• People Instead of Labels

    An interesting article today compared Fox’s discussion about transgender people with The Daily Show’s discussion.

    One thing that struck me is that Fox and company (as seems to be common among people who style themselves “conservative”) are ignoring people to attack groups. I say that this is common because it seems to me that many people who say that they are conservative have some very specific attitudes toward certain groups… groups of people that are not like them (white, older, generally male or male led).

    On the other hand, The Daily Show asks specific questions about the people and the claims of opponents of the people. The final scene of the The Daily Show segment is one of the funniest, most ironic scenes of our times.

    I’ve heard comments about the LGBT agenda and the societal norms that will come crashing down on us if we accept these people as people. Which is all such BS. After studying this subject for a while and thinking long and hard about it, I have an idea about what the LGBT agenda actually is. Ready?

    People who are lesbian or gay or bisexual or trans want to be treated just like people who are not lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans.

    The reason for this is because they are people. Humans. Just like Bill O’Reilly, except generally not egotistical jerks.

    This is an age old tactic. You classify the people you don’t like as a group and the attack the group identity. It helps to mask the idea that all those people are really fellow humans. “They aren’t people! They’re Jews or gay or blacks or Japs or Nazis or KKK or conservatives or evolutionists or creationists or any other label you want to apply.”

    Then you can safely attack Jews or blacks or creationists or whatever without having to deal with the fact that you are attacking your next door neighbor’s daughter or the woman you’ve worked with for 6 years.

    Because, it seems to me, that when people actually meet and talk to and get to know the people that they have labeled as “other”, they tend to be OK with them. That’s not always the case, but it happens.

    This is extremely similar to a recent push to “ban the box“. There’s a small check box on most (if not all) employment applications. “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”  A guy who got busted for pot and spent 6 months in jail 20 years ago, still has to answer “Yes” to that question. Regardless of everything since that time.

    These are not “felons”, they are people.

    Judge them as people, not what groups they are put in by others (or even themselves).

    As far as bathrooms… who cares. Anyone who is checking out other people’s junk in the bathroom has bigger issues than being in the wrong bathroom.

    Category: CultureLifeSociety

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    Article by: Smilodon's Retreat