Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Actually, the opposite is true. I can't find it right now, but a poll earlier this year showed Canadians' overestimate how widespread bigotry is. Canadians thought something like 40 per cent of their fellow-citizens believed homosexuality was morally wrong, but in fact only 15 per cent believe that. There were similar numbers around the question of whether we should encourage women to enjoy every freedom men enjoy - Canadians thought far more people were opposed to that ideal than were in fact opposed.
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That's not really in touch with the point I was making.
To put it another way: the prevalence of casual bigotry and ignorance is problematic because it makes unclear the path between that, and hate. Great, 15% of Canadians believe homosexuality is morally wrong, but the problem is not the 15%, it's the 25% that create the illusion of a much bigger problem by being accidentally compulsory in it instead of resistant to it.
Maybe your experience is different, but from my own personal experience I would say that 40% is closer to accurate than 15% of those people who still make gay jokes, call it gross, say ignorant and demeaning things without even thinking, etc. Do these people think it's morally wrong? Maybe not, but that doesn't excuse their use of bigoted ideas, language, and politics. And for the 1/10 that believe it IS morally wrong, they see people dismissing casual bigotry as no big deal and it emboldens their views.
So the issue is, and will continue to be, how much longer do we sit and accept casual bigotry (in relation to this event: racism), because it's "just a joke" or "not hurting anyone" when in fact all our acceptance of it does is normalise ####ty people and their ####ty behaviour.
The solution is to condemn even hints of dumb bigotry. Jokes, asides, you're grandpa's crazy ramblings. Why let any of it slide? You're not helping anyone by doing so. Prove as a society we can fix the problem instead of just making jokes while we pretend it's fixed.