Saturday, July 20, 2013

[dshsdovy] Creepy to Zimmerman

At the heart of George Zimmerman's action was something some -- but not all -- people feel on the social dance floor: some other dancer seems creepy to you.  Debating the degree of appropriate action, declining or avoiding a dance with someone whom you perceive as creepy or shooting such a person in the back, is missing the point: why do you feel that person is creepy in the first place?  It is a "gut" feeling, difficult if not impossible to override by the rational mind, especially when you have no incentive to do so.  Other people do not perceive that person as creepy, despite your attempts to apply a global label "is creepy" to the person, instead of "seems creepy" to you: Creepy is in the eye of the beholder.

Examine in yourself the monstrous social forces that have programmed you to feel this way.

"Tolerance" as an end goal, which merely seeks to avoid harmful actions against those you perceive as creepy, is similarly missing the point.  It may even be making things worse, concentrating on the wrong thing.

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