digitaldiscipline ◾ ◾ Negative Bias

I'd like to take a few moments to talk about the subject of bigotry and prejudice.

There are very good reasons these are considered to be asshole attitudes. But there is also, on occasion, some pushback from people who exhibit bigoted or prejudicial attitudes under the heading of, "But you're acting bigoted towards me for holding this belief!" or "You're prejudiced against people of $religion/$fandom/$operating system!" or similar.

That is, however, not precisely the same thing.

When Bigoted Person A (BPA) denigrates or discriminates against people for things beyond their control - gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, neuropathy, physical (dis)ability, and so on - they're being a bigot and an asshole, and need to be called on their shit.

By contrast, when Accused Bigot B (ABB) denigrates or discriminates against BPA for choices BPA has made - attitudes towards others, religious beliefs, and whatnot - that's criticism.

People are free to believe anything they want. They are free to make choices about which attitudes they hold and which opinions they express. They are not, however, immune from criticism for those beliefs, attitudes, and opinions. Those can be thought about and revised and changed... and, at some point, they were expressly adopted and endorsed by the individual espousing them (whether they were brought up in an environment that fostered ugly attitudes or came to them later in life is, while not immaterial, still not an excuse for continuing to maintain intellectual positions that are dishonest at best, and evil at worst; there's enough exposure to the wider world that most people ought to be able to recognize when they're out of step with what passes for civilized attitudes).