judge” lingo. I wonder how long they’re going to hold on to that one, considering the fact that we’re now seeing that most judges, appointed by Democrats or Republicans, agree with us.
4:30 – 5:30: Bryan says that the trends of more and more people becoming marriage equality supporters every year (and conversely, his own cohort being eliminated by education and actuarial tables) don’t matter. To prove this, he cites the fact that gay activists didn’t stop fighting back in the days when we were losing votes. However, his logic is off (imagine that), in that those trend lines were already going in our favor. We just hadn’t reached the tipping point yet. So of course we didn’t give up. The trend lines for anti-gay wingnut beliefs are on life support, however, just waiting for somebody to mercifully pull the plug.
6:00 – 7:45: How does Bryan Fischer feel about the fact that every new generation is more supportive of everything he’s fighting against, such as abortion rights, marriage equality, marijuana legalization, etc.? Well, surprise, Bryan is in denial. On the abortion issue, he claims that millennials simply believe that “they’re lucky to be alive,” having survived the “abortion holocaust,” and thus think abortion should be outlawed. He does not cite statistics on this, because facts are unnecessary when you’re a True Believer.
7:45 – 8:15: Bryan repeats that sad thing that conservatives always tell themselves about how today’s young liberals will become conservative as they get older. They think that the fact that the country was overtaken by the Reagan storm in the 80’s is somehow evidence of a pattern. Let us remind the class that another thing taking the country by storm in the 80’s was panic over widespread Satanic ritual sacrifice and abuse that didn’t happen. It wasn’t a great moment in our nation’s history. David points out that the evidence has never shown that people become more conservative as they age, but that the older generations have always been more conservative than the younger generations. Trend lines still favor us.
8:30 – the end: Pakman calmly trolls Bryan with a question about whether it wouldn’t be a better idea to focus his political beliefs on something more permanent than Christianity, considering the fact that so many religions have come since humanity first started trying to explain existence. Bryan responds that the “Judeo-Christian” tradition will be around until the end of time, because wingnuts always try to include Jews in their nonsense.
Enjoy! Bryan likes it when you listen to him.
