Digging Deeper Into the Conservative Oppressive Mindset

The viewpoint of one free-thinking lady

So in light of the Charleston, SC shootings and the ensuing eruption of discussions (ha, “discussions”) about the presence of the Confederate flag coupled with this past week’s landmark decision to uphold Marriage Equality, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.

“What have you been thinking about, Courtney?” you ask?

Well, I’m wondering how it’s possible for so many people in this country to not understand the Confederate flag is offensive and two same-sexed people getting married isn’t innately an evil thing that’s going to cause the destruction of our country. Sometimes I play devil’s advocate and think, “Okay, see it from their side.” But to myself and most people I call friends, we literally can’t find a way to justify it if the person is thinking rationally at all. So, I have to dig deeper to see where it could possibly come from.

Now — my first diagnosis is just blind discrimination and hate. Well, yes. I mean, in one way or another it somehow must go back to that. But many times that intentional hatred is so far from the surface.

You have to think what else is at play.

For instance, a distant friend of mine posted this article on Facebook. Summary: it’s the “nice” form of Christians branding homosexuality a sin. It says that Jesus would say, “I love you,” and “I understand rejection,” (okay…those are okay things to say) along with, “Jesus wants better for you,” and “We all are tempted,” (ah, there it is: still talking down to gay people and assuming that saying you love them while simultaneously proclaiming a fundamental part of their being to be inherently bad). Now listen: the person who posted this article is nice. They are not filled with hate. But this post is hateful. 40 years ago the equivalent was, “I’ll allow you to sit at a counter with me! I am a good enough person to allow that! After all, you can’t help the color of your skin!” It’s just plain the wrong viewpoint to have. Nobody needs these permissions from other people. No oppressed class should have to feel thankful that people have decided to still say they’re wrong but that they’re not going to aggressively oppress them — just hold them back from normal human things. Like marriage.

So, how do these “nice oppressors” justify their behavior in their heads? I’m no psychologist (however, I do teach acting; it’s basically the same; i’m kidding), but I would wager it’s a combination of indoctrination, fear, and what this article terms “change-averse” (i.e. people who just really don’t like change, and they dress that quality up as valuing tradition or following religious doctrine or whatever helps them keep things the most the same). This concept is important: we have to always stop to think if people just don’t like change and that’s why they’re being total dickbags. Change for them will be slow, but slowly they will change. In the meantime, we can try to make policy and social awareness at a more acceptable pace since we’re better equipped to disregard the excuses by simply calling out, “CHANGE-AVERSE!!!” and recognizing that’s not a valid reason to deny someone else their human rights.

So what about more outright assholes? The more unapologetically ignorant and hateful ones?

Here’s an example: I was Facebook Fighting with this dude (like you do) and decided to try to get him to increase his awareness of his own privilege by appealling to his sense of empathy. I prompted with this: “Tell me about a time when you were different from everyone else and you got made fun of. Or beat up. Or you weren’t able to have the same opportunities everyone else did even though you did nothing wrong. Tell me of a time when people were so judgmental of something about you that you had no control over. Tell me a time when you’ve had to hear people say the same terrible shit year in and year out about some aspect of your very being and they continue to pretend like you are making it up. I’m sure you’ve experienced moments like this. How many moments? How extensive? How did it make you feel to know you’re completely innocent and people still hate you or, even worse — they subtly hate you and then pretend they don’t.”

And he responded to me with, “…if you’re so intent on the discovery, yes, I suppose that I am the product of a “privileged” upbringing; however, that, my friend, is the beauty of capitalism. As the government is today, anyone can grow up to be “privileged.”” Here we see someone who is able to justify away their discrimination due to their change aversion by the combination of attribution theory and entitlement.

What are attribution theory and entitlement, you ask?

What’s relevant for our discussion about attribution theory is that it helps explain how we attach meaning to other’s and our own behavior. The idea is that when examining other’s behavior, we usually ascribe the less favorable attribution (“he skipped the gym because he’s lazy”). However, when examining our own behavior, we ascribe the more favorable attributions (“I skipped the gym because I’m too busy”). Read more here. Now, combine that with the psychological notion of entitlement (the belief you specifically are owed the things you have). Then, when you have a change-averse white person who is used to their own privilege in this country and let’s say they don’t get a job, they might ascribe attributes favorable to themselves: “I deserved this job! I work hard!” When they find out a woman got the job, they might ascribe unfavorable attributions and say something like, “That woman didn’t earn that job! She’s just skating on the coattails of this bullshit feminism!”

One final kicker: indoctrination. Most of the time when people are being bigoted assholes, there is one or more specific schools of indoctrination being used. They grew up in a racist neighborhood in the South. They grew up with a uber-conservative rich daddy. They grew up in the fundamentalist Christian church. These indoctrinations add fuel to the fire insofar as they give the bigot the material/content needed to help them justify their change-aversion/entitlement/attributions.

So: consider change-aversion/attribution theory/entitlement by a member of a privileged class with the notion of being forced to take down a Confederate flag. Their subconscious says: “I don’t like change. We can’t change things,” (change-aversion). They search for something to argue their point so things won’t change: “I’m from the South. I remember my daddy telling me that flag is my heritage,” (indoctrination). They exclaim their uninformed opinion that has no rationale without any problem: “Nobody can make me take down the flag! I love that flag! I am OWED the right and have EARNED the right to fly it! And YOU haven’t done shit to earn the right to take it down!” (entitlement). Lastly, when it gets taken down and they get called bigots, they justify themselves: “I’m not a bigot! It’s these PEOPLE made me take my flag down and THAT’S NOT FAIR and they’re STUPID!” (attribution theory). Not one mention that the Confederate flag as we’ve seen it wasn’t used till the 1960s and it was used by racists as a way to bolster discrimination against the rising Civil Rights Movement. There is no logic in their argument.

Or the same-sex marriage edition: “This isn’t how marriage has always been! (read: I don’t like change. Change-averse.) The bible says it’s an abomination! (read: I’m searching for justification and found it in my religious indoctrination.) Marriage is Adam and Eve NOT Adam and Steve! (read: Marriage is for me. Not you. Entitlement.) Gay people could stop being gay if they weren’t so SINFUL! (Unfavorable attributions: Attribution Theory).” Never once have I heard a compelling argument that actually explains how same-sex marriage is going to ruin the country — just outlandish claims this will lead to bestiality etc. (a la Jonathan Edwards religious intimidation).

So remember: issues of hatred and ignorance are complex. They cannot be explained with one or even a few points alone. Most often, it requires multiple levels of intersection in order to fully deconstruct. Today we discussed (1) Change-aversion, (2) Attribution Theory, (3) Entitlement, (4) Indoctrination. Remember some of these when next annihilating any ignorant and small-minded person you come across.