I’d Rather Be Accepting Than Afraid

You’ve probably noticed that the only types of people I constantly badmouth are racists and bigots. I speak often and at length about the ignorance of so many Americans. It’s a frustrating topic to focus on. I wish it wasn’t this way still, in 2022.

I often wonder how so many can latch onto and appear to love and support terrible human beings in politics, like Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz, Lauren Boebert, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and many others. What is the appeal of these people to so many who vote for them?

Is it just the obvious racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia that these garbage humans are often spouting? Do they feel that these wealthy politicians have Joe Factory-Worker’s best interests in mind? Because they don’t, no matter what you hear to the contrary on Fox News.

Is it the hatred of their liberal opponents who favor equality, inclusiveness, acceptance, and love? What’s so bad about those things? Why are they so dead-set against the belief that we should have equality for all citizens?

It’s mainly fear and paranoia that drives most of these people to act the way they do.

The people who yell the loudest, and post the most ignorant, racist, bigoted trash on social media are scared. They are afraid of being at the bottom of society’s totem pole. Perhaps they should be fearful.

There’s a better way to avoid being a failure in life. Hating others for being kinder, better, more-educated people is just ridiculous. Being loud, aggressive, threatening, and ignorant doesn’t make you look any cooler. Most people find that type of behavior to be ridiculous and off-putting.

These people will tell you they don’t care if anyone else likes them. They act as if they are the toughest people on the planet. They attempt to bully others online for their differing beliefs. Many of them tear into posts about equality for minorities, LGBTQ citizens, and non-religious people.

Much of the time, it’s from anonymous social media profiles with fake names. Keyboard Warriors fancy themselves as brave for speaking their ignorant truths, but they’re nothing more than scared, fearful humans, hiding behind a keyboard.

Alex Jones, a prominent far right-wing conspiracy theorist is now 1.4 billion dollars in debt for being openly ignorant, racist, and bigoted. Kanye West’s anti-Semitic comments have caused his 2 billion dollar net worth to drop to 400 million dollars. Kyrie Irving’s 35 million-dollar-a-year contract is now in danger after his public social media post seemingly supporting an anti-Semitic film.

Turns out that being racist and bigoted is bad for business.

This is why people like Joe Factory-Worker hide behind fake profiles online and most of the time won’t say these vile, disgusting things they believe publicly. If Kanye loses over 75% of his net worth, he’s still worth 400 million dollars. If JFW gets fired from the manufactured home factory for spewing racist, hateful ignorance, he’s not still going to be worth 400 million dollars.

Joe F. Worker will never earn 400 million dollars in this lifetime or any other. He likely won’t even earn 4 million. $400,000 in a decade’s time is more likely. He has a lot more to lose than Alex, Yeezy, and Kyrie.

Instead of blaming others for his lot in life, Joe COULD strive to improve himself. He could take online college courses or enroll in a trade school. Instead of getting angry that he’s losing opportunities to foreign citizens, he could level the playing field by educating himself.

Perhaps he should pull himself up by his bootstraps and work harder. Isn’t that what many of his friends and fellow racists and bigots constantly say online? America, love it or leave it, right? Seems like more of a catchphrase they enjoy aiming toward people of color and immigrants than something they actually live by.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Joe Factory could be a different, better person. He could be kind-hearted toward all people, not just members of his race and political party. But that would require him to change. Joe has too much pride to ever publicly admit that he’s wrong about anything.

Does he believe he’s God’s Gift to the Nazi movement or something? No. Joe realizes that he can fool anyone online, at work, at his Evangelical church, and just about anyone in public. He can come across as the loud, aggressive, tough guy he thinks he is.

Joe can fool anyone. Except for one person. The one staring back at him through his mirror. That fella knows that Joe is scared. He’s afraid and fearful of so much. He realizes his shortcomings and knows that he has no control over his country and very little in his own life.

Ignorance, racism, and bigotry are almost always about being a scared little person deep down inside. Joe will not try new things. He will not seek out people who differ from himself to become friends with. He doesn’t want to learn and accept another person’s point of view.

And that’s sad. One of my favorite things as a kind, accepting human being is getting to know others. Especially people who were not raised the same way I was. I love getting to learn about other people’s ways of life, their culture, trying their foods, and listening to their music.

When you meet someone who differs significantly from you in most ways, it’s an awesome opportunity to learn, have fun, and become a friend to someone new. I’ve had nothing but wonderful experiences when I’ve taken the time to get to know someone of a different race, religion, or sexual orientation.

I have always had a curious mind. Even before starting grade school, I loved to learn. I started reading at age 3. I’d check out library books twenty at a time, the maximum they’d allow you to take. By the time I entered the first grade, I loved reading, math, science, and just about any subject.

Looking back at the friends I had growing up in California, Oregon, and Washington, I realize now that I had a diverse group of friends. I can remember friends of Asian, Hispanic, and African-American descent. While I didn’t think much about our differences at the time, I do recall their stories and families to be quite different than mine.

And that was cool. I didn’t care if my friends were white, Laotion, Portuguese, Mexican, Chinese, German, or however many other ethnicities they were. They were just my friends. If they were cool toward me, I was cool toward them. We all had each other’s backs.

This is what I wish for others who are too afraid of the differences of others. Be cool. Be accepting instead of afraid. If you’re as big of a tough guy as you portray yourself to be, why not be tough enough to love another human?

You’d have a far more interesting life. You’d get to experience so much more. You’d be way more liked and respected by being a good, kind-hearted human. You’d never find yourself alone, estranged from your family, or without friends.

Get out of your comfort zone. Work harder for the things you want to achieve versus blaming entire groups of people for your problems in life. Support better politicians who unite rather than divide. Stop being so afraid.

Only then will you be able to stare at the man in the mirror and truly respect the person you’re seeing. It feels wonderful to be a good human being. Give it a try, you’ll see that I’m right. &:^)