Stupidity
Ignorance
Oppressiveness (like Nazis)
*Sorry to be edgy.
**Not sorry.
Never!
Bigotry is usually not the mindset that is had when calling out actual bigots though!
As an imperfect human I strive to be cautious about the judgement I cast onto others. Furthermore, I find that hatred is rather counterproductive because I am the one left with that hurt and it could cloud my judgement too. I try to be neutral, to try to understand where others are coming from, the reasons/their lived experiences that may have led to such destructive path. Most of all how they may be brought back from there if they haven't went too far or prevent them from going into it more than they already have. Or at least protect them from harming others. I don't think many would sincerely change for the better by being told how much they are hated or being called names. So I'd tend to opt for attacking the idea, not the person whenever possible. Though if striving to be level head and neutral about it, I believe we've the chance to at least help a few be better. Or be part of helping them on that journey, even if we aren't the ones who see that transformation.
Edit: Unfortunately, the video below has been said he lied about it:
There was also another man, * (which I can't find now) *I think he was attacked, all because he was bald from what I could tell:
IMHO the last group of people that are allowed to be made fun of are big people. Yeah I get it I’m fat haha
@Spud424 With all the striving for inclusion, and as a formerly fat (currently chubby, I've been all over the spectrum from 120 lbs to 220 lbs) person, I want to make one simple request to society. A romance film, that isn't a comedy, where the protagonists are just big and okay with it. And the romance aspect doesn't question someone's worth or make a big deal out of a partner's acceptance like has been done in the past with films like Shallow Hal (great film but I'm tired of fat people being "saved" in romantic situations in cinema...like, okay, we're fat, now let's move on).
Hey spud424, i understand what its like to have internalized bigotry towards oneself or a group one includes oneself in, but i want you to know you never deserve to be fat shamed, people have bodies and being fat is not a bad thing! There are definitely folks out there who enjoy having more to cuddle! I know it might not feel like it, but its totally true!
When it comes to appearance, any appearance from size to shape to color to gender to fashion...
I try to keep in mind how random and temporary all of this is.
I was born with the Ogre genetics. Which certainly shaped me, and my perceptions, and ultimately how I experience and interact with the world. And that is a good baseline for empathy.
But it also taught me that none of that surface stuff is truly important.
There was no "Charles the Poet" body walking around 100 years ago, and there won't be a "Charles the Poet" body walking around 100 years from now, so really, how important is that body in the present moment?
I can’t stand overly political people whether they’re far left or far right. I prefer people who are balanced and display critical thinking ability. Just be a good human being.
What does this have to do with cuddling?
@MrMarkAndrew Not all topics on CC are necessarily about the physical act of cuddling, or about cuddling at all. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to check out different topics from different forum goers and share opinions/experiences!
Bigotry is when you are opposed to someone for how they are born not for choices they have made. Everyone has the right to judge people’s choices and points of view however they want.
Bigotry is never ok.
The whole point of bigotry is that it is holding an unreasonable grasp on a belief, particularly when that belief is based on prejudice.
Holding an unshakeable commitment to, say, education rather than ignorance is perfectly reasonable: it can easily be argued for, based on evidence. Therefore it is not bigotry.
'Bigotry' is sometimes confused with 'prejudice' by the ignorant, but they are different concepts. The confusion arises partly because they are often found together. A prejudiced person is often also bigoted.
@MrMarkAndrew this is intimately connected with cuddling because cuddling is partly about accepting people for who they are. It is a very human activity, and therefore one not especially attractive to the kind of people who tend to be prejudiced or bigoted. This is problematic because those are often the people who would benefit most from a cuddle, and the cuddling community is, in principle, keen that they should have one.
The problem of how to respond to prejudice, particularly when accompanied by bigotry, is one of the many serious challenges faced by the cuddling world.
@dave31415 You're right, which is why my statements are a paradox, which makes them amusing to me.
However, Judaism is not something you're born with, it's something you're taught, or choose to learn or convert to, and anti-Semitism is a form of bigotry AFAIK (I don't think the Nazis cared whether you were born into a Jewish family or became a convert). Also, gender is based on feeling (whatever the reason), as opposed to your sex definition at birth (set by a doctor based on your gonads being inside or outside of the body), and there's plenty of gender bigotry that's led to harm.
So, maybe you're not right, and bigotry also includes discrimination based on things based on environment or birth or... choice?
Anyway, I feel perfectly valid discriminating against the stupid, ignorant, and oppressive. Could we stop baking cakes for those refusing to wear a mask while unvaccinated at establishments and events in cities overwhelmed by coronavirus hospitalizations? Not to open another can of worms, it's just a joke, maybe.
The paradox of tolerance is that you have to be intolerant of intolerance.
@davebutton ~ Are you casting a wide net or are you mainly against those who are willful?
I mean, with those who are stupid... I just don't know that stupid is a choice. An occasional state of being to taking up residency may be the case. But if you don't know you're stupid, can you really be faulted for that?? Some just don't experience curiosity or a drive to seek out knowledge. But that doesn't make them bad people, does it??
Or Oppressive ~ This one is tricky becsuse some don't see their place within a system of oppression and may be wholly unaware of their impact (though these days it would be really hard to find someone who hasn't heard of 'systemic oppression' or 'white privilege'). But if you've been enlightened and/or know the choices you're making create hardship for others, or worse you have the power to affect change and don't use it... or you just don't care... Then no, no, nope to them!!
Also, I don't condemn those who are just ignorant. Lack of access to information, to being fed lies, impact one's degree of ignorance. But those who are willfully ignorant...?? Yeah, I have no interest in interacting with that or even sharing air space.
@quixotic_life
I try not to hold natural stupidity against anyone, but I certainly do my best to avoid it, especially in potentially dangerous situations.
That said, willfully proud ignorance (which always seems to skip hand in hand with bigotry and cowardice) is to be challenged, vanquished, and soundly mocked at all opportunities.
That’s my opinion anyway.
I've talked to low IQ people, those with Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and brain damage who had more sense in their head than a lot of average, financially-successful people in our country.
Stupidity to me isn't IQ or something you're born with, it's when you do something you should have known better not to do based on things that are pretty easy for you to have not missed, but you followed your emotions instead of used your noggin.
@davebutton ~ Ah yes!! Those can be quite the challenging sort!! Thankfully, I very rarely encounter them out in the wild. It's a different story within though, because sometimes I'm one of them.
I've been guilty of following my emotions instead of using my noggin on many occasions!!
Being aware of this, I committed to actively acquiring and practicing distress tolerance skills and impulse control strategies. So now my 'stupid flare ups' are far less frequent than in the past (I'm averaging around about 27.3% as stupid but it probably reads around 98.7% when fully engaged), which is an improvement so I'm counting it as a win!! 🎉🤷♀️ Yay! I'm less stupid more often ~ Whoot!
edit: Gah!! ~ I made stupid typos!! I might be closer to 29.2%... 🙇♀️
@CuddleDuncan fair enough, but I don't really see how the OP's post addressed anything like that in specific detail.
@davebutton I'm entirely with you on you definition of stupidity. It's nothing to do with learning difficulties or congenital conditions or anything like that. It also has nothing to do with low or below average intelligence: I know people like that and they aren't stupid. They are willing - keen - to learn; ready and able to adapt their thinking and beliefs as best they can, although it's often a struggle for them.
I've actually thought about this quite a bit, and the point I've reached is that stupidity is a choice. In the very first instance it is probably unconscious, but it rapidly gains a strong conscious element. The protagonist is not usually choosing stupidity per se, but a mixture of laziness, thoughtlessness, selfishness, bigotry and ignorance. There may be other more complex elements, such as dealing with the anxiety provoked by the uncertainty of the future by essentially ignoring the concept of the future: pretending it doesn't really exist. This in turn leads to complete disdain of consequences.
Note that I don't stand by any of that, it's just my first attempt at writing down a summary of my current thinking.
Stupidity may be a choice but using it to justify bigotry against people who are stupid is just as stupid. Many people are innocuously stupid and harm only themselves. Some people that you perceive as stupid may not be as stupid as you think—you may not know their entire plan or agenda (like the old detective Columbo).
Often, what you think is stupidity isn’t stupidity—it it low self esteem. These types are often easy fodder for cults, movements and radical beliefs because someone tells them they have a higher purpose and they really want to believe it, so they succumb to something blindly because it builds up their self-esteem.
And labeling someone stupid is also the result of one’s own beliefs and biases and in some ways when we do this we are playing god in the secular sense without knowing the whole story of the why. You may not know the why behind perceived stupidity but you think the person is stupid nonetheless. Snap judgements of stupidity is stupidity and everyone is guilty of that at some time.
And stupidity is often the absence of critical thinking. If one is never taught critical thinking skills then certain thought processes like empathy, the ability to extrapolate outcomes, and interpret agendas are stunted. I cannot willfully be bigoted against that. I find it hard to be bigoted against “stupid” people in general, because that would make the bigot stupid and no one should self-hate.
Now as @MxSmith stated so succinctly you do have to be intolerant of intolerance. But that is not the same as stupidity. And ignorance was also targeted for bigotry in the original post. Ignorance is the lack of knowledge. Try teaching instead of hating.
Tolerance and understanding should be the primary choice. Bigotry is a slippery slope to hate and the path of least resistance for most people. And we all lie somewhere in between in practice.
@davebutton. You are right. Bigotry is just a word. There is indeed a natural continuity between discriminating against people for how they are born and choices that they have made. For example, who says they anyone is really free to choose anything? Hitler didn’t choose to be born Hitler. But for practical purposes, these philosophical musings don’t really matter. Bigotry is really just defined as discrimination that is considered unpopular under the current popular set of morals. Many of the things we consider bigotry today were once considered normal. Many of the things we tolerate today were in the past considered shameful and no doubt the future will have similar changes in either direction . Maybe in the future people will look back at us in derision and call us pet owners “animal enslavers”. Or perhaps they will condemn us for our negative view and treatment of sex workers and their customers or our treatment of drug users (both very likely). There is nothing constant about human morality and therefore nothing fundamental to defining bigotry.
Or perhaps they will condemn us for our negative view and treatment of sex workers and their customers or our treatment of drug users
I hope you meant drug abusers
@dave31415 very well said 💯 … all of it, others sound very angry & bothered, kinda rant-Ish & enveloped with hate, you were able to get your message across accurately & nicely - backed by facts : )
@quixotic_life @MxSmith @CharlesThePoet @samfiddle all were compassionate, kind and eloquent . The anger and rants the one poster observed I do not see much of, nor did I see much hate in the thread overall.
I appreciate your opinions.
@FunCartel ~ ♡
"Try teaching instead of hating." "Tolerance and understanding should be the primary choice. Bigotry is a slippery slope to hate and the path of least resistance for most people."
"Try teaching instead of hating."
"Tolerance and understanding should be the primary choice. Bigotry is a slippery slope to hate and the path of least resistance for most people."
One of my mottoes:
I love haters.
I don't agree with them or support what they stand for, but I show them more kindness than I think they've earned.
Drives them crazy. 😁