Deja Vu, Minus Denzel

Fellow blogger Jamie at I Must Be Dreaming pointed out this week the crusade by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation criticizing drug manufacturer Pfizer for allegedly encouraging meth use and unsafe sex among gays through its marketing of Viagra.

Oddly enough, it looks a lot like last year's crusade by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation criticizing drug manufacturer Pfizer for allegedly encouraging meth use and unsafe sex among gays through its marketing of Viagra. I will even go out on a limb and say that, come Hanukkah 2007, we'll be looking at the same press release.

Now, the simple fact of the matter is that their allegation of a link between Pfizer's advertising and infections or drug use is not a justifiable assertion by any fact, piece of scientific research, or even plain empirical observation. That millions of men manage to use Viagra annually without being compelled to shtup bare or tweak themselves into unreality is persuasive enough, and the additional point that thousands of gay men manage to do both without Viagra being involved at all should neatly demolish their theory. Indeed, the whole thing reeks of an utter darkness devoid of any glimmer of rational thought that surpasses even this week's right-wing black hole.

But if you've managed to brainwash yourself sufficiently to eliminate any thought that gay men choose to have unprotected sex and use meth as a potential cause of HIV infection and meth use, I suppose it makes perfect sense.