Why do so many young adults paint absurd caricatures of Christians who request government protection of their religious freedoms, arguing their true goal is to ban gay men from sitting at the local lunch counter? Why do they spread falsehoods about legislation, insisting that bills like the one recently signed by Indiana Gov. Mike Pencewill unleash a Republican-led Jim Crow revival aimed at the LGBT community? Why do so many people, Gen Xers and younger, invent a monster of anti-gay bigotry and keep screaming the monster is real despite a mountain of contrary facts standing before them?
The answer is “social studies.” My generation engages in straw men, misinformation, and lies because, in every year of social studies class, we studied the civil-rights movement not as history, but as hagiography. We didn’t just learn what events happened on American soil, we were encouraged to mimic the segregation-defeating holy ones and merit for ourselves a place alongside them in glory. Combining that admonition with our general aversion to hard work, we concluded that the only thing necessary to be as righteous as the saints who fought racial injustice was to decry an injustice that no one else was. And we became so desperate to find that injustice, we lost our minds in the process.
Once upon a time, my generation learned in first-grade social studies, everyone thought it was good to hate African-Americans. But then a group of saintly figures arose who were better human beings than the rednecks from the South, and they changed the world for the better. This story captivated us, and we wanted to change the world, too.
Once, black Americans weren’t allowed to use the same bathrooms as white Americans, we learned the next year, but the holy warriors of progress came along and saved the day. As just as much as we wanted to rescue damsels in distress, Superman style, we wanted to have our own victims to rescue from the forces of bigotry.
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I was listening to a liberal radio station yesterday afternoon. They gave the Indiana story more air time than any other news story by far. Everyone who came on against the legislation kept repeating the word hate. It is a hateful law passed by hateful conservatives to appease hateful people so those hateful people can hide behind religion and discriminate against gays in hateful ways.
ReplyDeleteIt would be comical if not so sad. There are so many stupid people that fall for that garbage hook, line, and sinker. Other people will come to believe it because the groups against the legislation are coordinated in their efforts to frame this as hate. If you don't agree with their point of view, you are a hateful hater.
I don't support discrimination, but for what it's worth, being hateful is forcing someone to violate their conscience by participating in a ceremony that violates their religious beliefs.
"I don't support discrimination, but for what it's worth, being hateful is forcing someone to violate their conscience by participating in a ceremony that violates their religious beliefs."
ReplyDeleteNot only hateful 5:59 but uncivilized.
They are on the same level as ISIS and the other terrorists that are forcing others to either accept their beliefs or die.
As long as good people do nothing they will never stop.
ReplyDeleteThe whole problem with these gays is they know they are doing something immoral and no one wants to hear they are doing something immoral if they really and truly think they are. If homosexuals thought what they were doing was normal the Christian attitude wouldn't bother them. People put in the position of knowing they are doing something immoral then love to lash out at those who oppose them because it makes them then become a victim.
ReplyDelete