Yes, this exactly. I watched a Samantha Bee clip today wherein a correspondent interviewed a man and woman from Pennsylvania. The woman agreed with the man that we don’t need a woman in the White House, saying “we are too emotional.” It was later revealed that she is actually a mechanic and encountered regular sexism via her profession. At least in the clip, she didn’t make the connection, which can make us all laugh and feel superior, but cognitive dissonance is not something with which most people are comfortable recognizing, much less confronting. I certainly don’t like it when I’m called out on something.
So. Whenever I teach adjunct (I love it, but increasingly rare these days – the grading, oh, the grading is my downfall), I always try to include at least part of one class session on “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” From the original author of the article, which appeared in 1989: “My work is not about blame, shame, guilt, or whether one is a ‘nice person.’ It’s about observing, realizing, thinking systemically and personally. It is about seeing privilege, the ‘up-side’ of oppression and discrimination. It is about unearned advantage, which can also be described as exemption from discrimination.”
It’s no easy thing to accept that you are on the “up-side” of oppression and discrimination. I’m certainly not giving bigots a pass, but unless we use tools like the “invisible knapsack” to broach the topic in such a way that allows someone to begin the process of self-evaluation, it’s unreasonable to think the woman from Pennsylvania is necessarily going to navigate her cognitive dissonance on her own.
TL;DR: It’s really fucking hard to confront your own privilege, so most people just don’t do it.
What exactly is the “Liberal line”? I’m asking because it seems to me to mainly be opposing homophobia, racism, sexism, and bigotry. I live in the South myself and most people I know who complain about “liberals” follow those with statements opposing same-sex marriage or equal treatment for people who aren’t white Christians.
I’m not saying the issue is two-sided, but based on my own experience most Trump supporters–or Republicans generally–hold views that are racist, sexist, or bigoted and just don’t like being called out on it.
Again, because they see themselves as nice people. And you know what? They may very well be, at least in some aspects of their lives. I, too, live in the South (deeeep South), and I’ve had co-workers I like a great deal – kind, generous people – who hold views I simultaneously find abhorrent, therein lies my own battle with cognitive dissonance. I’m convinced the “invisible knapsack” lesson should start in elementary school.
He’s awful. And his policies? Terrifying. And I mean terrifying like the time my sister and I found a wolf spider in her house in Tampa the size of my hand (albeit, I do have Trump-sized hands). I’m an arachnophobe, and we couldn’t find it after it jumped away. They JUMP. Oh, god, I’m shuddering now.
But I’ve really, really appreciated @nimelennar posts on not casually using mental health idioms. It’s just not helpful.
P.S. If some asshole posts a picture of a wolf spider on here, I will leave and not come back. I know it’s unreasonable and there’s beauty in all creation, but I’ll undertake my own aversion therapy, thank you.
Indeed. A recent pic of me during the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios (companion excised for privacy). It was awesome and the spider portion was very brief but they managed to capture me during that 10-second period when huge spiders are there, in 3D.
I think maybe that’s going a bit far… There are infinite flavours of mental illness (from which I’m hardly exempt), and in my book, shocking ignorance that makes a fine textbook case of Dunning-Kruger syndrome is definitely one of them. The man is literally insane, as is anyone who thinks he’s President material.
Mental note made. Indirect link and NSFA warning only.
(Seriously, that’s useful to know. Living in Australia, you get used to things and easily can become desensitized to the idea that people might not live in a place like this.)
Many years ago, my friend and I were in my newer car driving through a pretty rough neighborhood (it wasn’t a big deal to me since it was in the city where I grew up and in an area I spent a lot of time) as a shortcut.
Nothing wrong with my car, no speeding, no expired tags. A cop car came up behind us and was following us like vultures for a several miles before finally giving up and finding someone else to annoy. It was very weird. We figured that as a couple of white guys in a newer car driving through a rough neighborhood that we were being profiled as potential drug buyers.
Imagine having to deal with this every single day, nearly everywhere I would go, “just because.” This taught me and important lesson about privilege.
In all earnestness, I say maybe, and I struggled with whether to say something or not. I agree with @Kimmo asessement and I too have used all types of terms to describe him myself in discussion with those of like-mindedness. Wack-job (is it whack? or wack?) or my favorite so far, courtesy of my husband, “cocksplatting wingnut mother fucker.”
At the same time, I think it’s dismissive to relegate him to the ranks of the “crazy.” Let’s all look back a year ago when where we are now seemed impossible. It was a joke. But here he is, and there’s something much more insidious than individual mental illness going on.
The biggest problem I can think of with societies pretty much everywhere, is that it’s in no power structure’s interest to disseminate critical thinking skills. Almost every authority is happy to exploit the populace’s cognitive biases, perhaps nowhere more egregiously than in the good ole US of A.
The most effective measure to solving the world’s ills would almost certainly be to start teaching critical thinking skills in all primary schools tomorrow, but that ain’t gonna happen.
There’s a term from the bad old days of psychiatry. It’s depreciated, but it’s wonderfully descriptive: Moral Insanity.
Back then, it was used to refer to psychopaths. People who’s brains lacked the features that give rise to empathy, and what most would call general human decency.
I feel that, while my country isn’t some psychopath ridden population, it’s definitely suffering from moral insanity. And this is because of tribalism. Our society has become so large, that while we communicate more than ever, people aren’t connecting as they used to. And as you said critical thinking skills are lacking.
This has been taken advantage of to the point where real, genuine psychopaths run the show. And they don’t care about anyone. They are not the vogons, who are unwilling to save their mothers from the bug-blatter beast of Traal until after the required paperwork is finished. They are predators. Social predators. And they rely on people’s greed, people’s unwillingness to be self-critical, and people’s desire to be part of a tribe to bleed us dry.
Indeed. As someone (I forget who) pointed out in the thread about the Laurie Penny article, the Tennessee Republicans invited Geert fucking Wilders to the convention. That’s the kind of friends they have.
I was the one who pointed that out and I’m glad you brought it up because I think it underscores the depth of the prejudice. Wilders is no stranger to Tennessee Republicans and has been invited to the state by legislators before. Although a nasty fight over a planned Islamic center in the city of Murfreesboro a few years ago also revealed a lot.
No. You look like you’re having a fantastic time and that’s what matters.
As a side note I really love spiders, especially of the genus Lycosa which I think are super cool little beasts. Sometimes we’ll see one in the house and my spouse’s reaction will be, “Kill it! KILL IT! No, don’t pick it up! Fine, take it outside if you have to…No, I DON’T NEED TO SEE IT.”
But I’ll try not to share any pictures without giving you fair warning.
Fair enough points, but - speaking as member of the religion to which you are referring - when we hear of people making a point of the fact that they feel themselves to be christian, it is very rarely because of the love they have shown for their neighbour. It is almost always to justify acts of hatred - against fellow christians with different colour skins, against women, against people of other religions or none…
When moslems use their claims following of Islam to justify acts of hatred, most of the moslem community rejects them and their claims as contrary to the teachings of Mohammed (PBUH). Is it not fair for we christians who feel that other people who claim to share our religion are acting in the same way to point that out, and to reject their claims and their actions?
