An Odd Comparison

When I first moved out west and learned how conservative it can be, I remember thinking, what the fuck? Isn't this the land of hippies? Isn't everyone 420 tolerant out here?

Little did I know that CA has one of the highest number of gawdy, ridiculously built churches in the freaking country.

I should have just stayed in the south.

A few of my recent FB arguments have revolved around ignorant people. Yes I am being terribly judgmental. But it's hard to keep my mouth shut when someone posts a racial comment and somehow thinks that they are more American than the person they just insulted. Don't get me wrong; I firmly believe in the saying, "I may not like what you have just said but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it".

That does not mean I won't call you out on it if you're being an ignorant racist redneck idiot. Hell, I get accused of being a bitter, pessimistic feminist all of the time, so why should I hold back my opinions? What scares me about these people is that they don't see that they are ignorant racist redneck idiots. At least claim fame to what you are spouting.

I love being a bitter, pessimistic feminist.

And I can call them that because I am a decendent from a long line of ignorant racist redneck idiots. So I can spot 'em when I see 'em. So let me add that to the description, too.

Bitter, pessimistic, feministic, racist, redneck idiot.

(I won't add ignorant because I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my papers and I was free. My doctorate and continued pursuit of education frees me from that description.)

But we are all idiots to some extent.

My point is that we all have our prejudices. But what bothers me, is that people can't seem to accept their differences with others anymore. Everyone wants it their way. Everyone wants it to be within their comfort zone. And a lot of it revolves around religious beliefs. And, as I've stated before, I used to be soooo very tolerant myself, but years of fighting this shitty mindset has me setting my sights on a new direction.

In fact, my most recent argument on FB revolved around someone spouting off that they weren't surprised that the Ft Hood shooter was a muslim. That comment sparked a long argument involving me because I said, "well you know, like it or not, we do have freedom of religion here in the USA." That got me blasted because - and yes this was really stated - muslim idiot fundamentalists are worse than christian idiot fundamentalists.

Huh?

I kept saying, "seriously folks, are we really arguing that one group of religious nutbags is somehow better than another group of religious nutbags?"

And yes, that got me flamed yet again. It was fun though, and enlightening and thought-provoking, in that it made me realize how some people truly see the world.

And it scared the shit out of me.