Human Rights

Thatcher's Divided Isle by A.C. Grayling

Her attitude on how people should live could be described as either Samuel Smiles (“Self-Help”) or Gordon Gekko (“greed... is good”). Despite being a woman who had shattered the political glass ceiling by becoming leader of her party and then prime minister, she did little to advance the cause of women generally, and would not publicly support the feminist movement. She was also unfriendly toward homosexuals, suggesting in her 1987 speech at the Conservative Party Conference that no one had a “right” to be gay.

Very much the Conservative mind set. Pro-greed, anti-gay and anti- human rights. Authoritarian.

The gay issue is on my mind because of the recent US Supreme Court hearings on gay marriage.

One of my favorite actresses Annasophia Robb - I know- is on a new show The Carrie Diaries which had a young man come out of the closet. (And stars my favorite Dr. Who sidekick Freema Agyeman.)

At the expert review of Game of Thrones a (gay) commenter wrote:

By the way, since i brought it up in Newbies...

WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL "OUTLAWING HOMOSEXUALITY IS MORALLY WRONG, BECAUSE THATS WHAT JOFFREY WOULD DO, AND EVEN THE KINGSLAYER UNDERSTANDS THAT LOVE IS BLAH BLAH BLAH....

At first glance I thought the same thing. The writers were adding something that wasn't in the books. (We have the U.S. Supreme court ruling on gay marriage and human rights in the background.)  With the Kingslayer, Jaime loves his sister, which Joffrey and many others would consider degenerate. So like Republican Senator Rob Portman, he can have evolved views because it effects him and his family.

On second consideration it works. Authoritarians are against human rights. They are countervailing force against their "natural rights," or say Joffrey's unlimited rights as a king. That's why you have conservatives like Margaret Thatcher and the Republican judges on the Supreme court coming out against human rights for gays. Joffrey believes women should know their place and homosexuality is "degenerate." It's who he is. He's certainly not dumb, constantly inveighing against peasant superstitions like the taboo about killing people on your name day or convincingly arguing that the realm needs a standing army not each lord and kingdom with its own private army. But Joffrey's an authoritarian and a sadist and sadists M.O. is to deny others their humanity as we'll see with Ramsay Snow.