Member-only story
I Know the Torment of Growing Up in a Culture that Celebrates Ignorance
You must run and hide and survive because we need you
You’ve got to keep your head down because you’re surrounded by enemies. The last thing you want is for them to look at you. They’ll look and they’ll wait for you to do something they don’t like.
Then they’ll attack.
They’ll attack with ridicule and volume but never reason. They’ll summon their chortling hoards and come after you. They won’t let you get away. Once exposed they’ll pester you. They’ll throw rocks at you. They’ll poke you with sticks. They’ll hit you with sticks. They’ll keep going until you’re destroyed.
They take a living body and render it into a smear.
I’ve lived through this. I’ve survived it.
It’s a sad thing to live in a society where ignorance is celebrated. A certain kind of person thrives in a world like that, a loathsome kind of person. They are people who celebrate pain. They laugh. They see little children in agony and they cry with laughter.
You have to do what you can to help the marginalized, but there are so many and there’s only so much you can do. You have to offer refuge where you can.
