On "Boxes"

Hot take:  The sub-identities in the gay "community" are every bit as noxious as rigid hetero gender roles & every bit as OBnoxious as the transgender navel gazing over gender identities.  Every other word is "Bear/Twink," "Top/Bottom," "Butch/Femme," or "Sub/Dom," as if any of that shit means a thing beyond the superficial.  What happened to just being a person?  Your own person?  Why the overwhelming need to label every nuance of your personality, appearance & sexual preference & put yourself in a box?  Especially when most of those boxes are just bootleg imitations of mainstream hetero dynamics?  

It's not just gays/lesbians though: Everyone subscribes to one cult or another these days.  Whether it's actual religion, the Republican/Democrat 2-Party cult, the Hustle/Grind Culture that worships at the altar of Elon Musk & other billionaires, the Gender Identity cult or something else, very few people are thinking critically or for themselves.  It's "let me check with the group & see what we think. I'll get back to ya."  Or "here, watch me vomit up a tired mantra like "transwomen are women" or "Jesus is king" that's actually just meaningless, vague circular reasoning while thinking I've outwitted you."  

The slow-motion Civil War between conservatives/liberals since 9/11 is a prime example.  We've become completely incapable of judging ANY world event without the red-and-blue-tinted glasses of the 2-party paradigm, be it a natural disaster, foreign war, climate change, infectious disease or a vapid off-handed celebrity comment.  Liberals are expected to take one side, conservatives the other.  The problem with that is, there aren't always 2 equally valid sides.  Sometimes you're just wrong and sometimes, your wrongness is dangerous. 

Opinions and beliefs are welcome when discussing things like celebrity gossip or football teams or which fast food place has the best burger--NOT when it comes to the hard sciences. Whether you "believe" that climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels & has dire consequences for all life on Earth, the reality remains the same.  Wherever your "opinion" falls on COVID being a highly-transmissible airborne disease that causes lasting cardiovascular and immune damage, the reality remains the same.  Just as 2+2=4 can be proven with a series of steps, so can these other scientific assertions.  Whether you choose to ignore/dismiss that evidence is up to you, but it changes absolutely nothing.   Your beliefs do not influence reality, or, as some would say "Facts don't care about your feelings."  

Instead of assessing each topic individually & coming to a logical conclusion based on the evidence for ourselves, we default to letting our religious leaders, political spokesmen or fave influencers/celebrities do the thinking for us.  Because it's both easier & more socially acceptable to do so.  Nobody wants to take a stance that alienates their friends or loved ones, but failing to do so on certain issues makes you a coward & enabler of evil.  Sometimes it is better to be right than happy, but not when it comes to potentially dangerous things like climate or disease denial. And not all science topics are of equal consequence.  Even though gravity is real and the Earth is round, it doesn't really matter whether you "believe" those things.  But not believing that infectious diseases are a threat could cost you your life or those of others in your orbit.  



Our Pointless Bickering = a Useful Diversion for the Powerful 

Cults require a common enemy to strengthen the bonds between members.  Putting yourself in a tiny box labeled "Black transwoman," "neurodivergent boymom," "straight white Christian" or "bleedingheart liberal" means you'll soon be seeking an enemy to bolster your worldview & create stronger bonds with like-minded believers.  That leads to endless bickering online & IRL.  No meaningful change happens except to your blood pressure. 

Meanwhile the gap between rich & poor reaches new obscene heights as billionaires become "centi-billionaires" & living conditions deteriorate for everyone else.  Viruses & bacteria continue mutating to outsmart our immune defenses, landfills overflow worldwide due to overconsumption, species go extinct from "habitat loss" (read: human overpopulation).   Average annual temperatures continue creeping up as natural disasters like floods & wildfires become more severe & common.  The next mass shooter plans his crime & will succeed despite unconstitutional compromises like the Patriot Act & NDAA.  Prisons fill to overflowing with non-violent offenders.  Wealthy criminals beat the "justice" system like Epstein & Diddy & so many others named & unnamed.  Voting is treated like a sacred social duty that will solve our problems, meanwhile neither the Left nor Right trusts election results if they're not to their liking.  

The word FUTILE comes to mind.  Around & around we go, staying stuck in the same cosmic cycle of cognitive bias, willful ignorance and the real-world consequences of both.  It's not about keeping such an open mind your brain falls out--just the opposite.  Failing to think critically or applying reductive labels to yourself only creates more discord, and not the kind that's revolutionary or changes things for the better.  The kind that stresses your immune system & damages your mental health, estranges family members and friends from each other & makes life measurably worse for everyone. 

We're all human beings before we're a race, sex, "gender," sexual orientation, religion or national citizen.  We all have the same basic needs of food, clothing & shelter to survive as well as the emotional need to be accepted, acknowledged & respected.  Failing to realize that lies at the heart of most major atrocities throughout human history (not that we learn from history anyway). 

As long as technology is used solely to enrich its creators like it is now, it can never do what it was intended to do--increase lifespan & efficiency, reduce workload & make life easier for the human race.  We'll keep getting power grid-draining AI that puts artists, writers, teachers & other educated people out of a job.  Without a Universal Basic Income this will result in massive hardship & starvation for millions around the world.  As long as infectious diseases like COVID are allowed to run rampant through society, more healthcare workers will leave the field for good due to trauma & burnout.  If we continue letting our leaders dismantle public institutions like the postal system, public schools & public health orgs, pretty soon we won't have a country... at least not a functioning one.   

I don't have the answers to the world's problems.  All I know is that change starts with independent thinking & standing up to power, including the powerful members of your own cult.   Maybe especially them.  Better yet, break out of the self-imposed prison of groupthink and stay away from cults (aka "like-minded groups with a similar vision") altogether.  Be a human being first.  Do you.