politics

I definitely think plenty of them are ignorant and uninformed. But it goes much deeper than that. Many of them feel that government hasn't served or helped them in decades or even lifetimes. And they're not wrong in that.

The real problem is they don't view themselves as being part of the issue. They've externalized everything to the government and made it the government's fault. Therefore there's nothing they can do. Since they are blameless, in order to change it. They perceive themselves as having done everything right despite having done everything wrong. And so logically in their minds. The only solution they can see is to tear it all down. And hope the warlord that replaces this system will be slightly magnanimous to them.

It doesn't matter that it's a thing that never happened or lasted longer than a year or two when it did. Because the alternative would be to admit fault and learn from it. Something which culturally we've largely been conditioned to reject.

We're living through a zombie apocalypse. The zombies just happen to be more high-functioning than they are in movies.

That's true. But what is to be done about it?

Calling these people names won't fix the problem. It won't eliminate them and it won't convert them. So what will?

I have lots of empathy for people and usually try not to judge people by demographics and happenstance

but you don't, and you are...

The frustration that we feel over bigotry can be expressed in so many ways. We don’t need to rely on ableist slurs. Alternative phrases are more descriptive, and more accurate; unintelligence is not the prevailing problem with right wing extremists, for instance, nor is it the cause of their actions. Ignorance, prejudice, and disregard for the rights of others are.
Conflating harmful actions with lack of intelligence does everyone a disservice. To suggest that “stupidity” that is what makes people act badly undermines any real accountability. The causes of problematic behavior rarely have anything to do with mental acuity, and we can’t properly address harmful behavior while being so reductive about its causes. Carelessness, bias, hatred, greed, closed-mindedness, indifference – these are the traits that lead to oppression. Our intelligence is not the issue so much as our sense of compassion and justice.
A person can be unintelligent and still know right from wrong. There are people with cognitive disabilities who I respect a thousand times more than those who are supposedly more abled. They have stronger principles, seek to better themselves, and are committed to being good people. They are just capable of being sensitive and caring as everyone else. To imply that they aren’t is outrageous.

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