Elton John Puzzler
OK, first we have a confession : "Sir Elton John should now be dead from Aids like his friends Freddie Mercury or Rock Hudson, he said on Monday. For years he was addicted to drugs and drink and put himself at high risk of contracting HIV by his behaviour." I'm glad you made it through, Elton. But then: "Because the Aids disease is caused by a virus, but the Aids epidemic is not. The Aids epidemic is fuelled by stigma, violence and indifference." Huh? What did "stigma" have to do with Elton getting high and having unsafe sex?! And the thing is, if we blame the spread of AIDS on an imaginary cause ("stigma" -- I'm not saying gays haven't been stigmatized, I'm saying that is imaginary as the cause of the AIDS epidemic ), it tends to allow people to ignore the real problem. "Hey, I'm not at risk of AIDS because I'm sharing a needle with a hooker, no... it's because I'm stigmatized !" And then ...