05 July 2009

A Recent Poll

"A recent poll of Massachusetts residents revealed that 36 percent of voters who oppose gay marriage agreed with the state­ment, 'If you speak out against gay marriage in Massachusetts you really have to watch your back because some people may try to hurt you.'"

Wow, 36%. That's a big number. There are 6,497,967 people in Massachusetts. That's 2,339,268 people (give or take) that feel they need to "watch their backs."

What have we done, gays? We're terrorizing... our enemies... merely... for... thinking...

Wait just a second. 36% of voters who oppose gay marriage? 64% of the state is registered to vote and according to the study I found, support amongst the state's citizenry for genuine gay marriage* is 56%. So if 36% of 44% of 64% fear for their backs...

...that's about 10% 650,000 people!

So, to the 10% or so Massachusett-ites who fear for your spines, we're sorry for the vague threats we've been issuing. But we didn't bring the Neolithic attitude toward the gay minority to the party so grow up. Try worrying about the planet or the economy or something else you may be able to influence in some way.

And to the well-read scholar who wrote the even-handed analysis the original quote came from I say this:

  1. First, thank you for participating in this debate in a cool, controlled manner.
  2. Second, you claim individualism and communism are bad without establishing a reasonable middle-place. I think you need to elaborate on that.
  3. Finally, pick a better statistic then "36 percent of 44 percent of 64 percent."

*References: here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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For the Love of Pete, if anyone spots me making a math error in here please, please let me know.

good video