Frank M. Weeks: Misdirected pride and prejudice leads to bigotry

To The Daily Sun,

In our world society, information is excreted out faster than critical thinking skills can assimilate if the effluent is either "fact" or "fiction." Lacking critical thinking, "intellectual laziness" can induce stereotypes that can induce prejudices which give us ... this. This is prominent with all the anti-movements.

In the past Europe was infected with the French disease, also lovingly known as the Italian disease, also as the Spanish disease, and alternately alleged to be the Polish disease. Appropriately the Middle East referred to it as the dreaded Christian disease. Ironically this infectious disease was coined due to ethnic rivalries. These rivalries gave birth to ethnic stereotypes. This culminated in the convenient sham that the American indigenous population gifted this disease to those virtuous non-indigenous European explorers (us), and Western religions were mollified by this. Until ... DNA evidence proved that this disease was in European Christian populations centuries before the "re-discovery" of the New World. Uh, virtuous Europe did diddle. In fact, an Italian poet finally gave society the name it is known for today ... syphilis.

The irrationality that people are "different" has been the focus of ethnic purists by dumping the blame for "disasters" on different cultures and religions, thereby implying ethnic superiority. White supremacy. In Western countries it has been morphed into socio-economic divisions, wherein "poor" individuals are morally corrupt (more prone to syphilis). Hence the term "poor white trash." Other defamatory attitudes are floated around that are insulting to religions, gender, women's choice, ethnic origins and people of color. Much easier to surrender to emotions than to actually jump start the brain.

Once prejudices are stroked, the emotions steamroll (see Jan. 6). And bigotry becomes an infectious disease. When a six-year-old child uses "gutter" language or shoots a teacher in the classroom, it's obvious why.

Frank M. Weeks

Gilmanton Iron Works