indra
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Messages
- 12,689
So often threads here in FYM descend into:
"You're biased/a bigot/too blinded by your prejudice to see anything else!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
over and over and over -- sometimes for pages (esp. when the mod's away )
What I'm proposing for this thread is instead of telling other people how biased they are we each take a look at ourselves and disclose one of our biases. Just one -- we don't have to spill all the dirt on ourselves.
A few rules for this exercise (which I know I can't enforce, but I'd like to pretend we are adults -- just this once ):
1) this is for disclosing your bias, NOT someone else's.
2) don't pull the old job interview/beauty queen trick of "turning a negative into a positive" ie., don't say "my bias is I can't stand hate." Big deal -- most of us can't stand what we perceive as hate. If you really cannot find any prejudice in you don't post here (or you can post "I'm as pure as driven snow" but I think most of the rest of us will roll our eyes and laugh)
3) let's not attack anyone for his/her confessions here. It's easy to say "you have preconceived ideas about people"; it's a lot harder to look inward and find one's own preconceived notions about others.
4) it can be a bias or prejudice you have nearly quashed or just feel minor twinges. It doesn't have to be foaming at the mouth hatred.
5) you can do some explaining why you think you hold this feeling if you'd like, but don't excuse it
I'm sure you'll all be shocked at my disclosure.
Overtly spiritual types. It's not just fundamentalists (all brands, not just Christian) or members of established religions although it does include them, it's anyone who's "spiritualness" is front and center and generally very visible. In addition to people from established major religions this can range from the "I'm really into crystals" new agey person to the blood drinking devil worshipper (I'll grant you I haven't met many of the latter ).
My nearly knee-jerk reaction is almost always "oh shit" and I also tend to have a "guilty until proven innocent" feeling towards them. Logically I know the majority of people -- even people I disagree with on several points -- are decent and I should treat them (and everyone else) innocent until proven guilty, but my initial reaction is negative and doing what I know should be automatic takes some effort. Sometimes it takes a LOT of effort!
Ok...who's next?
"You're biased/a bigot/too blinded by your prejudice to see anything else!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
over and over and over -- sometimes for pages (esp. when the mod's away )
What I'm proposing for this thread is instead of telling other people how biased they are we each take a look at ourselves and disclose one of our biases. Just one -- we don't have to spill all the dirt on ourselves.
A few rules for this exercise (which I know I can't enforce, but I'd like to pretend we are adults -- just this once ):
1) this is for disclosing your bias, NOT someone else's.
2) don't pull the old job interview/beauty queen trick of "turning a negative into a positive" ie., don't say "my bias is I can't stand hate." Big deal -- most of us can't stand what we perceive as hate. If you really cannot find any prejudice in you don't post here (or you can post "I'm as pure as driven snow" but I think most of the rest of us will roll our eyes and laugh)
3) let's not attack anyone for his/her confessions here. It's easy to say "you have preconceived ideas about people"; it's a lot harder to look inward and find one's own preconceived notions about others.
4) it can be a bias or prejudice you have nearly quashed or just feel minor twinges. It doesn't have to be foaming at the mouth hatred.
5) you can do some explaining why you think you hold this feeling if you'd like, but don't excuse it
I'm sure you'll all be shocked at my disclosure.
Overtly spiritual types. It's not just fundamentalists (all brands, not just Christian) or members of established religions although it does include them, it's anyone who's "spiritualness" is front and center and generally very visible. In addition to people from established major religions this can range from the "I'm really into crystals" new agey person to the blood drinking devil worshipper (I'll grant you I haven't met many of the latter ).
My nearly knee-jerk reaction is almost always "oh shit" and I also tend to have a "guilty until proven innocent" feeling towards them. Logically I know the majority of people -- even people I disagree with on several points -- are decent and I should treat them (and everyone else) innocent until proven guilty, but my initial reaction is negative and doing what I know should be automatic takes some effort. Sometimes it takes a LOT of effort!
Ok...who's next?