Where the fuck do I put this?

[ThatGreenGentleman]

Hey guys, don't know if you remember this guy but he made a video about labels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks_sJOcOm2k

[ThatGreenGentleman]

Quick question you guys. Do you think it's rational or irrational to be afraid of straight people? (Explanation is optional)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hey guys, don't know if you remember this guy but he made a video about labels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks_sJOcOm2k

I like what he has to say about it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Quick question you guys. Do you think it's rational or irrational to be afraid of straight people? (Explanation is optional)

Mostly irrational in Portland, quite likely rational in Phoenix, I don't know about Tuscon.

I mean, mostly it just depends on the context, I think.

[Salty]

I was afraid of straight people, and held onto some other queer people for dear life.

Until they rejected me more brutaly than any straight person I had known.

Then I was afraid of everybody.

This peristsed until I found religion.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Being afraid of anything is best avoided as far as possible.

Especially scary things.

Fear clouds the mind in situations where the ability to think clearly is your most valuable asset.

[Doktor Howl]

Quick question you guys. Do you think it's rational or irrational to be afraid of straight people? (Explanation is optional)

Mostly irrational in Portland, quite likely rational in Phoenix, I don't know about Tuscon.

I mean, mostly it just depends on the context, I think.

This would certainly apply in small town America...But fear isn't rational.  It isn't designed to be rational.  It is designed to take over when "rational" won't make the nut (leopard coming through the grass).  Fear gives you a buttload of adrenaline but limits your decision-making options, because that's a survival mode on the savannahs that we more or less evolved on.

In a modern society, almost all of the options that fear DOES loan you are even further limited, so other strategies are important (camouflage, belligerence, "I sting", etc). 

As far as labels go, again, it's a context thing.  Accepting differences makes people tolerant, but on the other hand, BEING the label isn't the right answer, because people aren't billboards.  Alongside this, who wants to be introduced as "Bill, my Gay friend", or "Sally, my Transgender friend"?

My problem with this guy is that he's the same guy that argued that his fear justifies his bigotry...Which is basically validating the "Gay panic" defense used in the 90s to legally attempt to justify the murder or beating of Gays by straights.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh, it's the same guy? That was completely stupid, bigoted, and unacceptable.

[Doktor Howl]

Oh, it's the same guy? That was completely stupid, bigoted, and unacceptable.

Yeah, and while that doesn't necessarily mean that his new podcast is automatically crap, it does cast doubt on it.  And I while I see now why labels are important and that homogenous groups REDUCE tolerance (obvious when you think about it), I have to say that "being the label" is sort of the opposite of "think for yourself".  When used in that fashion, the label is a uniform.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Right, whereas the label should just be a descriptive tag.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Yes. Like "tall" or "brown hair".