In which The Gay Recluse celebrates The New Dark Ages.

Last night Gawker posted a piece about Chris Crocker, who has released a new video in which he responds to YouTube comments such as the following:

–Next time you are walking in the street I hope you get run over by cancer
–I WANNA KILL YOU! GIMME UR FUCKING ADDRESS YOU COCK FUCKING FAGGOT! AND ILL MURDER YOU! god damn it!
–dude or chick or watever JUST STFU u r so gay and howd that sex change go for you haha seriously who is wit me is this guy or girl i cant tell for myslef creepy or wat

[Which doesn’t even begin to scrape the surface of the bazillion “Chris Crocker Is a Faggot” videos also floating around YouTube; search “Chris Crocker” and “Faggot” and enjoy the bounty!]

We were, however, slightly more surprised to find Crocker receiving similar treatment from more than a few Gawker commenters, who despite their witty and urbane pretensions turned out to be pretty much just as homophobic, ignorant and self-hating as their “down-market” YouTube corollaries.

Again, we offer you a sampling of Gawker comments (along with — bonus feature — our response):

Gawker Commenter: Is it so wrong that I desperately and sincerely want him to get the aids and die?
TGR Response: Such wit, referring to “the AIDS” instead of just AIDS, playing off the trademark Gawker reference to “The Gays.” Brilliant! Get this man (and we assume it’s a man) an agent and a book deal asap!

Gawker Commenter: “I think a chronic case of bum herpes would be better. Itching and burning 24/7, he’ll never be able to bottom again. Now that would be worse than death for someone like him.”
TGR Response: Another comic genius, whipping out ex tempore such a hilarious term like “bum herpes”! Book deal number two! We’d love to see this guy do a reading at the Dugout some Sunday afternoon and tell a bunch of 250-lb bears what he thinks about bottoming.

Gawker Commenter: “If I can be of any comfort here…for many of us that can’t fucking stand this kid, it has nothing to do with his sexuality. No, us progressive, educated types approach him more from a sort of — how shall I put it — “loudening death knell of American culture” kind of place. Just to, ya know, throw that out there.”
TGR Response: Thank you, wit number three! We especially love the “ya know,” which almost disguises the perverse self-hatred on display in your first sentence. In your case, progressive + educated = sadly warped. Better just to tell the truth, which is that Chris Crocker embarrasses you because you think it’s better to act like a suburban Republican than a prissy queen.

Gawker Commenter: When a guy is gay and has media exposure, he has the opportunity to advance things. Poor Chris has not… But! many mainstream gay guys (like me!) feel a bit of gratitude towards the queeny types for making us more visible. For lots of bigoted straight folks, it’s all about “I hate Richard Simmons and Chris Crocker, but I love the Coop and that gay rugby guy whose John Deere I borrowed. Guess I’m a fag-lover.”
TGR Response: Incredibly, we have another conformist/loser here who is even more warped (and unconscious of exactly how much) than wit number 3. His comment epitomizes the bullshit notion that anyone gay should conform to a standard of behavior that is “acceptable” to the bland and generic mainstream to which he so obviously aspires to belong.

Gawker Commenter: But you are dementional blanche, ya are! This boy needs to be punish fucked. And then tossed, like the media has. Loser.
TGR Response: Here we have yet another self-hating “tough gay guy” with pretensions of wit (the “blanche”/Baby-Jane reference, so clever!) on display for your entertainment. We bet this guy can bench press over 200 pounds! What a man!

Gawker Commenter: “that chick needs to shave her mustache … oh wait, she’s a he?!?! Oh now I’m just all majorly fucking confused.”
TGR Response: It’s kind of sad (for all of us) that this could have been lifted straight from YouTube.

Gawker Commenter: “I don’t get it, Um… if you put yourself “out there”- you open yourself up to criticism, hate, etc. If you don’t like it, then stop making videos for attention. You can’t demand only good responses and attention from videos that you willingly put online. people have something called free will, and you can’t make them feel how you want them to feel. If you don’t like it, stop making videos that you know will get negative responses. There, problem solved. Move on.”
TGR Response: This is like saying, “If Hillary Clinton doesn’t like being called a stupid cunt all the time, she should stop running for president.” Such oblivious presumption is truly a spectacle to behold!

Please note: it was not our intention to in any way indict Gawker (who we love) or the site’s writers/editors — all geniuses (seriously) — but to simply lambaste the more idiotic commenters; and to be fair, we note that other Gawker commenters also pointed out similar flaws. We just wanted to make a point that no enclave is immune from the same sort of YouTube treatment that Chris Crocker rails against.