Far-right obsession with gays just isn’t healthy

November 21, 2007

When the “Conservapedia” was launched, I was convinced it was some kind of joke. Billed as a conservative rival to Wikipedia, Conservapedia would be an ideologically pure, right-wing online collaborative encyclopedia. Of course, the site was so laughably right-wing, and so intentionally devoid of diversity of thought, it seemed obvious that this was some Onion-like parody.

No such luck. Conservapedia is a real project, in which far-right visitors who aren’t terribly concerned about reality can find encyclopedia entries that reinforce a twisted conservative worldview.

As it turns out, Conservapedia ranks the more than 45,000 pages in its database, offering a look at which pages are visited most. Here are the top 10, as of this morning:

1. Main Page‎ [1,903,407]
2. Homosexuality‎ [1,548,749]
3. Homosexuality and Hepatitis‎ [516,892]
4. Homosexuality and Promiscuity‎ [420,350]
5. Homosexuality and Parasites‎ [387,906]
6. Homosexuality and Domestic Violence‎ [354,383]
7. Gay Bowel Syndrome‎ [346,296]
8. Homosexuality and Gonorrhea‎ [331,234]
9. Homosexuality and Mental Health‎ [279,931]
10. Homosexuality and Syphilis‎ [265,186]

As Christopher Orr noted, “That’s right: More than three-quarters as many people have been to Conservapedia’s ‘Homosexuality’ page as have been to the front page, and over a fifth as many have looked up ‘Homosexuality and Promiscuity.'”

It’s just not healthy for the conservative movement to be this obsessed with homosexuality.

Conservatism has ceased being an ideology and become a pathological mental disorder.

  • It’s actually a bit worse than Orr notes. Those are all individual pages listed in the top ten. The top main page gets 1,903,407 hits, while the remaining nine of the top ten, together, get 4,458,500 hits. Over twice as many visits to homosexuality-based pages as to the main page. Also, contrast Conservapedia’s top ten list with the list for Wikipedia: Main Page, Wiki, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Naruto, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, United States, Wikipedia, Deaths in 2007, Heroes (TV series), Transformers (film).

  • When the “Conservapedia” was launched, I was convinced it was some kind of joke.

    Despite the proprietor’s intentions, I believe you are 100% correct.

  • The poor little repressed closrt-boys are just trying to get information on the thing they most want to do that they cannot speak of. Gay Republican = Jewish Nazi.

  • I beg to differ.

    Most of these articles are health related and when it comes to knowing about risks associated with homosexual behavior, I would consider conservatives experts in the field.

    Gone unmentioned are articles #11 and #12

    Homosexuality and Rationalization
    and
    Homosexuality and Obtaining an Accommodating Beard

  • Day-um. These people are more addicted to homosexual behavior than…well, homosexuals themselves. Couldn’t that be considered some kind of a perverse addiction? Or is “Commode-O-Pedia” just another peek-a-boo site for the “pervs” known as religious wingnuts?

  • I suspect that most of the hits are from other sites using Conservapedia as a genuine source for whatever agenda they are pushing. And I suspect that anti-gay themes are their favorite topic.

    Has anyone went to the site ?? MSM means “men who have sex with men”. Who knew ??

    Better yet there are footnotes markers all over the articles, yet no actual sources at the bottom. So the ‘stats’ and ‘facts’ can not be verified, shocking I know.

  • Conservatism isn’t a political philosophy anymore. It’s a state of grossly repressed homosexual desires.

  • Are we sure the numbers aren’t being driven up by gawkers looking for a laugh? I’m not sure if that’s more or less plausible than ScottW’s theory that they’re getting links from the Church of Totally Not Taking It Up The Ass.

    BTW, I confess I helped bump “Heroes (TV series)” into the Wikipedia top 10. I didn’t mean to.

  • RSA,

    Wikipedia’s current top 10 hits, I’d suspect, would be further proof for those homo-hunting right-wingers that there is a culture war, and the left is losing, because while they’re all busy reading up on video games and TV shows and that nasty demon warlock harry Potter and the tolerance we should have for his oh-so-gay teachers, THEY’RE all busy learning allllllll about homosexuality, how nasty it is, how depraved, how sickening perverse, how it’s so evil like all temptation…

    …uh…you know…so they can combat it…and stuff…

  • I’ve now done my part to keep right-wingers obsessed with homosexuality, by clicking through to the “homosexuality” article and thus adding to its page rank. After observing how expansive that article is, I have to wonder whether Conservapedia as a whole might have been conceived in large part as a vehicle for gaybaiting that met with editorial resistance on other wiki sites.

  • Jokes aside, no it’s not healthy. We’re dealing with people who are inordinately obsessed with the sex lives of other people – sure homosexuals top the list, since they’re an easy target, but they pretty much are obsessed with what others do in the bedroom period.

    Frankly, I think it’s a form of sexual perversion all it’s own – obsessive interest in the sex lives of others.

  • To be fair to Conservapedia, I thought I’d take a look at what else is on the minds of its readers. A glimpse at topics of hot debate on the site…

    – Conservapedia:Is Rap music torture?
    – Was the shooting at Virginia Tech somehow President Bush’s fault? (kind of like he caused hurricane Katrina)
    – Is Relativity in direct conflict with the Genesis account?
    – Conservapedia: Is Giving Birth the Bible Way Better?
    – Does Darwinian natural selection suggest that bigotry is a necessary self-defense mechanism?
    – Debate:Who kills more innocent people: religious believers or atheists?
    – Why did God place most of the world’s oil in politically unstable places?
    – Is the murder of 3,000 people just a few or is it a lot? Does it make a difference if the murdered people are Americans?
    – Should American companies be allowed to send their own troops into a war which America is participating in?
    – Should people genetically engineer a cure for homosexuality?
    – Crusades… Good or Bad?
    – If President Roosevelt had known about the Pearl Harbor attack in advance, would it have been wrong for him to allow the attack in order to wake up the American public and motivate Americans to fight and win the war?
    – Should all access to Conservapedia be banned on Sundays?
    – Is it possible to be a conservative and not a religious person or even an atheist?
    – Could God create a rock so heavy that he himself could not lift it?
    – If there were no religion, would we find another reason to kill each other?
    – Was Jesus born in the right time and place?

  • Language: I don’t think that most of today’s rightist ideologues are “conservatives”. They are however, ignorant, fearful and destructive.

    They gravitate to the simplistic answers of hate to assuage their own fears. They are not readers or thinkers.

    They have been used by the ever more powerful corporate puppet-masters (from corporate think-tank directives) who stoke the fires of fear and tell the proles what to think, what to vote for, what to cheer for and what to deride. They watch Fox and listen to Limbaugh and are the unwitting instruments of the disintegration of America.

    Armchair psychology:
    Males who are strongly attracted to authoritarian ideology (neo Nazis and our own home grown far right types etc) seem to have difficulty accepting sexuality in any context….much less in an intimate relationship. These are insecure and flawed individuals who have turned their personal fears and self loathing outward. They are abusers of self and others. Rush Limbaugh is a prime example. Many fear their own homosexual thoughts and so they attack homosexuals…their “bad” selves. They are drawn like a moth to the flame…back to the inner feelings they have, but hate.

  • Oh, so it has just become a resource for conservative parents who are worried their kid is a homo to find some info to scare the kid with.

    Great site.

  • You know whats funny, i dont know if someone already mentioned this, but on the main page if you look at the “Popular Articles at Conservapedia” section, you dont see any of these articles mentioned…. strange

  • For a knee-slapper, try:

    http://www.conservapedia.com/Rule_of_Law

    It praises the Rule of Law (which is odd, coming from conservatives) as being about laws and not kings, and then notes it comes from the Ten Commandments . . . which are religious commandments issues in what is essentially a theocracy.

  • Re: 22

    Most of us figure that the only people who are going to go the “Conservapedia” to get information about homosexuality aren’t going to be left-wing liberals looking for information about, well, anything.

    Sometimes stereotypes are useful, and accurate.

  • Um. How does anyone know the political leanings of these viewers? -PaulW

    I’m going to second what Chuck said, and assume that it is implied by the name ‘Conservapedia,’ that it caters to Conservatives. I guess they could’ve called it ‘dumbfuckistan,’ and removed all doubt.

  • Not that the religious right isn’t obsessed with the topic, but this appears to be a prank. There is no way the ratio of main page hits to these specific topic hits would skew so far in this direction without the help of bots.

    Read some of the articles to get a full sense of the unhealthy obsession.

  • Cloten618:

    That site can not be serious! If so, those people are crazy if not that is just funny as all get out.

    As for Conservapedia, I suspect that much like Wiki, it gets hacked quite a bit.

    • Comments are closed.