Intolerance - the apparent loss of the ability to perceive hypocrisy

It is a time of turmoil that I believe is largely due to the media fanning the flames and intentionally stirring up conflict and hatred. So due to this I do find myself daily doing a quick run through various news sites to see if anything has changed. This is not my favorite activity, but I do think that things are volatile enough at the moment that keeping an ear to the ground and scanning the horizon occasionally is important.

The thing that has been bothering me a great deal for many months now and only seems to be increasing is NOT the things people are ranting about specifically, but the apparent lack of serious thought that I see in it.

I see people yelling against racism, bigotry, fascism, oppression, etc which all could be considered sub sets of intolerance and within seconds I see that same person being the most hateful embodiment of all of the things they just yelled about.

This is sometimes called hypocrisy. Now normally a person would realize this when you point it out to them, but I have watched a lot of exchanges between people where there are some being civil and pointing this out. It is almost like these people have a hole in their mind. You try to say, "uhm do you realize you are speaking like the type of person you were just bashing?" and they just don't get it. Or perhaps they don't want to get it. They've been conditioned to not actually listen and think, but to shout and run towards the flames.

In some cases this is also a Saul Alinsky teaching. He wrote in his 1971 book "rules for radicals" one of their tactics should be to accuse the opponent of doing things that they actually did. There is indeed some of this occurring and keep in mind that Hillary Clinton was not only a huge fan of Alinsky, but he was actually one of her mentors and they knew each other. I do not believe this kind of forethought is what the average person blindly running towards the flame is knowingly doing. They don't actually appear to give it that much thought. All that appears to be going through their mind is "hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" and they don't notice how terribly wrong that is. The end result of that can only be catastrophic and the end result of that thinking is likely to be far worse than all the things they are supposedly against.

They fail to see that cheering people being attacked, killed, etc due to an ideological difference is squarely in the BIGOTRY, OPPRESSION, and INTOLERANCE zone. It is one thing to target a very specific individual that their is clear evidence of their wrong doing that backs your movement. It is completely another when you stereotype and generalize and believe an entire group is the problem and should be eliminated. This is what occurs with the racism they claim to be so against, unless you happen to be white and then some of them will say that isn't racism. Further illustrating how little time they actually spend thinking about anything other than hate, and woe is me. They fail to realize that picking a group of people ANY group and treating them as if they are all the same is how the holocaust happened, is how the many more than that were killed by Stalin and Mao (their own people) happened. They yell about horrid atrocities, yet in history the atrocities they claim to be against were committed by people fired up by hate JUST LIKE THEM. If things progress then those in the black bloc, and those cheering for any group to be slaughtered or killed, or thinking it is okay for any group to be persecuted will be the seeds of the new Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Yet, they fail to see the hypocrisy that THEY are in fact the thing they claim to be against.

WAKE UP. Look around. Listen. Engage. Quit putting up mental barriers and blindly chanting, banging on bells and drums, and shouting into megaphones. If you don't stop and listen you'll run us all (yourself included) right off of a cliff as you blindly and gleefully throw your own bodies into the flames.

Your HATE HATE HATE are the seeds from which the Stalins, Hitlers, and Maos are born. Your intolerance will potentially lead to the deaths of many people. With the way weapons progress potentially MOST people.

I say again. Wake up, listen, look around, and engage. Quit acting like a parrot and repeating things simply because someone else told you. Think, use your brain, and learn. Kick the hate, hate, hate to the curb as it has never helped anyone.

We're not in a Star Wars movie and you are deciding to embrace the dark side. This is reality. Do the difficult thing. Think about your actions, listen to many different people, and seek kindness and love rather than embracing hate. Hate doesn't care about you. It feeds upon itself. Once the group you have slaughtered is gone and you are now fueled by hate, what new trait are you going to single out next?

End rant...

This video I watched yesterday is very moving, honest, and worth watching. It definitely made me consider all of the above more.