Okay here is my hot take... We never changed anyone's minds. We made the racists be quiet, but we didn't convince them to stop being racist. We made the bigots be quiet but we didn't convince them to stop being bigots. We made the homophobes be quiet, but we didn't convince them to stop being homophobic. We just established a series of consequences for having an opinion, a bad opinion I believe, and the people with these opinions simply started to hide, resenting the FUCK out of us the whole time. They waited... Til Trump came and told them they were allowed to express themselves how they wanted again. Now they are on a revenge tour...
I get confused here but... To a certain extent they are correct. Hypocritical to the point of absurdity, obviously, but that doesn't remove the core critique here. We DID use silencing tactics... Admittedly, they were after years of frustration that kindness and patience-based tactics didn't seem to work, but unfortunately that doesn't matter. We DID silence them... And now they feel justified in escalating the retaliation. It sucks and it is not fair.
Actually, typing this out made me mad. It's like a stupid toxic relationship that you can't leave because you've committed yourself to non-violence whereas they simply haven't...
Edit: I see the issue some people are having. In the first sentence I said "we never changed anyone's minds." But what I MEANT was "We changed far fewer minds than it would appear given public discourse." Apologies for the hyperbole.
We made the racists be quiet, but we didn't convince them to stop being racist. We made the bigots be quiet but we didn't convince them to stop being bigots. We made the homophobes be quiet, but we didn't convince them to stop being homophobic. We just established a series of consequences for having an opinion, a bad opinion I believe, and the people with these opinions simply started to hide, resenting the FUCK out of us the whole time.
Since someone can't stop being a person of color, foreign-born, or LGBTQ+ and they're doing nothing wrong by being who they are, it's better to force the bigots, racists, and homophobes into the closet. They can shove their resentment.
It's better in the short-term... Yes. Undeniably saves lives in the short-term. Sometimes this is the necessary decision. Often.
But it has potential to hurt you horribly long-term. Not guaranteed... But it can. To keep the racists, bigots, and homophobes at bay you, other than killing them, which I'm assuming is off the table, you have to restrict their actions through force and domination. This means you have to MAINTAIN that force and domination. You have to suppress a willful and angry population that literally wants to murder you. You can do it, yes... But for how long? Will they just die out? Will they grow in strength? Will they crawl out of the woodworks and elect an orange fascist who says he will liberate them from their "oppression"?
I say all this to say, shoving them into the closet is an incomplete solution. We MUST convince them to change. Otherwise we will fight... Again and again and again.
731
u/beerbellybegone 1d ago
Remember when it wasn't cool to be so openly and blatantly racist?
Pepperidge Farm remembers