Thoughts On The Weekend
In comments Jim Bales suggested I have a look at Stonekettle Station, a blog by a retired Navy CWO in Alaska.
His latest post was about bigotry, and it lays out the problem of the bigots who get upset about being called bigots.
I thought of the article on CBS that deals with a segment on 60 Minutes about early child development studies at Yale, that seem to show that children understand the concept of ‘fairness’ almost at birth, i.e. it isn’t learned, it’s part of the ‘basic package’.
That should surprise no one as there have been studies going back over a decade showing that other members of the order Primates also have a developed sense of fairness. This article, Fairness & Equity Concepts Have Deep Primate Roots, covers some of the earlier research.
Two things come to mind: 1) Bigotry is learned, not inmate, and 2) Not only are humans born without ‘original sin’, but they all start out innocent. People who discriminate against anyone else aren’t simply evil, they are unnatural.
This tends to support Badtux’s claim that many wingnuts are ‘lizard people’.
6 comments
too bad we can’t unleash the kitties to eat up the lizards.
What do you have against kitties? Do you want to destroy their GI tract by ingesting something as poisonous as a wingnut … 😈
I am surprised you haven’t been reading Stonekettle Station before now, given your background and interest in Alaska. Jim is most certainly Wrighteous.
As for the bigots who claim they are not bigots: Bigots are bad people. They feel like good people. They love their spouse and children, are kind to their pets, and even donate to charity. So surely they can’t be one of those “bigot” people, it’s not their fault that all those darkies are criminals and welfare moochers, right?
The only question is whether their ignorance is willful or simply a case of lack of intellectual capacity…
I’m in a bind for time these days, Badtux, and don’t do as much searching as I would like. Being ‘retired’ is not the life of leisure people assume, and I have a lot of people who are finding things for me to do.
You are immersed in the ‘disease’ from early childhood by your family and friends. It is something that is the ‘conventional wisdom’ among your circle, which is why many bigots are so shocked when they get called on it – “everyone knows” that this or that group is subhuman.
Fortunately it is slowly dying out, even in the South.
Ah yes, retirement. I met a few retired people during my trip. One is 74 years old, can’t hike anymore due to back problems, but still going to Jeep to as many places as he can while he can. Two others spend so much time on BLM steering committees, state parks advisory boards, running local non-profits, etc. that they seem to be busier than when they weren’t retired. I don’t seem to run into the stereotypical retiree with nothing to do. Maybe they’re too busy dying to be out where I would run into them, hrm.
You have to keep moving or the systems die, i.e. the less you do, the less you can do. It’s great when you can schedule your own time, but it isn’t much different than working for a corporation when other people are making the decisions for you. That’s one of the reasons I avoid joining organizations, I don’t want to be told what to do and when to do it.
Your friends and family are more than happy to fill in any blank spaces in your schedule.