My favorite TV show scene ever.

[Zorra]

3. No, Finn is straight, and is the popular, stud quarterback of the football team.

I think dad's tough love smackdown is pretty harsh also, but IMO appropriately so, because the screenwriters wanted to use shock to drive home an important point.

Sometimes it takes a severe shock to the belief system to kick people out of the unconscious prejudices and perceptions that have been firmly inculcated into them because of the unreasonable, warped, but accepted social norms pervasive within the collective consciousness of a culture/society.

In this case, the warped social norm that is present in Finn's consciousness is institutionalized homophobia. The institutionalized homophobia present within Finn's subconscious belief system is something he was not consciously aware of; Finn totally believed that he had eliminated all vestiges of homophobia from his psyche and subsequent behavior. The next scene in the show portrays Finn as having realized that he had still held unconscious homophobic beliefs (against his conscious will), and that he has begun working on eliminating these undesirable homophobic beliefs from his person.

So the, IMO ingenious, scriptwriters had Kurt's dad shock both Finn and Kurt with his tirade -- and hopefully most of the audience that viewed the scene as well.

The very reason I love the scene so much is that addresses the hidden institutionalized homophobia present in many individuals who, like Finn, believe they have become enlightened and moved on from their past misconceptions of GLBTIQ persons, when in reality, homophobia is still hiding within their subconscious like a nasty, dormant virus, fully ready to become active again whenever circumstances are right.

Institutionalized racism and sexism often "infect" the subconscious of many well intentioned individuals like Finn in the same way.

Until these good hearted, well intentioned individuals recognize, and acknowledge, how deeply they have been affected by institutionalized homophobia/racism/sexism, they have no reason to work on "curing" it.

It often takes some "tough love" to cure these stubborn little nasties.