The Reagans

[Rob67]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
Finally, I have always maintained that to be a "liberal" or, perhaps better phrased, to be one to assert that all people deserve an even playing field despite any personal hastred/prejudice/etc. you have to be willing to think past yourself, which most cannot do. A good example is gays in the military. Absolutely no empirical evidence even suggests it would be the catastrophic thing people imagine; in fact, Australia and Great Britian allow gays in the military and they fight along side of Americans as we speak. Yet, a significant number of Americans hate or are disgusted by gay people. So, they cannot get over that hatred and/or disgust to even consider the evidence that completely belies the any credibility their argument may have.

The answer to that is parenting and education. If I want to look at prejudice in our society and how it has changed, I simply look at my grandparents and their views, my parents and their views, and my peers and my views.

My grandfather IS Archie Bunker, he was raised in a different era and is ignorant of a lot of things. It is almost pointless to argue with him, so I don’t. He is just stuck in his ways. My parents are extremely less prejudice, but having been raised by my grandparents, some things exist. (They frown upon interracial marriages, etc.) I was raised to be tolerant of everyone and to be color blind. College and exposure to other cultures also helped.

I am not suggesting that there is no prejudice with people in my generation but I think it has gotten better over the years.

The fear of gays in the military comes from the same macho fear that guys in a football locker room have. And that's what it is, fear.

Unfortunately, stereotypes mold people's perceptions.

Education, folks...it's the cure to prejudice.

Rob