So this was going to be a narrow-focused publishing rant about Peter Thiel, Pixar, Diverse Voices, and hypocrisy…
But then Orlando happened: first the senseless death of a harmless, gifted young woman, then the carnage last night, more innocent lives lost at the Pulse nightclub. The latter apparently caused by a young Muslim man with access to assault weapons and a deep disgust of gay people.
I have friends in Orlando who are still trying to find their loved ones, this morning.
So now this is going to be a very nasty, confrontational rant with a somewhat larger focus.
My premise: there is no fundamental difference between the flavors of religiously motivated violence. ISIS or Christian, Hindu Nationalist, Jewish Orthodox, African animists, the militant form of Buddhism growing in Myanmar…these groups are only distinguished by what their most violent adherents can get away with.
I do not contest that religion itself can be a useful social construct probably equally important as trade, to the development of civilization.
But I also propose that *every religion* carries the lurking seeds of its worst aspects: of social oppression, human sacrifice, slavery in many forms, terrorist attacks against its ideological opponents, theocratic tyranny or oligarchy, and the chilling indoctrination that creates a placid or cowed population. If we are to elevate the better parts of religion, we must as a species commit to pruning back the poison weeds that threaten it and us.
I put forward that while ISIS, Boko Haram, and Al Qaeda are guilty of horrific crimes against humanity, they are only achieving what many other religious groups appear to fantasize about. ‘Good Christian’ senators and pastors regularly invoke vicious wish-fulfillment prayers against political opponents and targeted minorities. Donald Trump is a master at whipping his largely white, racist supporters into near-violence, then stepping back, then claiming butt-hurt and innocence when fights break out.
We need tolerance, if we are to continue as a species worthy of surviving. If gay people kissing in front of us disgusts us, we need to not take it personally, and look the fuck away.
We need to not care so much what a person looks like, how they dress, or what personal pronouns they use to self-identify.
We need to not tie our daughters to petrol-soaked beds and set them afire, for the crimes of marrying for love, controlling their fertility, or learning to read.
We need to not be hysterical about where people pee and poop…unless it’s to make sure that people can eliminate in peace, in safety, in clean places where they will not be subject to sewage-borne diseases or sexual assault. All people.
We need to rely on logic, teamwork, police work, and yes, even bureacracy to solve crimes like Orlando, instead of mob rule and overreaction. To understand that most of our Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, etc. friends and co-workers just want to live their lives in peace, too. Most humans are not horrible, and can be pretty decent to each other. We actually live in an era where social and military violence have been decreasing. Terrorists of any stripe are terrified of losing their status, so they’re lashing out.
Unfortunately, when they lash out they not only claim innocent lives, they endanger humanity as a whole. We cannot afford to backslide from science, rationality, and tolerance, not when the next few hundred years are already going to be hard enough.
If humanity can’t figure that out, then I don’t think we deserve to survive.