Beware the Fruit of the Bigotry

For much of human existence, we have developed what the mental health professionals call an approach avoidance strategy for certain mind altering plants, e.g., Peyote: some Native Americans incorporate its use in religious ceremonies, while the federal government attempts to prohibit its consumption. No government prohibits the consumption of the fruit of the bigotry, and some actively promote it; ergo veritable armies, upon consuming that mind altering fruit, have become bigots who, in turn, recruit other bigots and pre-bigots by promising them that the tasty fruit will cure all that ails them. The bigot lobby has managed to suppress any and all disclaimers and warnings, even the most minimal, such as: any claimed benefit by the consumption of this fruit is not supported by science; consumers may experience an initial slight discomfort or nausea; overindulgence can lead to addiction; and prolonged usage will cause areas of the brain related to compassion to necrotize.

Bigotrees grow like weeds, and, when uncontrolled, will choke even the stateliest trees of reason. This is readily seen in the United States and many parts of the world where a plague of bigots covers the land like locusts in Pharoah’s Egypt.

Like locusts, bigots are pests. They cannot be eliminated in our current state of development, but they can be controlled. The first step in controlling them is to identify them, the second to call them out, to warn the innocent and unwary, the third is the application of the appropriate bigoticide, truth mixed in a solution of facts (effective concentrations will vary depending on the strength of the infestation).

Of the various flavors encountered in the fruit of the bigotry, racism most often dominates, while misogyny never lags far behind. Neither do the infamous phobias: xeno and homo.

Scientists have identified what they term the 4B’s, blustering, bragging, bullying, and plain old bullshitting, as tell-tale symptoms resulting from the consumption of the fruit.  Fellow bigots feed on those symptoms, amplify them, and pass them on to succeeding generations by a process scientists call grooming.

While there is a lot of loose, unscientific talk these days about grooming, usually directed at a disfavored group, only those who have made a careful study of the phenomenon are aware that grooming is much more common than the vast majority realizes. It is all around us, readily visible for those not blinded by the fruit of the bigotry, and, in fact, the vast majority are groomers. Anthropologist call grooming a cultural universal. Most, if not all, parents do it. Most, if not all, religions do it. Many, a great many, educators and schools do it. Certainly, politicians do it. These groomers take advantage of the innocent and trusting nature of children and offer them small tastes of the fruit, carefully grooming their victims from innocent childhood, through adolescence when they break out of the cocoon (locusts lack a pupal stage; pardon the mixed metaphor) and become full-fledged adult bigots.

When studying the genesis of bigotry and searching for its raison d’etre we come, inevitably, to the question of Nature vs. Nurture. Academicians have weighed the evidence for each side, placing them on the scale of science. No credible, peer–reviewed studies even hint at a genetic predisposition for transitioning from an unbigoted embryo to a bigot. As no bigot gene has been identified, the scale plummets in the Nurture direction. Numerous weighty studies, as well as one show tune—none of which will be cited here—strongly indicate that bigots are not born, but carefully taught.

Racism is a driving force in power politics. When you see films of violence against Blacks during the civil rights movement of the 60’s, you cannot help but notice the young, White, males and females whose frightening facial expressions have been contorted by vicious racism toward Black children and adults. They had been carefully groomed. In certain countries when the police stop a man from beating another man to death, if the assailant states that the victim is queer, the police will leave him to it. In the United States, an ex-policeman received a shockingly light sentence for the premeditated assassination of an openly gay city councilman and the straight mayor. When the very large gay community in that city rioted, the police repelled them with tear gas, and later that night raided many gay bars. Seeing the result of the police violence, bloodied and bandaged gay men on the street for the next week, was not a rare sighting. The police had been carefully groomed, as had the judge and jurors who passed the light sentence. When people vote for a known sexual predator, they have been carefully groomed. No examples need be given.

Humans tend to gather in groups.  Bigots, being human, also tend to gather in groups and share much of the same knowledge, or lack thereof, beliefs, and behavior patterns. In the case of bigots, hierarchical groupings or cultures in which the Alpha- or A-bigot dominates seem to be the norm. In many animal cultures, the non Alpha-male is called the Beta- or simply B-male and is characterized by traits such as caring and kindness. In bigot cultures the non Alpha-bigots’ main characteristics are fear of the Alpha-bigot and the sometimes overwhelming desire to emulate him or her, which leaves little to no room for caring or kindness. I will, therefore call them Delta- or simply D-bigots. When the A-bigot displays cruelty, the D-bigots rush to emulate the A-bigot and at times even surpass him or her in cruelty. Scientists have developed a formula to explain this example of bigot behavior:  Ambition + 4B’s = C (cruelty with a capital C).

A- and D-bigots are cunning and sly, more so even than the infamous snake in Eden when it comes to enticing the innocent into taking a bite of this dangerous fruit. They are resourceful, carefully and purposefully grooming their army of bigots by shouting louder and louder to drown out any opposition, any questions, any inconvenient truths. They are experts at projection and accuse even the most innocent of doubters of exhibiting at least one of the 4B’s. They are adept at distraction or misdirection, making inconvenient facts magically disappear by referring to alternate facts. Scientists call this sleight of mind. When cornered A-bigots will viciously attack, accusing the truth seeker or fact bringer of some failing, none too ridiculous to matter since the great buzzing caused by the strident stridulation of the locust-like chorus of D-bigots will drown out reason.

Non-bigots, let’s call them 0-bigots, as well as minimally infected bigots, should not throw in the towel. Better to throw in the appropriate dose of bigoticide. When applying, don’t overlook the dark nooks and crannies: bigots have a propensity to multiply in the shadows where they nurture their nymphs until they are ready to metamorphose and emerge into the light as fully formed bigots. A thorough cleaning is also recommended since bigots, like dung beetles, lay their eggs in well-rounded balls of their own bullshit. (Pardon this last mixed metaphor, but it seemed too appropriate to resist.)

Well, just one more mixed metaphor, after all humans tend to think in terms of metaphors—witness many religious texts. The current cultural fascination with zombies is, without doubt, merely a metaphor for the plague of bigots who, metaphorically, eat the brains of the young.