Childish Lack Of Empathy

Sometimes I get the feeling I might be able to change people's minds.  

Then I realize that most people are so deeply rooted in their way of thinking, their prejudices, and their little corners of reality that they're just gonna keep being assholes until they die.  Won't they be surprised when they get to the Pearly Gates and the sign outside says "What part of 'Love one another as I have loved you' was confusing?"  The one three syllable word in that statement is pretty unambiguous, but I suppose the meaning of the word "Love" might confuse some of these fools.

I will be flat-out honest - I do not have a hope in any way to understand the struggles that some people go through.  People who chose to change their genders, are attracted to people who are the same gender, or ... well, there are a lot of other struggles out there.

But that's not my problem.  I am not asked to understand them.  I'm only asked to treat them like a fellow human being.  Because, well, the duh of the day is that they are.  And what ever it is that some of these conservative folks feel is their responsibility to scream at these people, well, that's pretty much totally ignorant and stupid.  

It continues to be the very definition of irony for me that people who scream about over-regulation want to regulate and restrict what people do in their own privacy.  I mean, it's none of my business so long as you're consenting adults.  Why do people who want less regulation try to regulate human behavior that's none of their business?

I suppose in regards to full disclosure, I know some gay people.  I grew up with some gay people.  I knew a pedophile who was not known to be such when we were in college, though a number of us had concerns regarding his behavior.  And most of us had lost touch with him when he really started to pray on younger people.  And now he's in prison.  

But I also know a few families with young people who have, or are in the process, of transitioning from one gender to another.  And you know what?  It doesn't challenge my identity, my home life, my life in general, or really anything else in my world.  I'm not called on to do anything other than respect them as people.  Because it's not my job to do anything else.  It's my job to be a decent human being.  Is what they're doing wrong?  I don't recall anything in the Bible about "thou shalt not change your gender."  I do recall some rather specific recipes, and some other rules, but I also know that it's none of my fucking business.  If there's a person whom I know that is unhappy every day, and wants to go through all of the medical processes and the other challenges, why should I have any right to stand up and scream?  It's not my life.  If it is what they need so they can feel comfortable in their skin and happy, then by all that is holy, I'm in favor of them doing what they need to do to be happy.  There's more than enough misery in this world, we don't need to create more.

But there are these people who insist they have the right to stick their noses into business that is, frankly, none of their business.  Why?  Because they think it's their right.  And it's not.  Because if I started poking around in their closets and insisting they hang all the cotton clothes on a rod away from the wool, the synthetics, and their leather bikinis, well, that's none of my damned business either.  Why do I need to have control over their closets?  

That's right.  It's a pretty childish view of the world that everyone has to conform to your world view.  And it sure as hell indicates that you've never really learned to look at the world with the view that everyone else out and around you are just as valuable, intelligent, decent, and worthy as you are.  So if you're going to insist that your world view is more valid and important than mine, well, good for you.  See you in Hell.  I've earned my way there through it will hopefully be a temporary stay.  I know that most of those folks who insist they know right are trying to do what they think is right.  I'm capable, however, of believing that you, as another person, are just as capable and intelligent as I am, and you can choose what you wish to do, as well as I can, and you can be responsible for your own life.  

The sooner these conservative idiots realize that their lunacy is a relic of how our civilization used to try to live, the better.  Unfortunately, most of them will have to be dead before that idea gets cleared out of their heads.  Oh well.  Not my problem.  They get to answer for their decisions.  If I'm asked "why didn't you help when you could?" I'm sure that will end time to my down-below duration - yes, I believe in Hell, and Heaven.  And I believe that somehow, some way, somewhere some one will look upon me and say "you know what?  He meant well, he tried to do what he could where and when he could, and he did make a difference.  So I think it's time for the upgrade."  

I can hope and pray - and try to live my life in that way.  If I'm wrong, well, that's on me.  But I will go into the ground knowing that I was never a jerk to people who needed a kind word, respect, and the support of someone who knows they will be able to find their own way into the future, all I needed to do was make sure I stayed the hell out of the way, and let them do what they needed to do.  Because that's my job.