A Consequence of Policing Thought

I was having a conversation this week about health care.  A co-worker that I respect greatly essentially said I was wrong that health care costs can often be higher for the insured.  This conversation isn't important, but what is important is why I was disagreed with.  It was wholly because of my politics.  That's right.  Because I question long-term sustainability of the ACA, the unrelated issue of my high deductible health savings account "insurance" being a crock of shit stew is something I can't possibly know about.  Even if I do the research, document it, and get a hospital to admit it, according to this person I must be wrong because of my 'bias.'

I guess since he was bias, he couldn't have found Neo.

It should be noted, I'm not mad.  It was my last day working that job and I intentionally tried to get a political conversation going.  We all had a good laugh!

The world's full of people who believe they are correct about one issue or another.  I'm sure depending on what we talk about, I'm one of them.  I don't know if the ACA will pan out in the end, which is why I was discussing it in the first place and asking questions.  What I do know is costs of medical care as compared to spending on health care (what some people call 'health costs' erroneously) isn't being affected in a big positive way that would bode well for the future.  I worry doctors vanish as we put the pressure on them to cut their own operating costs when it may have little or nothing to do their salaries.  This was happening before the ACA, but the ACA added restrictions and put more pressure on providers to accept lower compensation.

Deep down, you feel things, don't you?

Again, what this really gets to is that if you have a political viewpoint, some folks believe that must be a political agenda.  The problem with secretly taping meetings, phone calls, or other personal exchanges that could be embarrassing in public and then excoriating them for it is that it has a chilling effect on thought.  No one is going to stop me from saying (at least not yet) that I am for these things, but more and more, I find people visibly shying away from conversation if I admit it.  Worse, some seem to act like they've finally figured out what's wrong with me.  It all makes sense now.  You've admitted your abhorrent thoughts.  Now the healing can begin.

I hear a lot about this concept of societal attribution.  If I say something I have every right to say, that isn't hateful (and oh, by the way, hate isn't an opposing view on something, it's fucking hate, like the kind of hate we all share for Justin Bieber.), but you fundamentally disagree with, you can dismantle my way of life and try to destroy my pursuit of happiness.  It's all OK, because you're just a passive response from society on my protected speech.  Stand up and take responsibility for yourselves.  You can't stand that opposing THOUGHT exists.  You must eliminate it where possible and ridicule it where it doesn't.  You are cowards.  Stop it.  The argument of hate is a lot like the argument of awesome.  We use it too much.  It's lost its meaning.  Hundreds of years ago, if I said something was awesome, people would have come running (they didn't have cars you know) to see what it was.  It was literally something of awe.  The same, unfortunately, has happened to hate.

The problem when you discourage dissent in any form and claim you can ruin lives is that you essentially make opposing thought unacceptable.  You get lawsuits like this.  Thankfully the Supreme Court of these United States did right by the Constitution here.

THE HATER IS BEHIND ME!!!!!!!

An open request to all human beings:

Before you suddenly pop smoke and call in the thermite plasma missiles next time someone disagrees with you, question whether or not their opinion is just that, or whether they're attempting to hurt people with their words, or if they are advocating hurting other people.  Just, for one minute, think of a world where everyone agreed because we were too scared not too because of 'spontaneous societal feedback' or you know, a police state. The paradigm doesn't need to go much further before we just label unpopular thought and speech, public or private, if proven to have happened, a crime.  Take a step back.  Enjoy debate, seek the truth, understand that two opposing arguments can both be valid, and both be truthful, and perspective is important.

Putting the Intolerance in Tolerance

Unfortunately, Aristotelian logic no longer holds sway in common debate.  However, I've learned through experience and education two important lessons:

1) There are usually more than one valid argument.

2) Beyond validity, right and wrong are subjective.

There are some societal arguments going on in America as I type this.  No doubt there are people frothing at the mouth spamming replies over them right now.  However, mass media and public outcry in some corners has made it unpopular to voice dissent to the burgeoning popular view.  There are some valid opposing arguments that may not be politically correct, but still valid.  They are not heard.  Let me issue the word of the day:  Bigot.

Merriam-Webster will save me some typing time... ahh there it is!
bigot: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially :  one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance. 

We all know a bigot is a bad thing, a boogie man, a pariah.  He gets no seat at the lunch table.  Calling someone that ends the argument, because being a bigot is worse than being wrong, it's just bad and you must therefore be wrong.  I would disagree.  Being intolerant makes you intolerant.  It does not make you wrong.  Being wrong does.  Using that word incorrectly is cowardly and wrong.  It's a violation of civility.

I realize the battle for rights can often turn ugly and push the opposite direction.  I believe that's happening.  The infringed become what they despise.  Now we shun those with superstitious belief, we mock those who have philosophical opposition as bigots, and we bully them until they go away and we get what we want. 

It's a sickness.  If our opinion wins the hearts and minds of others, let it be through understanding and respect.  

I plead with all of us:  Take a person who actually espouses hatred and intolerance and recognize that person as a bigot rather than projecting emotion and intolerance.  If I disagree with your lifestyle, it doesn't mean I cannot tolerate it or that I hate you.  If we are intolerant of dissent and label it with flash words, we are simply guilty of the same.  We are being intolerant of an entire segment who believe that way in society.  

If you start labeling any group and attributing hatred to people who disagree with you (to include the word bigot), you are a certified bigot.  You have just made a complete ass of yourself.  Just disagree.  It's pretty easy.  No emotion, just passion.  Fight for what you believe in, don't believe in the rhetoric pedaled by media personalities that makes us believe others hate us because they disagree.  Even if it's something as 'fundamental' as gay marriage or abortion, there's room for disagreement without hate.

Hatred is actually pretty hard and takes effort.  True hatred isn't hard to spot.  It's not a religious person who disagrees with you or wants to save your soul and it's not an atheist who doesn't believe in that other person's perceptions of faith.  True intolerance isn't either because if you are truly intolerant, words aren't enough.  You must rid yourselves of the offending idea at any cost.  Again, pretty easy to spot.

Zero Tolerance in "Our Schools"

Normally I'd pen an article about the lack of discretion of our educators, the infringement of the state on too much of our parenting, and the kind of low judgment that gets kids suspended for making mistakes like taking their antibiotics to school or eating a pop tart into a gun-shaped creation, but... 

PEW PEW SPRINKLES!

Yes.  Actually that's exactly what I'm going to do, but first let me talk about how we got here.

Most school children spend more time with their teachers and fellow students than with their parents.  We put a lot of pressure on these teachers to discipline, advise and teach our youth, but we all parent differently.  That's the core of the problem--we all parent differently. 

For all of these people the school administrators and teachers who see our children day to day are mythical people who get referenced to as 'Mrs.' and 'Mr.' even if we are older or are in positions of prestige because we have an ingrained respect for their importance to our society.  We hope beyond hope he or she is the kind of person who agrees with our parenting techniques and will be very strict, very loving, physical, pacifist, creative type who sticks to the curriculum.

Dude.  That's some Kung Fu shit right there.

We simply have unrealistic expectations.  Then, when they inevitably fail to meet those standards, we bombast them for being incompetent and not worthy of being around "Our Children."  Sometimes it's worse and people do the truly American thing and sue the offending party and anyone else we imagine had a role in shaping that person's worldview before it collided with our carefully imagined universe and shattered our kid's innocence. 

As kids progress through to adolescence and start making the truly glaring mistakes that we tend to make when the hormones rage, mom won't let you date the girl with the facial piercings, school is the height of tedium, and the world is generally just against you.  Oh, and you're just smart enough to know how to get in trouble without understanding the true consequences to everyone you love.  Children make mistakes, and these administrators used to be tasked with dispensing that pedestrian justice.  However, your bright and shining angel of a child couldn't possibly have made a mistake worth this punishment or that.  So you bombast.  You sue. 

I think you're starting to see what's going on here if you didn't already know and you're reading this blog because the name was two words without a space between them.  I know that would get me hooked. 

So we've given these insufficiently paid public servants (most teachers really do want to help our children and are wonderful people... at least early on) all this responsibility as a society.  Then, we took away all their tools and power to exercise care and discretion by blaming them for all of what we asked them to do.  What does someone do when they have all of the responsibility and none of the power?

When she smiles you can see her fangs.

They fight back.  They cover their own interests.  It starts to be a job, and your helicopter parenting style of soft speech and stranger danger stops being important to them.  What is the best way to combat perceptions of injustice or improper discipline?  Easy! You just make up draconian rules that apply to all students, no exceptions, no crying, no discretion, and no thought to what it is to be a child.  We put all of the responsibility on the only person that matters in this whole exchange:  The child.  We aren't there with our children, the teachers have distanced themselves from our new age bullshit, and our kids are being sentenced to punishment for doing the right thing.  Stop a bully from hurting a fellow student with special needs?  Barred from the bus. 

Wait.  No, that can't be.  Yes, it can.  It's cool though, because this is just school.  That discipline and zero tolerance is just there to keep them in line until they're adults, right?  I mean, these children are just young folk who even if they commit crimes aren't treated as adults by the courts.  They're precious gems to be preserved until they blossom into adults and can be truly punished for wrongs.  It's not like if you would face expulsion or being put on a sex offender list for streaking during a high school football game, right?  You're just a child.  Stop the press, it seems you can be. 

Zero tolerance is also affecting the law enforcement community as well.  More and more, children are being forced into life-long consequences for the dalliances and debauchery that mark the end of our innocence and journey into adulthood. 

We started it by being overly sensitive and self-righteous idiots, but the casualties of war are increasingly becoming our own spawns.  Funny enough, how many children have to commit suicide or be labeled sex offenders before we stop this insanity?  Here's to hoping something is done about it.  I urge you all to think about what it means to be a child developmentally and combat the idea that "Our Children" is a catchphrase for fear-mongering that allows this kind of crap.  Those are two words put together with a space in between.  Your children are not my children.  Think about that before you fight for policies that turn all of our spawns into fearful robots that no longer test the boundaries of early life.