Come to think of it, a lot of adults who cling onto absurd and potentially harmful beliefs tend to do so because they’re trying to cope with a contradictory world in a way that makes the most amount of sense to them. As much as it may seem that they’re consciously being ignorant and not giving a f*ck about it, the truth is that they’re trying to hold onto the safety and comfort that they started losing once they were confronted with a world that defied everything they were led to believe from an early age. This is the reason why even supposedly intelligent people can trick themselves into believing in something completely absurd. It’s not an intelligence thing, it’s grounded in emotion.
It may be cathartic to sit them down and give them a stern lecture on how obviously wrong they are, but aggressive appeal to reason combined with judging their intelligence and shaming fringe beliefs has time and time again proven to only result in those people doubling down on their ignorance. The reason they don’t want to listen is because they’re scared beyond comprehension and want to have that feeling of security within their own lives back, even if it means pulling the wool over their own eyes and super-gluing it. Emotions like fear (and the hate that springs from it) cannot be instantly logic’d out of existence as long as the actual basis for it remains unaddressed.
The solution to an adult’s stubborn ignorance in the face of facts that directly contradict their beliefs lies in patience and compassion, not in shaming them for perceived lack of intelligence. Instead of arguing their flawed point until both sides’ faces turn blue, try to root out the underlying cause of their ignorance (the insecurity that most likely led them down this path) and address it. Help them find a way to overcome their inner problems which lead them down the wrong path, and they will become more willing to open their mind in the future.
A closed mind is like a very sturdy egg: Pounding it with hard truths, shame, and judgement may have a slim chance at breaking it open, but it will make an eggwhite-y yolk-y mess no matter what. Treat it with gentle compassion, patient education, and a warm embrace, and one day a more understanding person will hatch from it.
Robert Eads was a transgender man who transitioned later in life and as such it was deemed inadvisable for him to seek sex reassignment surgery. He was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1996 but was refused treatment by more than a dozen doctors, some for personal reasons and others on the grounds that taking him on as a patient might harm their practice. When he finally found a doctor to treat him in 1997, the cancer had already metastasized to other parts of his body, rendering any further treatments futile. He passed away in 1999. His life and death was the subject of the award-winning documentary Southern Comfort (2001).
As i’m sure many of you have heard, the Trump administration just passed a ruling that would remove LGBT+ anti-discrimination protections in health care and health insurance. I immediately thought of this man’s story when I heard about the ruling. Stories like this are the reason why those protections are necessary.
It’s easy to feel hopeless with all the bad news our community has been bombarded with recently. But we have to keep fighting, and one way we can fight is through legal means.
Here are some organizations who have announced plans to take action in court. If you can donate to any of them, please do!
LAMBDA Legal: one of the first to announce they would take legal action against the ruling, LAMBDA Legal is the oldest and largest national legal organization advocating for LGBTQ+ people and people with HIV.
We make the case for equality in the nation s courts and in the court of public opinion. The work we do has impact on the way all of us li
Transgender Law Center: the largest American transgender-led civil rights organization in the United States. The stated mission of TLC is to connect transgender people and their families to technically sound and culturally competent legal services, increase acceptance and enforcement of laws and policies that support transgender communities, and work to change laws and systems that fail to incorporate the needs and experiences of transgender people.
Donate - Transgender Law Center
Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund: Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund is committed to ending discrimination based upon gender identity and expression and to achieving equality for transgender people through public education, test-case litigation, direct legal services, and public policy efforts.
Now in our sixteenth year of fighting for trans rights and in the midst of a political environment that has increased the need for transgend
American Civil Liberties Union: a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States”
Fight back against bigotry, injustice and inequality. Make your donation to the ACLU today.
The Outbursts of Everett True was a comic strip that ran in papers from 1905 to 1927, wherein the aforementioned Everett True regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude. Men have not only been taking up too much room on public transport for about as long as public transport has existed, but the people around them have been irritated about it for at least a hundred years. The next time someone tries to claim that manspreading is a false phenomenon, please direct them to this strip so that Everett True can correct their misconceptions with an umbrella upside the head.
I have never before heard of Everett True, but if he “regularly beat the everliving shit out of rude people as a warning to anyone else who might consider being rude,” I have a strong spiritual connection with him.
I’m very lucky to own a book that’s a collection of most of these comics (sadly not all of them) and would highly recommend hunting these down if you can. Sorry for the lack of a scanner but phone photos will just have to do.
He was a enjoyable cuss who didn’t care for war mongering.
Especially profitable war mongering and excuses for it!
He certainly didn’t like selfish husbands and fathers!
Politicians who turned on their words once they got theirs weren’t safe.
He said fuck the police!
He absolutely didn’t like people ruining little things for kids.
He stood up for foreigners. Especially those doing their best to communicate with limited second language knowledge.
He was not having any tomfoolery when it came to gun safety and laws. Especially with youth involved.
You had better not abuse a animal with him nearby. He’d right that wrong real quick!
And best of all him and his wife were both prickly cusses together. Relationship goals.
As we welcome this month of celebration and remembrance, please remember that our Black friends and allies bore the burden for us so that we could live without fear; the black rights movement paved the way for the recognition of LGBTQ+ rights; the first Pride was a riot by queer people of colour. It’s time for us to stand and bear the burden with them.
The only true way to destroy hate is to spread love and pride… BRING ON PRIDE MONTH
Redbubble took it down after getting notice from the rights holder because despite the fact that she created the character she doesn’t own the right but is fighting to get it back up.
She also did an Orange Blossom one that is still up.
Here are the link: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/49901694
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