That call of Dont judge me! is bullshit - and its usually the last refuge of the morally bereft. I think, considering this, that gay people should be openly judged by their peers - what we find out, upon examination, is that gay people are people, and gay people are actually somewhat more skilled at people skills, because theyve had to work their way through a hot-button and prejudicial society to get where they are - I wont bother with the fashion-sense argument, though it may be valid - all I know is, my gay friends are fun to hang out with, and they dont try to manipulate me into being someone Im not. We have to judge people, judgment is hard-wired into us - separating out people we like or trust or dont. The judgments arent always correct, arent always rational, but they make us who we are - one of the worst thing religion has done is to pump that judge not lest ye be judged crap into our heads. If Bob tells me he doesnt like gay people, Im going to judge him for that - Ill tell him I dont understand why, and not go out of my way to make his life worse, but I wont be hanging out with Bob, because I judge Bob to be a bigot, and I dont hang with that. I heard Russell Glasser, one of the co-hosts of the Atheist Experience podcast, once say that democracy is like two wolves and a sheep discussing whats for dinner, and that the US Constitution is the piece of paper that guarantees that dinner will not be the sheep. This is the difference between personal judgment and public policy - one should never, ever be forced to become the other. Telling someone they arent allowed to be a bigot is pointless in America actually increases the amount of vociferous bigotry - the evidence for this is obvious if you look at the coffers of the Tea Party - an organization built almost solely on anti-gay and racist jingoisms masked as fI reedom. Ive learned to speak my mind, shake my head at and pass judgment upon them as I see fit, and then back up that judgment with how I spend my money (no Chick-Fil-A, no Hobby Lobby, no Wal-Mart, no Tea Party, no Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, or Coulter, No FOX - that unspent money goes to places where I can see it does some good in the world), the US would create momentum for a better direction. Ive thought about making a t-shirt that simply says, Judge Me!, because I really think its time that we start having these judgmental conversations, because open dialogue, exercising the vote, and backing ones convictions with ones wallet is what really brings about change.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 14:39:04 +0000
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