I suppose that for all of time, the human race has formulated and then applied qualifiers. We’ve applied these codicils, these conditions, to every aspect of our lives, but we’re particularly fond of relationship qualifiers.
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone describe a specific nuance of another person as a non-starter. A qualifying characteristic that we find so displeasing that we immediately dismiss that person as unsatisfactory to our current needs and mindset.
Some qualifiers are physical, like too short, too fat, too black, too brown, too white, too male, too female, or too toothless. I kind of understand these conditions because we all possess a different concept of beauty, and a quick look around should confirm that there’s plenty of variety on display for what people find attractive. Sometimes I think that the too brown, too white dislike isn’t as much about racism as it is about self adoration. We like our own reflection in the mirror, and by extension we also like other people who cast a similar reflection. We’re attracted to beings who look like us and fearful of people who don’t. I may have possibly just described racism in its rawest form, but I still think that hardcore racism has a few other qualifiers other than xenophobia.
Like hatefulness and stupidity.
But there are a shitload of other non-physical qualifiers both now and historically that we’ve used repetitively.
Religion or politics for example. Most of the time a person can’t tell from a glance who they find unattractive politically or mythologically, and so we’ve had to find a way to solve that problem. The solution has sometimes been a personal declaration, like a hijab or a MAGA hat. Sometimes the solution has been a forced declaration like a hijab, or a star of David sewn on a sleeve. Either way, the badges or the head dress denote a belief system, and identify the wearer as an adherent of that particular system.
The badge they wear can be a sign of pride and defiance or it can be a sign of repression. Depends on whether you or a a Mullah or Nazi get to decide that you’re wearing the badge.
Once the hat or badge is affixed to a person then we get to make assumptive secondary qualifiers about that person. For example, a star of David or a hajib means these wearers would be poor choices to invite to a pig roast.
I try to be open minded about the badges. It’s difficult though because the assumptive behavior is pretty much reflexive, and a person has to make a conscious effort to not automatically stereotype. It’s hard work to keep an opened mind and the majority of people aren’t fans of hard work.
Let’s talk about the red hatters as an example. If I see a maga hat then I automatically make a few assumptions about the wearer. I assume the person in question gets their news from Fox or o.a.n. I assume the wearer is anti-mask. I assume the wearer believes in conspiracy theories and angels. I assume the wearer hates a group of people and is tired of having to hide that hate away. I assume the wearer is deathly afraid of change and brands all change as leftist. I assume the person has not even an inkling of what the word socialist means. I assume the wearer might not have completed high school. I assume they are angry about something that they can’t quite articulate, and I assume they can’t grasp the concept of hypocrisy.
All of those assumptions might be generally true but there will be exceptions. Just like not all Muslims are terrorists, I’m certain that there are red hatters that don’t fit one of the assumptions I listed in the preceding paragraph. It would appear though that none of those people ever get any air time.
But I can’t shake my immediate distaste for anyone that identifies as a Trumper. Whenever one of them tries to defend the donnie, I hear an old defense offered to me by a German second world war gentleman. Hitler wasn’t all bad he stressed. He built roads and he invigorated the economy and returned pride to the German people.
I guess some of the Hitler roads are still there but the pride kind of dropped off after losing the war, having your country split in half and one or two reports surfacing about Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, Bergen Belsen, Ravensbruck or Mauthausen.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve developed a qualifier when it comes to Trump people. I don’t want to listen to them any longer. I used to try and debate their boy with them but it’s a futile exercise when they dismiss anything critical about the man as fake. Including his own words, his own actions and video verification of those words and actions.
I should mention that I have a similar qualifier for aggressively religious people.
Both the hatters and the religious nutters have decided that a personal belief system is preferable to the truth. Both groups also wage a constant war on science and any other institution or individual who questions the veracity of their beliefs. Both groups also have an instinctive dislike of education. They’ve decided that if you’re educated and disagree with them that you’re an elite or a liberal or a socialist and a purge is in order.
It’s madness, and the type of behavior that precedes shit like Salem witch hunts, the inquisition or someone deciding that forming Einsatzgruppen H. is a good idea.
Right this moment I have a tenuous truce with both the hatters and the angel nutters. They don’t bring their shit up around me, and I don’t list reasons why I think their thought processes are inane. So far, the truce has held but like I said, it’s tenuous.