Something I have been mulling for a while

[aesmael]

The enlightenment I feel on the edges of has not happened yet, until that lesson is drawn, I leave you with some of what has provoked these faintly brushed intuitions in me.

I move in atheist circles; I have seen them say that atheists are the last minority it is still okay to publicly mock and demonise (and I have seen them cop a lot of abuse and hate)
I move in feminist circles; I have seen them say that feminists are the last minority it is still okay to publicly mock and demonise (and I have seen them cop a lot of abuse and hate)
I move in transgendered circles; I have seen them say that the transgendered are the last minority it is still okay to publicly mock and demonise (and I have seen them cop a lot of abuse and hate)
I move in autistic/the very fringes of the disablism community; I have seen them say that they are... etc.

Mostly from a USanian perspective, some of this abuse/hate has been directed from one of the above groups to (an)other[s] and I am fairly confident other communities I do not know (coloured, homosexual, etc.) could tell the same tale. And I KNOW Christian communities sometimes claim to be oppressed in the United States.

The conclusion that is out there is not so simple as 'humans are generally atrocious to this who are not part of their group' or 'things are less good than we are told'. If you are thinking something more like 'humans thrive on a sense of persecution' or 'there is a great degree of blindness about the outside of one's own circles' then I feel you are closer.

Thank you, that is all for the moment.

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

The sad part is that there are ppl in this world who do care about others b/c they care, and they see the other povs and they want a world where ppl are not persecuted or stereotyped or discriminated against. :o

But I think a great many ppl only care about causes when it affects THEM. Which is why my disabled friend doesn't like Christopher Reeves b/c everybody makes him out to be a saint, but he only cared about disability when he became disabled and it was in his best interests to find a cure. :\

Oftentimes, just being part of a minority doesn't make you any more or less enlightened than any other person.. sadly :(

There are ppl who are gay and are discriminated against and think they have the worst evar, but cannot see the same discrimination against race or gender as being just as bad. :(

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

I have always been annoyed by the way people only jump aboard causes when it affects them, although with so many going around and the fact that in many cases a person may not even be aware of so I guess it makes sense? Although I did want to be a counterexample, suddenly I am not.

[marr-vell.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, so many people complain and complain and complain about being discriminated against for whatever it is that they (meaning both the discriminaters and the discriminated) perceive as something that sets them apart from the majority, until they are catered to. Which is, in itself, just another form of discrimination.

We'll use the police force as an example. Say, hypothetically, there was one open position for an officer in a certain town and only two potential applicants, one man and one woman. The position SHOULD go to the applicant that proved to be the most suited. And in an ideal world it would, end of story. But in the real world if one gets the job, the other can cry unfairness based on gender. It's not as though sexism never happens in those scenarios, but too often is sexism unjustly perceived.

And it's pretty similar for most other divisions in our culture.

What's truly sad is that in all the complaining about discrimination only a scant few seem to even try to do anything progressive about it. Rather than complain about being treated unfairly based on their differences, people should start treating each other as people. I think it'd catch on quickly given the chance.