However, having said that, I do think people have come a long way in a short time in terms of intolerance and prejudice. Or rather, I should say, in terms of intolerance towards prejudice, intolerance towards bigotry. A lot of people claim that bigotry is just as bad as it ever was - only it's been driven underground.
Ridiculous. The fact that it cannot survive above-ground represents an almost complete victory.
I'll lay it out for you.
Today, fervent racism is largely limited to fringe groups, hobbyists. People with a weird nostalgic interest in benighted bullshit attitudes. And every one of them knows (possibly, cherishes) the fact that they are essentially a pariah, when it comes to those views. They know what happens to people who express views like that publicly. They know that fight is already lost. They know they're on the side of the losers. And they've already knuckled under. They won't even dispute it anymore! They just...keep it to themselves.
Rightly so. That's where that shit belongs, if it can be said to belong anywhere.
So the racists are losers, and they know they are losers. They even admit as much, by the degree to which they've shut up in public! Everyone knows they're still out there, shooting the shit with their trusted cohorts, in secrecy and cowardice. But no amount of that will keep hope alive for their cause. The pervasive sense of loserism attached to being a racist makes it almost impossible for true believers to gain converts - or even pass their beliefs on to their own kids! No matter how low-key they try to slide it, the kid will sniff it out. Or if they try to push it hard, the kid will go along to get along - but the kid will secretly be embarrassed, even ashamed by the clanging wrongness of their parents' bigoted views. Because AS LONG AS THESE VIEWS CANNOT BE EXPRESSED IN PUBLIC, any child will automatically know that #1 the views in question are indefensible, and #2, those who espouse them in secret are a bunch of cowards.
Man, you'd be ashamed, wouldn't you? If your parents were cowards? Years later, the kid will play it up for sympathy: "yeah, my dad was a racist. It was pretty awful growing up in that house." Yup. It was, kid. There, there.
Now contrast all of that with back in the day: you had a majority of the populace who were perfectly comfortable with racist views being expressed in public. This was a climate wherein most people might not have been bigots per se, but they didn't find it objectionable when others vented their bigotry. It was countenanced. That casual acceptance was a huge boost to the power, the spread, and the descent of prejudices! Without that fertile soil of tolerance in which to grow, bigotry is now withering on the vine.
True, we still have an awful lot of casual racists (and many more casual sexists). But the point is: they know they have to keep it to themselves, for their own good. And ultimately, that means that they have tacitly conceded that it's wrong (or at least, indefensible).
Now that is a good thing. That is a very good thing.
I'm not saying the fight's over. It's not. But the fight is won. There will be further acts of violence. Scumbags acting out of frustration, alone or in concert. But there can be now no reversal. The cause - for racists - is lost. And everyone in the country, including racists themselves, knows that they are the FUCKING LOSERS.
I say: tolerance is overrated as a virtue. Bully's on the ground - let's kick him when he's down!
Ridiculous. The fact that it cannot survive above-ground represents an almost complete victory.
I'll lay it out for you.
Today, fervent racism is largely limited to fringe groups, hobbyists. People with a weird nostalgic interest in benighted bullshit attitudes. And every one of them knows (possibly, cherishes) the fact that they are essentially a pariah, when it comes to those views. They know what happens to people who express views like that publicly. They know that fight is already lost. They know they're on the side of the losers. And they've already knuckled under. They won't even dispute it anymore! They just...keep it to themselves.
Rightly so. That's where that shit belongs, if it can be said to belong anywhere.
So the racists are losers, and they know they are losers. They even admit as much, by the degree to which they've shut up in public! Everyone knows they're still out there, shooting the shit with their trusted cohorts, in secrecy and cowardice. But no amount of that will keep hope alive for their cause. The pervasive sense of loserism attached to being a racist makes it almost impossible for true believers to gain converts - or even pass their beliefs on to their own kids! No matter how low-key they try to slide it, the kid will sniff it out. Or if they try to push it hard, the kid will go along to get along - but the kid will secretly be embarrassed, even ashamed by the clanging wrongness of their parents' bigoted views. Because AS LONG AS THESE VIEWS CANNOT BE EXPRESSED IN PUBLIC, any child will automatically know that #1 the views in question are indefensible, and #2, those who espouse them in secret are a bunch of cowards.
Man, you'd be ashamed, wouldn't you? If your parents were cowards? Years later, the kid will play it up for sympathy: "yeah, my dad was a racist. It was pretty awful growing up in that house." Yup. It was, kid. There, there.
Now contrast all of that with back in the day: you had a majority of the populace who were perfectly comfortable with racist views being expressed in public. This was a climate wherein most people might not have been bigots per se, but they didn't find it objectionable when others vented their bigotry. It was countenanced. That casual acceptance was a huge boost to the power, the spread, and the descent of prejudices! Without that fertile soil of tolerance in which to grow, bigotry is now withering on the vine.
True, we still have an awful lot of casual racists (and many more casual sexists). But the point is: they know they have to keep it to themselves, for their own good. And ultimately, that means that they have tacitly conceded that it's wrong (or at least, indefensible).
Now that is a good thing. That is a very good thing.
I'm not saying the fight's over. It's not. But the fight is won. There will be further acts of violence. Scumbags acting out of frustration, alone or in concert. But there can be now no reversal. The cause - for racists - is lost. And everyone in the country, including racists themselves, knows that they are the FUCKING LOSERS.
I say: tolerance is overrated as a virtue. Bully's on the ground - let's kick him when he's down!
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