(I posted this on Facebook the other day, but wanted to preserve it here as well…)
Sometimes I can’t not say something. I’m generally a very positive person, but sometimes various corners of humanity disgust me.
The recent Cheerios commercial (and its parody) and Sebastian De La Cruz National Anthem kerfuffles have shown us once again that there are an excess of bigots and idiots – I’ll call them “bigiots” – with access to computers. Indeed these two examples are simply reminders of what happens in various corners of the internet every day.
It’s important to note that the internet didn’t create bigots and idiots, they were always here. The internet has simply provided an easy place for them to express their hateful, bigoted and idiotic ideas publicly and anonymously.
What scares me most about bigiots is that they’re teaching it to their children, who grow up thinking that this type of bigotry and idiocy not just the norm, not just acceptable, but actually something to aspire to.
As a society we can do better. We should do better. We can and should shine a light this behavior and call it out – publicly – for what it truly is: shameful and unacceptable.
Have come to the conclusion at age 74 that it is of no use being disgusted with bigiots and their ilk. May as well expect different behavior and opinions of a crow as it attacks nestling robins, (and they do…they’re predators.) I truly believe that a wide streak of insanity runs through the human species. Perhaps it springs from unduly loose connections between the “old” and “new” brains. Many humans don’t even have their self-preservation routines or responses wired tightly. This causes them to discount others of their own species as potential allies if they are of a different color, eye structure, philosophy, sexual orientation, ad nauseam. IMHO, there’s no other way to look at such behavior. They’re nuts. And they’re dangerous to themselves and others.
I don’t think bigots are nuts. I’m not even sure they are idiots. Maybe that’s the problem. They are people who are narrow, inhumane, and yes, evil…but some of them are educated and smart and have very serious agendas. And They Vote!!!
It’s not new… we find it in Ancient History 101.
But, like the song in South Pacific, “They have to be carefully taught.” They were carefully taught to hate and they are teaching their children…who will teach theirs etc etc. And we have to keep talking actively, never stopping, against teaching hatred.
I was very lucky… i had parents who taught me kindness and the meaning of freedom and equality and civil rights….including the whole world, no exceptions. I am now 90 years old and i hope that what i, in turn, taught my children who taught my grandchildren will provide at least a tiny bit of hope for the future of the world. Someone famous (but apparently not famous enough for me to remember his name) once said, “I find it hard to be optimistic…but i have Hope.” YES!
An addendum…. it is true that crows attack nestlings and hawks swoop down on squirrels. But every living thing is a predator. They need to eat to survive. No hatred involved.
@DEA,
@DEA,
I basically agree with KAYHH regardless of what the cause is. They are “nuts” based on any reasonable definition of the word. You say that some are “smart” but that’s simply not true. Just because someone is “educated” doesn’t mean they’re “smart”. The ability to master certain skills at an advanced level, like mathematics for instance, doesn’t mean someone is “smart”. Their brain may be able crunch the numbers, but there may still be an intellectual void. Take the Nazis as the ultimate example for instance. They were able to develop some amazing technologies for the time, such as the V2 rocket, yet referred to Einsteins work and others as “Jewish Physics”. And then they went on to carry out the world’s worst atrocities based on their asinine notion of racial superiority. For all their skills and education, this is objectively not “smart”. It’s the very antithesis of it. A prime example of irrationality and stupidity. “Nuts” describes it perfectly.