One Million Moms makes their case, agree with it or not.  They can have their say; it’s a free country, after all, it’s just talk, and it’s no more hateful than a lone geek calling them a tumor.  Like you’d know, right?

That said, the statement “It’s an idealized version of America that will hopefully become reality someday” gives Jon Goldwater’s true position away pretty quickly.  Archie’s not there to tell stories – he’s there to improve us.  This is for our own good, right?  Of course, he and his writers might be wrong.  It might not improve us.  But hey, that’s just a matter of opinion, right?  And Goldwater has the upper hand with control of his Riverdale Empire.

Propaganda is propaganda, whether you approve of the message or not.  In a culture that freely uses the word ‘gay’ as a description of utter contempt and extreme disapproval, Goldwater and his cohorts have a long slog.

It’s kinda sad that this is all Archie seems to be good for in the 21st Century.  Sort of a Chick Tract for the progressive voice.  Sadder still is that the company CEO feels compelled to voice the curious idea that Archie represents our culture’s leading edge –  when all Archie has ever stood for was several years behind the local cultural cues and (usually) colored with the politics of his latest publisher.  

What’s saddest of all is that progressive thinkers like Goldwater still believe kids read it.  And think that when they tell us ‘how sorry they are we feel this way’, we don’t recognize it as code.  

You never say that to people for whom you are about to do something pleasant and in accordance with their wishes.  You say it to excuse yourself from accountability when you are about to do something to someone that is shabby and self-gratifying.  Whether they like it or not.

…it makes me sick to know that such hate groups exist in the world. I don’t ever recall Archie doing anything that was harmful to anyone or ever approved to attacking other people’s life choices.