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An intolerant rant.
Sep. 17th, 2002 04:19 pmThree things you can depend on: Death. Taxes. Prejudiced anti-Christian comments in alt-left circles. It's come around on the guitar again in alt.poly, and in the midst of the other things stressing me out I'm finding myself feeling even less tolerant of it than usual.
I know there are people who have been badly hurt by Christians, and by the rigid strictures of particular Christian sects. Some of them are people I love, and so I know this because I've heard about their pain directly. But I also know it because every time I point out a stereotype, every time I take personal offense at being accused of burning witches, every time I lose my temper at correcting the same generalization from the same person for the third time, there's someone there to explain to me that the person who's being offensive has been oppressed by Christians and can't be held accountable for saying prejudiced things.
I don't believe in oppression as a "get out of fairness free" card. I think it's understandable that people who have been hurt may be irrationally prejudiced when faced with people resembling those who harmed them. But I don't consider it a permanent excuse from the fundamental social responsibility to strive to see people as they are.
As far as I'm concerned, people can hold onto distrust and anger and hurt regarding those who are actually responsible for hurting them for as long as they find it personally useful. They can agitate for changes to the system to reduce the power another group has over theirs, and chances are I'll be right by their side supporting them. But I'm less and less willing to cut people slack when they decide that everyone of the wrong religion or sex or skin color or nationality is equally to blame for the wrongs they endured.
I'm sympathetic to the fact that it takes a long time to root out all the damage done by a wound, and that emotional reactions can blindside people in times of stress. But I lose my sympathy quickly if it becomes clear that they aren't even interested in trying to reach a point from which they could be fair.
I know there are people who have been badly hurt by Christians, and by the rigid strictures of particular Christian sects. Some of them are people I love, and so I know this because I've heard about their pain directly. But I also know it because every time I point out a stereotype, every time I take personal offense at being accused of burning witches, every time I lose my temper at correcting the same generalization from the same person for the third time, there's someone there to explain to me that the person who's being offensive has been oppressed by Christians and can't be held accountable for saying prejudiced things.
I don't believe in oppression as a "get out of fairness free" card. I think it's understandable that people who have been hurt may be irrationally prejudiced when faced with people resembling those who harmed them. But I don't consider it a permanent excuse from the fundamental social responsibility to strive to see people as they are.
As far as I'm concerned, people can hold onto distrust and anger and hurt regarding those who are actually responsible for hurting them for as long as they find it personally useful. They can agitate for changes to the system to reduce the power another group has over theirs, and chances are I'll be right by their side supporting them. But I'm less and less willing to cut people slack when they decide that everyone of the wrong religion or sex or skin color or nationality is equally to blame for the wrongs they endured.
I'm sympathetic to the fact that it takes a long time to root out all the damage done by a wound, and that emotional reactions can blindside people in times of stress. But I lose my sympathy quickly if it becomes clear that they aren't even interested in trying to reach a point from which they could be fair.
