Hypocrisy
Truthfully, I never really paid attention to hypocrisy until 2015 and 2016. Can’t imagine why or what significant events were taking place at the time. Of course, it’s not always on the national stage and is prevalent in everyday life with co-workers, friends and family. It’s probably harder to stomach and deal with when it’s coming from people close to you that you interact with daily. However, the hypocrisy on the national level is affecting the wellbeing of lives.
I think I have been keeping a running tally in my head of hypocrisies that are being weaponized against women, people of color, children, teachers, the LGBTQ+ community, and religions that aren’t Christian. This is my attempt at getting these out of my head and explaining why the rationality is hypocritical and at best, ignorant.
The latest one that has been on my mind came about because of the lovely SCOTUS. How can people be on board and agree with the ability to turn customers away and not provide them a service because of who they love? I believe religion was used in this case, and this seems like the absolute opposite of Christianity and “love thy neighbor.” The same people that agree with this ruling are the people who lost their minds over being denied entrance or service because they refused to put a mask on. They are ok if others are denied due to their sexual orientation, but they are not ok when they are denied for not wearing a mask?
On the same topic of masks, another favorite hypocrisy would be the “my body my choice” mantra. There are people in our country who want to bring an end to abortion. Women and people with vaginas are fighting so hard to exist as freely as their counterparts. Simply put, they want bodily autonomy and the power over deciding whether or not they choose to be pregnant. The same people who are trying to control those bodies are using the “my body my choice” mantra when it comes to vaccines and masks. How can they not see the clear contradiction that they want to control what enters their body and how it may affect them, but they also want to control other people’s bodies by not allowing them that same choice?
The new claim is that everything that people are trying to ban, outlaw or control is done so for the protection of children. If I don’t laugh at the absurdity, I’ll cry. I’m almost positive the rest of this rant will focus on people who claim they are protecting children. The pro birthers claim they are saving the lives of children, but turn their noses up at refugees and migrants. The time they spend outside of abortion clinics could be spent helping to improve the foster care system and Child Protective Services. They could do more to help children living in poverty, on food stamps and welfare. Instead they make fun of and disrespect the parents who are often single and working more than one job just to make ends meet by telling them they should work harder. These people are ignorant to the system that often keeps people in poverty, in poverty for generations. Instead, they spend their time trying to force others to have children they can’t afford, don’t want or are unable to take care of.
Another vigilante comes in the form of protecting the children from the “woke” United States history. This special group of child protectors don’t want their children learning about ALL of our history. Some even deny the factual truth that atrocities and genocides happened. These same people get their panties in a bunch when their confederate or colonizer statues are taken down and replaced with statues of the marginalized. They scream out that by doing so is erasing history. They used the phrase, “let’s educate not eradicate” when they were trying to rationalize keeping the head of a Native American as their school mascot, yet here they are eradicating history instead of educating students on all of history. This is America’s chance TO educate and teach ALL of history that I most certainly was not taught in public school. If history is rewritten and taught that “slavery had some good parts”, that is eradication and most definitely not education.
The next group of child vigilantes comes in the form of protection against drag queens and the LGBTQ+ Community. I am very unsure of where the notion came from that children are at risk and in danger when around any of these humans. Mayhaps it started with the gender neutral bathroom debacle? I think the call is coming from inside the Christian extremist’s homes. Priests seem to be in the news quite often for the harm and abuse they cause children. Follow up question: Why do these people equate drag queens and the LGBTQ+ Community with sex? How are your children being around them sexualizing in any way? A drag queen reading books at libraries is fun and kind. Why is anyone in the LGBTQ+ community viewed as pedophiles? The hypocrisy here lies at the state level where actual children are legally allowed to be married. I use the word “be” over “get” here, because they need a parent to consent for them, since they are children and cannot consent themselves. The minimum marriage age for minors that have parental consent ranges from 12 to 17 years old. Some states even have separate minimum ages for boys and girls. Twelve for girls and fourteen for boys. How are any of these parents claiming they are protecting children from drag queens and the LGBTQ+ Community when they are literally turning their children over to adults to marry?
We also have the people who claim to be protecting children from indoctrination through books and their teachers. These people are the ones forcing their religion on their children and getting upset when someone does not say the Pledge or stand for the National Anthem. This is a special kind of hypocrisy because they cloak their own indoctrination of their children in a false flag of patriotism and Christianity. Children should not be forced to pledge their allegiance to a country when legally they have no power to make a difference or change the country for the better until they are 18. People need to fully understand this country and our government before they blindly pledge their allegiance to it. This goes for the National Anthem, as well. Why are we playing this before sporting events? Half of the people (honestly at this point, it has to be more than half) in this country are marginalized and do not have equal freedoms and protections. If they don’t want to stand up for the anthem before they kick a ball around for 90 minutes, they shouldn’t be forced to. This is indoctrination at its core, but the refusal to see that while claiming they are protecting children from indoctrination in schools is asinine. The same can be said regarding religion and forcing children to claim a religion before their brains are even fully developed to understand the religion. I grew up Catholic, attended CCD and Mass. I can tell you I paid more attention to the lights hanging from the church ceiling and the shoes people were wearing when they walked past me for communion than the priest’s homily. Yet somehow I received three of the sacraments, despite not having a clue what I was aligning myself with. But, yes tell me more about how the teachers and the books are indoctrinating the children? Have you READ the Bible?
While we are on the topic of schools… guns. People say they are protecting children, yet do absolutely nothing when it comes to school shootings. You watch children die and don’t take action to protect other children from this tragedy. I am pro 2nd Amendment, but I am also pro revising it and pro taking it for what it literally meant back when the white men in wigs, heeled shoes, powdered faces and wooden teeth wrote it. I am pro putting in more regulations for guns that will remove them from the hands of people that shouldn’t have them and prevent those people from owning them. There needs to be more accountability and precaution for gun owners to ensure no one else can easily take the guns from the adults in the house and use them to cause harm to anyone. This should be a common cause to anyone who truly has the best interest of children at heart.
To end this rant, I want to focus on the woke mindset. People are fighting to be treated respectfully, better, as an equal as well as fighting for equity for others. People are sticking up for others, changing what was once acceptable language or slang, and saying enough is enough. Be a better human and think of others. The self proclaimed anti-woke group call these people soft, woke, snowflakes, easily offended etc. Yet are offended over a Bud Light can, rainbows, Barbie, masks, not having heterosexuality be the only group represented in media anymore, BLM, trans women playing sports, and black mermaids. How can people be offended over a black mermaid? A made up sea creature. I would have been with them if they were offended by what Disney did to Flounder in that movie. Instead, they were upset that Disney changed the skin color on a made up mythical sea creature. Ok, maybe not made up because that video of the sailor hearing a Siren was pretty damn intriguing. I think it is obvious who is just offended and who is trying to end what was once acceptable, but is actually just unkind.
Rant over. ♡KT
P.S. If you liked the picture used for this entry, it is actually a sticker and available here ---> Hypocrates
