On Pride Month Under Attack

 As far as I can tell, 2015 was the first year the White House celebrated Pride. Before that, President Clinton acknowledged Pride, starting in 1999. Pride went unacknowledged by the President G W Bush for his 8 years in office. Obama picked it up again for his 8 years, taking ut further with decorating the White House in Pride colors and the Pride flag. Pride was then thrown back into the closet again, for President Trump's 4 years, cementing this as unofficial GOP policy. President Biden has resumed official recognition of Pride since 2021. 

I remember feeling under attack when Clinton recognized Pride Month in 1999, when I was a fundamentalist Christian. And I was convinced that the Antichrist was around the corner when Obama illuminated the White House in Pride colors when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to marry. 

Long since then, I educated myself and have since become very progressive. How radically different I view the world now that I have been educated out of my fundamentalist Christian information bubble caused brainwashing. Everything from politics to science to history; I have been liberated and enlightened by deliberately looking for any evidence that could either confirm or disconfirm the various positions I was convinced of. It took a lot of humility. It took being very uncomfortable when confronted with facts that seemed to debunk things I believed were fundamentally true.

The must agonizing revelation I had was the realization that the human brain is naturally designed to reject information perceived to be threatening, particularly if it is connected with one's religious beliefs, political ideology, or cultural norms. People are tribal thinkers, herd animals, group loyalists. And unless an individual is ready and willing to learn critical thinking skills and to apply them to their own deeply held beliefs, a mind cannot be changed no matter how much information it is exposed to, no matter how obvious something is. The rare exceptions are when a parent learns that their child is lgbtq. Sometimes, but not often, they will soften or abandon their position that lgbtqs are in any way "bad" by nature.

In recent times, there has been a growing acceptance and celebration of lgbtq diversity. Conversely, there has been an unprecedented backlash against lgbtqs. And, like predictability of mechanical clockwork, the right wing media has universally embraced the demonization of these people, energizing their voter base and successfully distracting the masses from paying attention to their actual problems like no universal guaranteed health care, no federally paid college (in addition to children's education), needless wars, and the extreme growing gap of income inequality that's perpetuated by both sides. Divide and conquer works to continue to economically rape the poor and middle class.

Keep the masses fighting amongst themselves over anything that appeals to their amygdalas: fear and hate of "perverts" by associating the "others," lgbtqs, with pedophilia.

It's stomach turning.

The pendulum of social acceptance swings from one side to the other before finally balancing. People tend to focus on the extremes and overlook the vast majority not on the extreme. And this is the strategy that the economic powers that be rely upon to keep changes from developing that might shift the country's wealth from accumulating only with the top 1% earners and away from everyone else. The culture wars appeal to our basest fight or flight response, based in the amygdala. This starts an instantaneous process the shuts down the brain's ability to think critically. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2907136/

This is our most fundamental instinct designed to protect ourselves and our group (offspring, family, tribe) from harm. When a physical threat is perceived, our brains switch into survival mode, redirecting blood flow from the prefrontal context, where reasoning happens, instead, to our emotions and muscles so we can fight off a threat. 

The more you understand about the "other" group (lgbtqs, ethnic groups, science), the less fear you naturally feel when exposed to information about them. And the more understanding you have, the less fear your amygdala produces. And the less fear, the more potential you have for critical thinking. The more potential your brain has for critical thinking, the more you can learn new things and have your perspectives change accordingly. This is why more educated people tend to skew strongly towards more inclusive positions. And this is why the strongly right-wing people tend to disdain higher education as they perceive it to be a threat.

So, due to our very human brain's mechanics, bigotry, hate, fear, and especially being completely close-minded, will always be a problem that is capitalized on by media outlets that are used by the economic oppressors to divide and distract the masses.

I remember back when I was a devoted Christian, regularly I would fast from food as a way of somehow making my prayers more effective. I would beg God to show me where I'm wrong, correct me, grant me the theology that God himself has and not that of a best effort by humans. I wanted to understand truth. I wanted any blinders I was unaware of me wearing to be removed. Basically, I didn't realize it, but I wanted critical thinking skills and the self control to properly use them.

Years later, after my journey out of my binary thinking being galvanized by an active amygdala, I find myself far more inclusive of different people. I also have become deeply alienated from most people because I have such skeptical views of popular things so many people love and believe in. It has become an enjoyable passion of mine to learn. And the more I learn, the more I am misjudged to be "nuts," crazy, close minded, full of myself, weird, an outsider, deceived by Satan, angry at the Christian god, etc., etc.