Names and some pictures manipulated for privacy. More respect than they showed me and mine.
“Love being called a crusader!!! I am Jewish and the crusaders murdered my people so a bit hard for me to be one of them. T hen again, don’t expect the pornography pimps to be the most well read or thoughtful of thinkers. Their brains are way below the belt!” – Gail Dines, Facebook Wall, Public posting. 1 February 2013. 10:06 am. See picture at left for the screenshot.
I won’t be so petty as to point out missing commas, improper hyphenation, and the excessive use of exclamation points, but let’s talk capitalization. See, most pornography pimps I know (and I suppose I am one since I consume porn and have even assisted in a porn shoot as well as being an escort) would know to capitalize the ‘c’ in crusader when speaking about the historical persons. That’s a bit learned for people who are supposedly, “…[not] the most well read [sic] or thoughtful of thinkers [sic]“, isn’t it?
A crusade, as applicable to Gail Dines and others and is the context in which the noun is applied, is, “Any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc.” Therefore, a crusader is a person engaged in said movement. Wanting to achieve the impossible goal of permanently removing pornography and other sexual media from humanity (which has never happened before) is definitely a vigorous, aggressive movement and Dines enthusiastically places herself on that front line. Furthermore, as you will see at the above link, “to crusade” means to “mark with a cross” and in the figurative sense is defined as “campaign against a public evil”. Dines most certainly believe commercial sex in all its forms is a public evil and since she wishes to wipe it out, she fully embodies crusader in the secular sense as it was, is, and always will be applied outside of a religious context. Again, weird that I know this, pornified as I am.
The Crusades, however, were primarily the military and religious incursions into the Middle East during the 11th-15th centuries with the main goal of occupying and claiming the Holy Lands in the name of Christianity, specifically the Roman Catholic Church, kicking out the other inhabitants in the meantime. There were Crusades into the Balkans in the 15th century to fight the Ottoman Empire. These battles were bloody and brutal. But that’s not we’re talking about, Professor Dines, and you know it isn’t.
My pornified brain that earned its BA in the History of Art and Architecture, emphasizing religious art and architecture of the Renaissance, also remembers that The Crusades didn’t stop at targeting “Gail’s people” or Muslims. Christian sects that were anathema to The Holy Mother Church (coincidentally, in the modern-day, they are buddies of anti-porn crusaders), namely the Cathars in Occitania (southern France). Since quite a few of my French ancestors were from southern France, can I assume that their own ancient ancestors may have been Cathars as well? Look at that, I was distantly affected by the Crusades too!
The peanut gallery that was the subsequent comment thread likewise showed no ability to recall the dictionary’s definition of crusader. One of them claims, “Their brain is [sic] totally destroyed by the mecanic [sic] compulsiv [sic] repetition of their violence, totally frosen [sic] in a few feelings: hate, sadism, and sadistic joy.” Talk about repetition. And, really, if our brains are destroyed by porn, what is your excuse? I’ve seen kindergarten students who can write better sentences. My destroyed brain, again, knows the difference between small ‘c’ crusader and big ‘C’ Crusader. And I hate nothing except bad grammar, improper syntax, improper context, and flagrant stupidity. Sadistic joy? In ripping you a new one? Yes.
Ridding Gotham of Cathars, Jews, Muslims, and other infidels since May 1939
Here’s an example: Batman is the called “The Caped Crusader” in the small ‘c’ sense because he is vigorously and aggressively fighting against crime and corruption in Gotham. It is capitalized in this sense only because it is being used as a proper noun, a title or nom de cape (roquelaure?), if you will. I doubt anyone reading his comics would have ever thought he was fighting a religious battle in late Middle Ages Europe and the Middle East and was interchangeable with, say, a Knights Templar. Batman is also called “The Dark Knight” but again, I don’t think any of the readers would assume that he was knighted by a monarch. I’d be willing to bet there are more porn consumers among Batman fans than there are Batman fans anti-porn activists and yet, the former group have yet to show even the slightest sign of having a “destroyed brain”…unlike the folks who don’t realize there is a huge, well-known, well-established difference between crusader and Crusader.
Then there was the dim-witted, “Ha, they only have brains zombies would want!” exchange between two of the gallery members. Hmm. Let’s examine that claim. Actually, no, I’ll let The Simpsons handle that one:
Oh, those zombies are coming right for you geniuses since all of us with the “destroyed brains” would be unappetizing for the ravenous undead.
Anyway, if you have too much time on your hands, a low gag reflex, and enjoy watching the macabre…what am I saying? Of course you do. Go check out Gail Dines’ Facebook wall. It’s entertaining in the same way as getting your eyes clawed out by feral cat is entertaining. 
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