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The reason one would want to discredit sociology are many, but most of them are made by authoritarians who want to "write history" by removing the academic discipline that studies society, because you're supposed to have society defined by the autocrat.
Maybe Florida should become partly communist, because that's a big red flag.
And yes, that was a trigger for Floridians, because this is stupid
I don't really understand why LGBTQ+ are always the target of extreme conservatives. Why the extreme preocupation with what people do in the bedroom. It's really nobody else's business.
Oooh, I think I can explain this. Conservatism demands adherence to a an extremely homogeneous model of living. They've constructed this giant house of cards that relies on it. Accepting deviations from these norms calls into question a variety of foundational conservative beliefs. They effectively can't question the status quo else everything falls apart.
The only option for them is to make LGBTQ people an unacceptable, dangerous other. Because if queer folk are normal people who just want to be allowed to exist, if there is no sweeping gay agenda, if maybe they read their holy book wrong ... they've been behaving like assholes, for decades, for no good reason.
Their core identities would take an unacceptably heavy blow, so they have no choice but to double down. Well, that's the case for the ones that care about internal consistency.
Some of them just want an excuse to be cruel to a group too small to fight back.
Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters.
This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality).
-Umberto Eco, Eternal Fascism
My personal take: conservative men are obsessed with a toxic concept of manliness, and hold it as a monolithic and primary value, which is why they like to fall in line under large, angry people.
LGBTQ+ people confuse them, there are women who act more like men, and men who act more like women, challenging their conceptions.
Since, as a whole, conservatives reject introspection the challenge is interpreted as a personal attack.
Yes you read that right, conservatives feel that gay people just existing is a threat to their identity and lash out.
Almost all of it boils down to 'How DARE you force me to question my worldview!?'