Procrastinet

Amman, Jordan - 12/19/04: In Praise of Prejudice

filed under: Despatches

[EDITOR'S NOTE - THIS ENTRY WAS TEMPORARILY CORRUPTED BY COMMENT SPAM. IT WILL BE RESTORED SOON.]

And as I was thinking about all the stupid, bigoted, willfully-blind assholes we put up with every day -- the people who voted for Bush, the people who think sex is a crime, or should be, or that some race is really better than another, or that their religion is the only truth, or that you can somehow make peace if you just kill enough people -- and the thought I was thinking was this:

Here, I tolerate them because I have to. But you, dear readers, don’t.

Let me repeat that: YOU DON’T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THEIR SHIT. And you probably shouldn’t.

So, here’s my bit of advice, for any of you who are like me, and wake up every day asking, “what the fuck am I gonna do today that does any good for anyone?” Here’s one simple thing you can do: tell them to fuck off.

That co-worker of yours, who talks about how we should just nuke the middle east, and solve the whole terrorism problem once and for all? Those relatives in FLA who vote Republican, cause they just think America should belong to decent people, not those queers? The friend who won’t give up on the idea that the Jews control the media? STOP TALKING TO THEM. If they ask, tell them why: it’s because they are morally repugnant. Their politics are brutal, the people they vote for are monsters, the things they believe in are not a “point of view,” they are not just “a different but valid perspective” – they are WRONG.

Yeah, I’m saying there’s absolute truth; or if not, there’s absolute untruth. We may not know every detail of how the myriad varieties of life on earth developed, but they were not created in seven days. And someone else’s view of who they want to fuck, and who they want to marry, may not agree with mine, but they are not an infidel or an abomination.

And the people who think they are not your friends. Or at least, they’re not mine – cause I know that if they are allowed to keep thinking it’s okay to build concentration camps, sooner or later they’re gonna come knocking at my door.

You may have to work with these people, you may have to live near them, and disappointing as it is, you have to allow them to keep living their nasty, brutish lives, because to put them out of our misery would make you just as bad as they are. But you don’t have to be nice them, and you don’t have to allow them to go on thinking it’s okay to be a bunch of self-righteous, bigoted, violent, hate-mongers.

If you know these people, do not speak to them. If have a business, do not serve them. If you married one of them, file for divorce – your grounds are intolerable cruelty to the human race. If they’re your family, change your name. Show the bigots they don’t have a monopoly on social pressure.

How’s that for intolerance? I’m not talking about being intolerant of a race, or a creed, or anything someone is born with, I’m talking about ideas. That guy at work who thinks we should re-intern the Japanese? He’s got a choice, and he should know better. But probably, everyone around him who knows better is sitting back and being liberal and tolerant and acknowledging his right to his point of view.

Well, it’s time to look in the mirror and face the fact that we are all at war. Cold war, culture war, call it what you will, but don’t call me a faggot and then expect me to be decent to you ever again.

And the next person you meet who has all the education, money and opportunities necessary to know better, but who out of venom, cowardice or a need for self-justification chooses to embrace a frankly sub-human ideology of hatred and prejudice?

Tell them they’re not worth shitting on. To their face.

If they choose not to behave like human beings, don’t treat them like human beings.

- Nicholas Seeley, 12/19/04

Posted by rjt at December 22, 2004 03:38 PM