Kill all humans

There are days when the despair hits you.  Goodness knows how it will be when a literal black cloud fills the sky.  For now it is more than enough that a metaphorical or, if you like, existential rain cloud appears on the horizon.

Today I read that 57.5% of the Ukrainian population has "entirely negative" attitudes towards homosexuality (according to a poll reported at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19881905).

The usual parade of religious/nationalist bastards are claiming there is a gay conspiracy to take over the world.  And the same parade of bastards are implicitly encouraging a wave of violence against homosexuals in Ukraine (substitute Russia, Uganda, Qatar here as you see fit).

I appreciate that the principals behind these movements don't give a fuck, but haven't the masses that express their passive support heard of Hitler?  Don't they realise that by ticking the "I hate" box they are giving tacit support for the cattle trucks that will deliver people to the gas chambers when the time comes?  Maybe they do, in which case the despair just gets deeper.

And so, of course, the politicians play the game.  The Ukrainian parliament is waving through legislation that will, amongst other things, ban the screening of films like Brokeback Mountain (incidentally one of the finest films ever made).

This would be kind of OK if I knew that our Government was taking a stand.  If we were saying to these regimes that as long as they languish in the dark ages they will be outside our club.  We'll withhold the golden goose of globalisation.  But of course we don't.

So if we give our implicit support to this quasi-facism, what next?  I'm not gay.  I'm not Jewish.  I'm not a communist.  I'm not ginger-haired.  I'm not a Slav.  But I do support a free press.  I do support a liberal society.  I do like industrial rock music.  I like disco.  I'm opposed to UK/US extradition treaty.  I'm safe at the moment, but can I assume that there will never be a brick thrown through my window, a midnight knock at the door?  How do I know that one day I won't be in the minority marked "enemies of society" or "trouble makers".  How do you?  Maybe you are a "paragon" of "upstanding" "morality" beyond "reproach".

If that sounds ridiculous, consider how most German's felt in 1932.  If you don't get it, try reading Orwell or Kafka.  And if you still dismiss my concerns out of hand then I guess there is no hope.  At least that is how it feels on days like today.