Hayteria
03-02-2009, 23:23
For my 875th post, (7/8ths of 1000, probably sounds arbitrary but whatever) I figured I'd talk about the kind of mentality that seems to accuse anyone who criticizes something of being involved with whatever the person or idea they're criticizing is perceived as fighting against.
The kinds of things I'm listing, I don't mean to compare to each other in terms of the significance of them, or how wrong they are, but in terms of the same kind of accusing mentality of being applied. It's like criticizing society's attitude towards homosexuality will get you accused of being a homosexual, criticizing its attitude towards cannabis will get you accused of being a pothead, criticizing its attitude towards pedophilia will get you accused of being a pedophile, (hell, sometimes even criticizing Chris Hansen will get you accused of that one even if you're talking more about his methods) pointing out that certain terrorists happen to have motives aside from envy will get you accused of siding with them etc, etc, etc... and on top of that, it seems as though such accusations were put there to try to stop certain perspectives from being expressed through fear of being accused, demonized, and outcasted.
Instances during the 50s of applying this kind of mentality only with respect to accusing people of being communists are now known as McCarthyism and are looked down on; and rightfully so. And yet, the same general problem, of accusing someone of being involved in whichever thing would be the supposed target of whatever they're criticizing, still seems common today.
The irony is, there's reason to expect the opposite instead. Those who accuse others of something tend to have it within themselves. It's called projection, and it's a fact of psychology. And even if you didn't happen to learn it through a psychology course (or aren't inclined to just accept it based on that) there are recent examples of this to consider. Elliot Spitzer supposedly tried to have this "tough on crime" image about him, and it was found out that he himself solicited prostitution. Kyle Payne was supposedly quite anti-porn, yet he had child porn on his computer and had admitted to sexually photographing unconscious people without their consent. Bill O'Reilly was supposedly quite anti-cussing, yet the video of him cussing during an outtake is well-known. Ted Haggard was supposedly quite anti-gay, yet it was found out that he had a sexual relationships with a gay prostitute.
In those kinds of cases and likely many more I'm not aware of, those known for denouncing something tend to be guilty of it themselves. So, if anything, wouldn't it be more appropriate to try to turn the tables, and have the witch-hunt mentality turned against itself? It does, after all, seem to have things backwards.
One thing I've noticed is that how quick people are to throw the accusations around doesn't seem to even be consistently proportional to the seriousness of what it's being applied to. The witch-hunt mentality around murder doesn't seem to be as quickly brought in as that around pedophilia, yet I'd say ending someone's life has more reason in itself to be severe than someone above age of consent having sex with someone below age of consent. I think it's a case of initial momentum; once a certain witch-hunt mentality is prominent enough, there seems to be some kind of addiction to it on society's part.
This is why we need to fight it. The more you hold back on critizing something for fear of becoming the next target of accusations, the more those who would throw such accusations around will see it as a way to get their way, presuming their way involves suppression of ideas. There's a word for giving people what they want out of fearing their power: appeasement. And appeasement is known for causing people to become more powerful, and harder to fight later on when such confrontation could no longer be avoided...
The kinds of things I'm listing, I don't mean to compare to each other in terms of the significance of them, or how wrong they are, but in terms of the same kind of accusing mentality of being applied. It's like criticizing society's attitude towards homosexuality will get you accused of being a homosexual, criticizing its attitude towards cannabis will get you accused of being a pothead, criticizing its attitude towards pedophilia will get you accused of being a pedophile, (hell, sometimes even criticizing Chris Hansen will get you accused of that one even if you're talking more about his methods) pointing out that certain terrorists happen to have motives aside from envy will get you accused of siding with them etc, etc, etc... and on top of that, it seems as though such accusations were put there to try to stop certain perspectives from being expressed through fear of being accused, demonized, and outcasted.
Instances during the 50s of applying this kind of mentality only with respect to accusing people of being communists are now known as McCarthyism and are looked down on; and rightfully so. And yet, the same general problem, of accusing someone of being involved in whichever thing would be the supposed target of whatever they're criticizing, still seems common today.
The irony is, there's reason to expect the opposite instead. Those who accuse others of something tend to have it within themselves. It's called projection, and it's a fact of psychology. And even if you didn't happen to learn it through a psychology course (or aren't inclined to just accept it based on that) there are recent examples of this to consider. Elliot Spitzer supposedly tried to have this "tough on crime" image about him, and it was found out that he himself solicited prostitution. Kyle Payne was supposedly quite anti-porn, yet he had child porn on his computer and had admitted to sexually photographing unconscious people without their consent. Bill O'Reilly was supposedly quite anti-cussing, yet the video of him cussing during an outtake is well-known. Ted Haggard was supposedly quite anti-gay, yet it was found out that he had a sexual relationships with a gay prostitute.
In those kinds of cases and likely many more I'm not aware of, those known for denouncing something tend to be guilty of it themselves. So, if anything, wouldn't it be more appropriate to try to turn the tables, and have the witch-hunt mentality turned against itself? It does, after all, seem to have things backwards.
One thing I've noticed is that how quick people are to throw the accusations around doesn't seem to even be consistently proportional to the seriousness of what it's being applied to. The witch-hunt mentality around murder doesn't seem to be as quickly brought in as that around pedophilia, yet I'd say ending someone's life has more reason in itself to be severe than someone above age of consent having sex with someone below age of consent. I think it's a case of initial momentum; once a certain witch-hunt mentality is prominent enough, there seems to be some kind of addiction to it on society's part.
This is why we need to fight it. The more you hold back on critizing something for fear of becoming the next target of accusations, the more those who would throw such accusations around will see it as a way to get their way, presuming their way involves suppression of ideas. There's a word for giving people what they want out of fearing their power: appeasement. And appeasement is known for causing people to become more powerful, and harder to fight later on when such confrontation could no longer be avoided...