Hey so like, this is funny and all, but if you know someone who genuinely cannot stop thinking about something and who is distressed by that, take a moment and consider that it might not just be bigotry, it might be undiagnosed OCD, and thereâs a possibility that getting them mental health help could actually help them be less bigoted. Iâm completely serious.
OCD gets stereotyped as âneeding everything just soâ, but the compulsions associated with OCD are actually just a coping mechanism for the real underlying issue, which is that your brainâs mechanism for moving on from transient thoughts is broken.
If you are neurotypical, you might think about the existence of gay sex by happenstance â you might even picture it, briefly. If youâre not into gay sex and this happens to you, then youâll probably think âhuh weird that I thought of thatâ â if you think anything about it at all â and then your brain will move on to something else.
But if you have OCD, you might get âstuckâ â you might picture gay sex briefly, and then your brain might just keep picturing gay sex, nonstop, no matter what you do, for minutes, or hours, or even days. Some people have thoughts that donât go away for entire weeks straight. And that can be extremely distressing! It can be distressing even if you donât have a problem with gay sex at all, just because it wonât stop. You saw a gay person, and that made you briefly think about gay sex, and now you have an image of gay sex playing on loop in your mind, indefinitely, and nothing you do will make it go away.
The right wing loves to prey on people with undiagnosed OCD because theyâre easy to manipulate and radicalize. If every time you see a gay person, your brain show you a non-stop loop of gay porn that you cannot stop thinking about no matter what you do, then itâs very easy to be seduced into thinking that gay people are inflicting harm on you just by existing in public life. If every time you hear a foreign language your brain supplies an endless list of mean things that that person could be potentially be saying without you understanding them, itâs easy to be seduced into thinking that people who donât speak English in America are a threat. If the mere thought of someone getting an abortion can produce a nonstop flashing slideshow of every inflammatory image of an aborted fetus you have ever seen in your life, then the ability of other people to get abortions can feel like itâs a pressing issue that directly affects you, even if it absolutely doesnât.
When you see bigots who are exhibiting signs of extreme mental distress, ask them if they are ok, and direct them to help. Youâd do that if this woman had been in tears because she âcouldnât stop thinking about cowsâ or âcouldnât stop worrying that her house was on fireâ or âcouldnât stop graphically imagining her husband cheating on her.â Donât ignore your instincts regarding a mental health crisis just because the form that crisis takes seems bigoted.
