Sunday 29 June 2014

Feelings can not be bigoted

Inspired by Beckie on twitter, she stated an absolutely definitive point. You cannot be a bigot based on your feelings. This is because you are not responsible for your feelings. For example, you can feel angry, and even like killing someone, but if you are sane and civilised you will never act on it. The same goes for dislike. If you dislike gay marriage or watching gay people getting it on with each other in public, or do not like a town full of immigrants, how exactly does that make you a bigot?

A bigot is basically someone who is prejudiced, ie believes things about certain groups in general with little or no evidence, or is against certain groups based on such beliefs. You cannot then extend what is essentially a deliberate condition of misinformation into an automatic reaction, distaste, dislike, disgust or whatever, without the slightest logic or reason. None of the examples are connected with my own opinions either way, just three which have raised some of the most accusations of bigotry in the last few years. Are you a food bigot for never wanting to touch raw onions or garlic? Are you prejudiced if you haven't even eaten any to be certain? We are all designed with built in safety and defence mechanisms, and they kick off in both dangerous and unfamiliar circumstances, and also draw on our intuition which again is based on accurate feeling with little or no direct evidence, but when later followed by such evidence almost always turns out to be right.

Most people it seems do not want to live in a community of random races and cultures all forming small tight pockets and speaking foreign languages. This is not logical, it is based on our ancient family makeup and the foundation of tribes in primitive cultures in the past and present. Again, there is no justification to act on those dislikes and drive the foreigners away or attack them in any ways, but it is inbuilt in everyone to be drawn to people more like themselves than anything else. If you want to use political beliefs to attempt to reverse built in human nature it will always end in tears, as it simply is and always was the same. If someone is heterosexual then it is more likely they will wince when seeing two men or women kissing and touching each other without any notice in public, not because they are either bigoted or homophobic, but it is not their own nature and no different to seeing someone eat oysters or witchetty grubs if you don't like them. You're not prejudiced against them, it is just a natural reaction to seeing something you could never do yourself.

By deliberately accusing normal people who have never hurt and never would hurt anyone of being bigots and worse for simply voicing their feelings and reactions which are different to the norm is a totalitarian and intolerant form of control, as you are literally going a level above thought control, which again is not within our powers to stop, but feeling control and taste control. Kim Il Jun (or whatever combination is in power at the moment) made his citizens copy his haircut, just as Chairman Mao made everyone wear overalls. These are Maoist overalls for our thoughts and feelings, and like overalls may hide what is beneath but can never and should never change it. That is no one else's business or right to impose on anyone. If your feelings and thoughts can be challenged, and potentially criminalised as a result what state has the world come to?

No comments:

Post a Comment