Saturday 19 August 2023

Post No. 2,555 - On bigotry

In my opinion, there is something seriously wrong with the psychology of people such as white supremacists - and bigots generally. 

They may have perversions such as sadism, or flaws such as narcissism which causes a desire for mundane power (see here, for some related thoughts of mine) - at the very least, they may well have dependency traits contributing to them not being able or willing to think for themselves, or some form of maladjustment disorder. 

Problems which cause their bigotry.

Whatever their problems are (and for further thoughts of mine on that, see here, here, and here), the response to those causes must be, in my opinion: 

  • the same compassion and lack of judgemental bigotry that mental health care advocates want all sufferers of mental illness to receive (this does not mean that foolish forgiveness of the “let them off scot free from making effective restitution to undo their harm”, by the way: for their sake as well as their victims, and to demonstrate their regret is real and genuine, they must undo the harm they did [that foolish forgiveness, as I termed it, is, I suspect, rooted in the fear of all social animals of being on the receiving end of anger - which is something that must be at least set aside for the moment [better yet, dealt with constructively] for the sake of the wellbeing of that society and the victims of the wrongdoer - who also deserve compassion, and may also have mental health problems as a result of the bigotry they were subjected to); 
  • whatever curative measures can be provided that they are willing to accept (trying to force a medical measure will only backfire); and 
  • preventative measures - meaning preventing the spread of that maladjustment, and preventing children being infected with it.

The first measure of that last dot point is being addressed by activists and others (see, for instance, here), and the second measure of that dot point runs into problems with the inherent wrongness of forcing parents to raise children in a particular way (what happened in Germany in the 30s and 40s was proof of that - which is why parental rights are validly accepted as a vital human right), but there is a line which crosses in to child abuse. (And other influences - such as social conditioning or peer pressure - are fair game for advocates of decency.)

As an example, consider the case of those religious sects which refuse permission for life saving blood transfusions: court cases have given doctors the right to perform such procedures. 

I consider it likely the sort of problems I am writing about contribute to both crossing the line into abuse, and attempted perversions of the truth such as this. 

For their sake, the ideal is that such character flaws be recognised and worked on by the bigots, but for the sake of society, there is a more compelling need to stop harm being caused. On that, see: 

In overcoming any form of bigotry, there is usually a fairly typical pattern, which goes something like this: 

  • the form of discrimination is invented and popularised, with false equivalences, faked “facts” aka lies, mis- and disinformation, and subversion of politico-economic-social structures - and that may have happened several, or even many, generations beforehand; 
  • victims of the discrimination and activists start countering the lies, demonstrating that real occurs, and working towards additional political structures to counter the hate that was created - in other words, anti-discrimination laws; 
  • over several decades, the anti-discrimination laws are used to fight the most egregious cases of abuse where there is also a victim who is able and willing to go through the ordeal of being a public spectacle; 
  • more significantly, an increasingly larger proportion of younger people are taught counters to the hate their parents are trying to inculcate in them, together with other parents choosing decency, and some (often grudging and/or unmeant) public education, and that form of discrimination becomes less acceptable; 
  • a final stage where society moves from tolerance or acceptance to welcoming, embracing and appreciating - this is when we have things like the anti-racism  concept.

There is no question that bigots are “on the wrong side of history”. Just as most people now see slavery, blatantly abusive forms of bigotry, and racism/sexism as wrong, so too one day will most people see transphobia, biphobia, homophobia, and all other forms of the maladjustment of trying to violently (physically and otherwise) force reality to the narrow confines of a frightened small mind known as bigotry as wrong. 

It just won’t happen in my lifetime, and I will probably be attacked by more bigotry and accumulate more trauma to deal with before this life is over - and that is why I will struggle to have compassion for bigots, but I must try to be compassionate as part of making sure I don’t go down their path.


Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

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Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.


 


 

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