Among the 'American Taliban' in Smalltown, USA.

March 29, 2002 12:44 AM

Among the 'American Taliban' in Smalltown, USA. "I discovered that Taliban-style attitudes are not restricted to Afghanistan and Pakistan. They exist tenaciously in American towns like this one. Sometimes tolerance prevails in small towns; other times the dark fears and hatreds of the "American Taliban" -- vicious fundamentalists -- are resurgent."
posted by fold_and_mutilate (3 comments total)

I don't mistrust all white Americans now, nor all small-town Americans.

I'm glad the author makes this last point. Even though there are evil scumbags out there, they are greatly outnumbered by decent, upright people who don't bash people for their sexuality or anything else. I grew up in a small town that, while very socially conservative, valued privacy and autonomy more than almost anything else. While some people may not have like homosexuality, they would never impede or harass anyone because of it. There were a few noisy religious fruitballs, but they were looked down upon for their immodesty. Extremism of any form was distrusted. And, though I would not be able to live there today (not many cultural activities and no Indian food), I respect most of the inhabitants of the town.

The difference between the Taliban and most American-style zealots is that the Taliban had weapons and state power to enforce their f***ed up view of morality. Fortunately, most the extremists of the Christian (sic) variety are all talk. Generally most gay bashings are the work of young male thugs with issues on their shoulders, not religious people.

Thanks for the interesting post, foldy.
posted by evanizer at 1:15 AM on March 29, 2002

One advantage of "getting to know" the Taliban is that folks like me have a recent real world example to show people how screwed up the religious orthodoxy of Christian Coalition - types can be.
posted by owillis at 7:43 AM on March 29, 2002

just noticed this on pacific news :) there's more stuff kinda like it in their "backlash" section!
posted by kliuless at 9:08 AM on March 30, 2002