I’m reading an article over at the Hollywood Reporter that outlines some of the details about Bradlee Dean’s recent $50 million defamation lawsuit against Rachel Maddow for alledgedly misquoting some anti-gay monologue. Dean, a rockstar-turned-preacher who created the anti-gay hate group You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (a mouthful, ironically), is claiming that Maddow misrepresented his words in order to advance a radical homosexual agenda.

Dean basically called for the execution of homosexuals without actually calling for the execution of homosexuals, a move in persuasive rhetoric that I like to call not-saying. It goes like this:

“Dean, it’s not that you are a babbling, low-life, wash-out idiot who is desperately seeking attention and will do it in any way possible, no matter how ignorant and childish it makes you look. I’m not saying that.”

See what I did there? I said something by not-saying it. Remember: the way we frame our words is just as important as the words themselves. Dean’s case is no different.

Unfortunately for us, while the First Amendment extends to me the liberty of saying what I want on this website, it also protects Dean’s hateful ideologies that he has the means and motive to share with the world. Fortunately for us, though, Anti-SLAPP (that’s Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) legislation is on Maddow’s side in this battle.

I think the biggest problem here is not Maddow’s outspoken intelligence and lack of sympathy for boisterous bigots, but rather, Dean’s own insecurities about his sexuality that causes him to manifest a deep desire to be hugged into his “My War” pseudo-comicbook-hero persona.

One commenter on a video from ErnestRadioNetwork, a guy who received a bogus threat from Dean because of a blog post expounding on his anti-gay sentiments, summed up Dean’s War:

“The My War thing you refer to is a 5 DVD set filled with all things Bradlee, like persecution of christians by the radical left wing homosexual lobby, radical left wing homosexual lobby infiltrating our public schools, the persecution of Bradlee Dean by the radical left wing homosexual lobby, you get the picture. The guy is goofy, believes helicopters follow him and occasionally pops into the national spotlight when he does something extremely stupid, like his lawsuit against Rachel Maddow.”

 

While I haven’t actually taken the time to watch all five DVDs (bad journalism, right?) I think the point is clear:

Dean is following in Ted Nugent’s footsteps and a big, childish tantrum.