Is homophobia in the Global South the postcolonialism of fools?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Inspired by the famous maxim that "antisemitism is the socialism of fools".

Obviously there are reasons why people are homophobic or take conservative positions on issues facing LGBT people that have nothing to do with this at all, but it's hard to ignore the ersatz postcolonial and Third Worldist rhetoric that people responsible for ginning up brutalization and oppression of gay people in much of Africa and Asia are liable to resort to.

[afleitch]

It's complex. LGBT identity is a dangerous thing in a continent divided by colonial borders and constructed nation states where ethnic and tribal identity are weaponised, linguistic and religious identity is a colonial hangover and pan-African identity is a fantasy.

There's also decades of American evangelism; packaged, uniform, banal that exported their culture war to Africa and poisoned the well there (and in Brazil, Korea and Taiwan). So part of me blames America; the only country that could make religion a consumer product.

But at the same time it's a 'proxy' in people's frustration with income inequality and a rising middle class. Homosexuality is framed as men sleeping with men for money. It's how rich men gave money and poor men got money. So you can say you're poor because you're 'honest' and 'moral'. You can take out an opponent by saying he bribed you for sex. People think gays are all rich, 'just like in the west' so they are subject to assault and blackmail. It's all rubbish; an invented moral panic but it's very effective. African tabloids are obsessed with sex, power, influence, religion and 'posession.' Your analogy with anti-semitism is closer than you think; it's the same spectre.

[Wisconsin SC Race 2019]

The Western world (and before anyone brings up American bigotry, part of the US is frankly 3rd World) is more enlightened when it comes to gay issues, full stop.

[Some of My Best Friends Are Gay]

The Western world (and before anyone brings up American bigotry, part of the US is frankly 3rd World) is more enlightened when it comes to gay issues, full stop.

Which specific parts? 🤔

[All Along The Watchtower]

In the same manner that some folks, primarily on Twiiter (because of course) are the same people who defend the Islamic Republic of Iran and their “Axis of Resistance” because since the US, Israel, and their Gulf Arab allies are bad (and equally so!), so by simple Logic Khamenei, Assad, Hezbollah, and Hamas are good - or indeed, Putin, Maduro, or Xi goddamn Jinping.

Before you know it, al Qaeda and ISIS are being defended as anti-imperialist resistance fighters and that opposition to them is Islamophobic, racist, and besides, the US/the West and Israel are responsible for all of it anyway. Shades of Mugabe apologism or defense of Juche. Also Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddhafi were good guys.

All of these people were brave people of color resisting White Supremacist Western imperialism.
I think that’s how that works, anyway.