I have a lot of time on hand, which means I get to read a lot and think a lot: news, scientific magazines, research studies; I also read a lot of people's status updates and comments on FB. Nearly every day, I want to pull my hair out.
Here are a three examples:
- a friend posted a photo of children in their community. A child didn't wear shoes while others did. So the parent of this shoes-less child commented that - oh my child was the only one that didn't wear shoes. Then another person commented: aboriginal tribes' children don't (have to) wear shoes.
- a friend posted report a piece of news that cited incorrect data on HIV prevalence. After pointing out to this friend that the data are incorrect and hence the news is not reliable, this friend said: but it is good to use this incorrect and inflated data, because people will be more aware of this issue.
- a friend posted a status update stating that due to rabies, people should refrain from eating dog meats.
Why are these comments bothering me?
In the first example, the person made an implicit note that discriminated children (and perhaps also the parents) in the aboriginal tribes. It was stereotyping and discriminating to link aboriginals to low socioeconomic status such as no shoes were anticipated. The fact that wearing shoes had nothing to do with race/ethnicity/background, but more to do with parenting and income. (I could not care less whether the child was wearing shoes.)
In the second example, the person does not recognize and appreciate the importance and value of evidence and that truth, regardless good or bad, should based on true evidence. Moreover, that the public should not but will be manipulated by false information.
In the third example, the person (jokingly perhaps), but made the connection that the disease - rabies, is transmitted from eating animals that were infected.
It upsets me that many people do not possess an awareness towards discriminatory comments, and a serious attitude towards evidence and science.
I can see why this happened and why many people who also read the comments or status updates were not angry. Perhaps, this was due to a lack of training in science and critical thinking, and/or a lack of curiosity, empathy, and sympathy to the world around them.
It also upsets me that most people do not care or realized the things that they say (or don't say) or do (or don't do) are a sign of accepting and surrendering.
When I was younger, there would be people telling me that: oh this is not a big deal; let it go; forget about it; what can you do; it's the world, you can't change them; ignore them; one rice and hundreds of people. Dot dot dot, blah blah blah.
As I grew older, and began to think and ask myself - should I just sit on my ass and shut up about it? Is this what my education, training, and living abroad experience taught me? Should I stand up for what I believe in?
I sometimes kept my mouth shut for the reason that perhaps a particular comment or thought was a social norm to them. As I am not part of their society or merely social group, I am (maybe) overstepping my boundary to make a comment on what I think one should think or act. As there are no golden rules in life (aside from a few) and beliefs and behaviors have a trace of history and societal values, I should not use my personal experience to hold that against them.
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