Responding to my eulogy to William F. Buckley, some readers noted that Buckley had written a notorious column during the 1980s calling for AIDS victims to be tattooed on their rear ends. For one responder this was eerily reminiscent of Nazi policies.
Actually Buckley was no Nazi. On one occasion Buckley appeared on a late-night program with the writer Gore Vidal, and Vidal accused Buckley of being a "crypto-Nazi." Incensed, Buckley called Vidal a "goddamn queer." Both men ended up suing the other. Buckley won his case, because he was able to show that his opinions were never sympathetic to the Nazis, "crypto" or otherwise. Vidal lost his case, because, well, truth is an effective defense in a libel case.
So what about that AIDS column? Let's remember that not much was known about AIDS in the early 1980s. In particular, there were competing theories about how AIDS was actually transmitted. Little more was known than the fact that AIDS seemed to be concentrated in the homosexual community.
Buckley noted in his column that in previous epidemics, such as the syphilis epidemic of the early part of the twentieth century, America quarantined people who contracted the disease. Buckley argued against quarantining victims of AIDS. Somewhat light-heartedly, he suggested that a better alternative might be to have some insignia warning off potential partners. He came up with the admittedly strange idea of a small tattoo on the AIDS victim's rear end. Not surprisingly, the column caused immediate controversy.
At National Review, however, the controversy was of a different sort. The big question that arose among the editors was not whether there should be a tattoo but rather what the tattoo should say. Several entries were submitted, and the contest winner was my own English professor Jeffrey Hart, a senior editor of the magazine, who proposed the line emblazoned on the entrance gate to Dante's Inferno: "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."
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That Notorious Buckley AIDS Column
Posted Feb 29th 2008 4:09AM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Gay and Lesbian, Bizarre, AIDS
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Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 53)
61. Well you know Paul, each time a person has a loss, all of his other losses come back and revisit him... a person relives each loss allover again...sincerely, my heart goes out to you for the many losses you have suffered, but if you find you are still sad all of the time, I would really see your family medicine doctah, because it isn't ok to feel so sad all of the time, even if you have faith in God understand?
Bridget at 10:29AM on Feb 29th 2008
62. I am with Paul on this one. Reading DD's words made me think of a men's club, with all the jokes being so funny as long as they're about someone else. I've lost friends to AIDS, but it isn't about AIDS. It's about bigot-mentaility, and wrongful thinking. DD is simply a cruel creep. I think this blog entry should be his eulogy.
abbot at 10:34AM on Feb 29th 2008
63. Bridget...
Did Don Imus really intend to slam the Rutgers women's basketball team with a racial epithet?
He said that he didn't. Still, he lost his job from which he brought down a hefty paycheck that he then converted into a charity ranch built to (coincidentally) give inner-city children (most often black children) a chance to escape to something they might enjoy...like horses rather than horse.
What's more, even if Dinesh wasn't targeting children specifically, he targeted someone with an insensitive suggestion of indignation.
Hitler's Third Reich tattooed Jews.
I've got things to do now.
Paul at 10:34AM on Feb 29th 2008
64. It should also be mentioned that the vast majority of AIDS cases are heterosexuals in Africa, oftentimes contracted through prostitution. (Prostitution bears less stigma in sub-Saharan Africa, and is more commonplace.) Let's switch that joke around: maybe African hookers should have "Abandon all hope" tattooed on their inner legs. It doesn't seem as funny when you're not mocking those "goddamn queers".
AndrewV at 10:34AM on Feb 29th 2008
65. Andrew, I am not a person who makes light of another person at all...I generally will side with the underdog...I have been that way all of my life, and I don't enjoy seeing people hurt at all, physically or emotionally...it is who I am, but again, I believe it is due to my faith, I have an idea that I might be a bit of a rebel if not for God in my life
Bridget at 10:36AM on Feb 29th 2008
66. Bridget...
Again...this isn't about me. So please stop patronizing me with your transparent expressions of sympathy. Nowhere did I say that I've lost "many" friends...so I don't have "many" losses for you to pity me for.
This is about Dinesh's insensitive reworking of an old joke that promotes hatred and indignation.
Dinesh, remove this disgusting post now.
Paul at 10:36AM on Feb 29th 2008
67. ok Paul... I am going to call it a night...good night everyone...
Bridget at 10:39AM on Feb 29th 2008
68. Greg...
Grow up. You look like an idiot by posting such false information.
Here's a link you can attach to every bit of disinformation you think worth relaying:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/415436.stm
Paul at 10:39AM on Feb 29th 2008
69. Paul; you may have made DD's post "useless", since nobody is really involving themselves in his words. I commend you for your honorable stand and wish there were more folks like you!
Greg....saying the same dumb thing over and over shows us who you are, but it doesn't make it valid.
Bridget...how do you feel about DD's post?
abbot at 10:40AM on Feb 29th 2008
70. Here is a copy of my post from the "Do STD Dating Sites Liberate or Quarantine" column:
"I'm fortunate enough to have never contracted such, and even take for granted my dates being clean. It is a serious issue, because these diseases have gotten so frighteningly common. It must be a difficult thing to be up-front about, but transmitting a disease when you know you're infected is selfish and unforgivable. Services like this are NEEDED as a consequence of the times we're in."
The tattoo regime thing is too drastic for me to consider now.
Mokele-Mobembe at 10:45AM on Feb 29th 2008
71. Oh, how nice Dinesh supported Buckley's calling Vidal a "gooddam queer."
Your blatant homophobia concerning that and the other matter about tattoos on people's rear ends show you for what you are. But not to worry, Dinesh, you have plenty of support from the bigots on this web site.
And it is not a pretty picture.
David S. at 10:58AM on Feb 29th 2008
72. "... wht about reports of men and women infected with aids who have deliberately made it a point to spread it as much as possible? should they be "branded" or jailed." -- brian
brian, I know for a fact it is against the law for any prostitute (male or female) to knowingly spread HIV/AIDS (it's a felony), at least in Florida.
"people who have aidds do not always do the noble thing and tell. so what was so wrong with the story? besides in the 80's we did not know as much about the disease as we do now. be kinder and gentler to DD and the rest of us christians here" -- brian
Yeah, but you NOW you know that it isn't a 'gay disease', so STOP spreading the lies and the hate. Any excuse to hate someone in the name of Christ, eh brian? Sheesh. You can't bitch about the 'persecution' of christians and then defend jokes about 'goddamn queers.' Hypocrite.
K at 11:07AM on Feb 29th 2008
73. Gore Vidal did NOT lose the case, and Buckley did NOT win it, D'Strawman. But of course, you knew that.
Esquire magazine paid for Buckley's legal fees but there was no win.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal
http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/debates.html
brandon at 11:12AM on Feb 29th 2008
74. K,
Though I don't agree with most of brian's opinions, don't take the issue too lightly. When someone transmits AIDS they give the victim essentially a death sentence, and condemn them to a dependency on expensive tonics. To intentionally transmit a disease is a grievous sin.
Mokele-Mobembe at 11:14AM on Feb 29th 2008
75. DD:
I have a light-hearted suggestion. Bigoted op-ed columnists should have the following tattooed on their foreheads and cheeks for the world to see:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
When you can understand why my suggestion is absurd (hint: look beyond the words I would see branded upon yer face,) then you will hopefully understand why we consider yer "joke" so vile.
It is not possible this time to twist the offendedness toward "atheist persecution of Christians" - unless you are prepared to lump any number of decent Christian folk in with the infidels and the undecided.
sandslice at 11:17AM on Feb 29th 2008