Equality - Part 2

So, continuing from where we left off, religion/anti-religion is ridiculous. I think I know what's happening. Keep in mind this is only talking about culture in America.

So, we've got different groups of people. Sure. Some people in history have had preferential treatment. For the most part, let's simplify it and say, white, male, straight, landowners. Yes. It is true. Sexism, racism, and homophobia have existed throughout history and persist today.

The problem I see is in the people "fighting for equality." Why? It's because they aren't. Look on Tumblr. The feminists are so wound up about "equality," that they think women should have the preferential treatment. You know how I can tell? I reverse the genders and see if I would be unhappy with x, y, and z. And often times, it doesn't bother me one bit with the things they complain about. Same can be applied with all other 'groupings' of people.

Equality means nobody gets preferential treatment. It means that a woman and a man working the same position of the same job come home with the same pay check. It doesn't mean that there should be better education opportunities for girls in the fields of math and science because the majority of elementary school teachers give favoring to boys in those fields. By giving girls opportunities for education that boys don't get, you are being sexist. Technically speaking. You know how to get rid of the problem with boys getting preferential treatment in math/science? You tell the teachers that nobody gets treatment. You tell them that little Sally can answer that question as well as Joey. Equality means NO preferential treatment.

Keep in mind that this can be applied to anything, not just genders. I think it's an easy example to pick on feminism though.

Also, I'm not entirely sure if equality in all fields is the right thing. Now, bear with me here. I'm trying to be reasonable. I'm not saying segregation and whatever else for all differences. But let's be honest with ourselves. The difference between ethnicity is skin color and some other things such as height or whatever. The difference between sexual preference is pretty minor. Honestly I see it as one of those things that even if you think being gay is "icky" or whatever, it's none of your business. You don't have the right to decide who a person likes. But anyway, I'm going off on a tangent.

For example, let's look at education.

If we attempted to give everyone the same education, things would suck. In fact, to an extent we do try that, and things do suck. Education needs to discriminate some. A person with an IQ of 55 isn't going to learn at the same pace as a person with an IQ of 145, ordinarily. (Now, I personally think IQ is a bad measure of "intelligence," but that's for another time.) Standardizing education is the wrong way to go about things. People have different learning styles, techniques, and speeds. Trying to standardize it and give everyone equal education means not everyone is going to learn what they need. Let's look at IQ and pretend it's the only thing that affects ability to learn. By standardizing everything to death like the school system has done, it's probably only going to be useful for people within one standard deviation. That's 68% of the population. Oh nice, you got that many people educated, good for you. No. 32% of the population aren't being educated properly. That isn't good. There needs to be some discrimination, to make sure that 100% of people learn what they need to learn.

Alright, you see an example there. Hopefully you see why education is bad at the moment. Now, on to the main topic. Keep in mind that this is just me thinking out loud... Or putting my thoughts onto paper... Or something like that.

Notice that I didn't mention gender, which is the main thing I've talking about here. It's because I really don't know what would be best. And it isn't even I don't know. Often when I start writing something down, I've got an idea of what I want to say and I can figure the kinks out on the spot. But with gender... I really haven't got a clue. The fact that genders and things associated with genders have been so segregated for so long makes me wonder what it would be like if there was equality from society. In elementary, would the children still divide up into groups of boys and girls? Would there be as many male and female scientists, athletes, artist, musicians, stay-at-home parents? I can't answer that. I don't know if anybody can. It's wholly possible for there to be some talents that one gender is better at over the other. Naturally speaking, women do tend to have an attention for details that men don't have. Does this, along with some other traits that tend to be far more present in just one gender, mean that having some discrimination and favoring would actually be better? Again, I really can't answer that. I consider myself a pretty smart cookie when it comes to thinking about these kinds of things. So when I'm this stumped, it makes me question if anybody has the "right answer" for this.

The reason I'm saying this is part two, religion being part one, is because they're on similar-ish topics. The first was about people going overboard with religion/anti-religion, and how there's a difference between believing in something and pushing those beliefs onto others. This two-parter is about how people push their beliefs onto others, and how those beliefs are often flawed. It isn't relevant whether or not the original is worse than the new world system, both are flawed. Both are bad. If we're playing the "lesser of two evils," I could name a few dozen world possibilities where a select group of the population is singled out and discriminated against that benefits the rest of humanity that could be calculated as the "lesser of two evils" as well, but people wouldn't like that.

So I suppose we should discriminate in what should be equal (ha ha). Some things I think we can conclude are obviously better with some different treatment, and other things are better when all is equal. Keep in mind that these different modes of education I mentioned aren't 'inferior', simply different. I never intended to imply that a person with 55 IQ is 'inferior' in academics to someone with 145 IQ. It is probably true that they won't learn as much, but that doesn't make them inferior. Simply different. And that is what discrimination should do. It should let people be different, but still equal. Nobody superior or inferior.

Think different.

Have an incredibly, or actually, credibly wonderful day.

Religion - Part One

Don't force your beliefs onto others.

If this is obvious to you, then you're either amazingly intelligent or fooling yourself. No, I mean really, don't force your beliefs onto others! Except this one in my case. Though this isn't a belief really, it's more a general sense of how not to be an anus. And yet, so many people do it! It isn't just religious folk either though. No no no! Let me give you an idea of what is forcing your beliefs on others and what isn't.

You're putting down your information on Facebook and you say you're Catholic. This is not forcing your beliefs on others.

You tell people that they are going to spend an eternity in torture for not believing what you do. This is forcing your beliefs on others.

You are conversing with someone about religion and you mention that you are Muslim. This is not forcing your beliefs on others.

You tell other people that their beliefs are inferior to yours. This isn't exactly forcing your beliefs onto others, but it's still being an anus. So don't do it.

You see someone else being obnoxiously preachy and you ask them, "Have you ever tried seeing things from the opposing viewpoint?" This isn't forcing your beliefs on others.

You inquire if someone approves of rape and murder because contextually their religion says it is alright. This wouldn't fit into forcing your beliefs on others, but it's still attempting to screw with their beliefs. So don't do it.

Basically, live and let be. If you stay chill with what I believe, I'll stay chill with what you believe.


Thank you for reading this post, and have a great day.


(Note: _O will be taking over blog posts from now on. The posts should be in a similar style to mine, so don't worry. :)

Serial Experiments Lain

This show is amazing. It's Japanese Anime from 1998 made with a low budget, but it is one of the most philosophical things I've ever watched. Despite the low budget, I quite like the animation style. The pacing feels slow throughout the first 5 or so episodes, but a lot happens. Throughout the 13 episodes, there is so much symbolism to be found. Like, symbolism city. If I had a college-level philosophy course, the final would be finding symbolism and meaning in this show and explaining the concepts it explores.

Lain herself. The original image was done by another source, but I traced & recolored the image, along with changing some details. Made in ProCreate. (iPad App)

Thank you for reading, and have a spectacular day.