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| The exploitation of Aids |
| 2008-06-16 |
| It is time to recognise that the Aids scare was one of the most distorted, duplicitous and cynical public health panics of the past 30 years. Instead of being treated as a sexually transmitted disease that affected certain high-risk communities, and which should be vociferously tackled by the medical authorities, the "war against Aids" was turned into moral crusade. Both Conservative and New Labour governments exploited the disease to create a new moral framework for society. Through baseless fearmongering, officials sought to police and regulate the behaviour of the public. No longer able to appeal to outdated Victorian ideals of chastity or restraint, the powers-that-be used the spectre of an Aids calamity to terrify us into behaving "responsibly" in sexual and social matters. They were aided and abetted by the rump of the radical left. Gay rights campaigners, feminists and left-leaning health and social workers stood shoulder-to-shoulder, first with the Tories and later with Labour, in spreading the "glorious myth" of a possible future Aids pandemic. An unholy alliance of old-style, prudish conservatives and post-radical, lifestyle-obsessed leftists latched on to Aids as a disease that might provide them with a sense of moral purpose. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #5 IIRC, there was a court decision some years ago in the US declaring that AIDS was not a sexually transmitted disease. This was important (to gays) because if AIDS were an STD, existing laws would require people with AIDS to reveal their sexual partners, just as people with syphilis or gonorrhea are. Since most AIDS sufferers are gay, exposing their list of sexual partners would subject those partners to discrimination. |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-06-16 18:14 |
| #4 which should be vociferously tackled by the medical authorities I don't understand the sentence. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-06-16 14:37 |
| #3 I don't think the conservatives in the US were very effective at all. The rump of the radical left was however. They spread the idea that it was not a gay lifestyle problem and thus avoided the closing of the bathhouses for a long time. THat did not help. I mean if there ever was a straightforward disease and solution available this was it. If you're gonna do *it* use protection. If you're infected only romp with other infected people and it would have burned out fairly quick. but noooooooo. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-06-16 14:33 |
| #2 They were aided and abetted by the rump of the radical left that's gonna get Andy Sullivan's glutes in a twist |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-06-16 09:32 |
| #1 And is so passe as Human Induced Global Warming is the latest trend for Fearmongers Are Us(tm). So many people still need their secular religion having tossed the tenets of the traditional ones. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-06-16 08:38 |