Ignorance Can Always Be Remedied...

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Ignorance can always be remedied, but stupidity is a choice borne of self-perpetuated bias that placates the imaginatively righteous as they make their way up to their gold plated shit pedestals. We're all on our own individual paths, though, and sometimes it means treading through muddy waters. I know I've had my time megaphoning against the things I didn't understand. The genuine truth-seeker, though, never stays camped out in one place. Eventually, new light sheds upon old suspicions and our mental lens sharpens its focus. All in good time, if one has the Will to know.

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Yes, in theory ignorance can be remedied. But there are problems there, such as we often see among trans-hating cispeople. For one thing, they have no will to remedy their ignorance. They don't want to know anything about us. They simply wish we'd go away.

Also, there are those among them who think they understand us. So how do you remedy your ignorance when you're ignorant of the fact that you're ignorant?

In order to learn, you have to understand that there is much you don't know and that you need to learn. You have to be open. You have to be humble. You have to have a thirst for learning. You have to realize that the world is a big, magical place and that you're missing out on a lot if you don't want to know as much about it as possible.

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You got it, Foxy! You still have to believe that it's possible, though. Not just with trans issues, but with anything. I know it sounds like new-agey, "The Secret" kind of rhetoric, but positive thinking + strong will and intent = positive results. People who proclaim one thing, but behave oppositely (like Social Justice Warriors) just make things worse. Still, the stupid people give us reason to act accordingly. They serve as the whetting stone that sharpens our mental instruments.

There's a great quote by Schopenhauer:

"Truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second,
it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

We must apply vigilance and wisdom in the face of naysaying, bigotry and outright opposition.
Ignorance can always be remedied. It's just a matter of when.

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Feb 14, 2015 9:48:59 GMT 8 @illuminess said:

Ignorance can always be remedied, but stupidity is a choice borne of self-perpetuated bias that placates the imaginatively righteous as they make their way up to their gold plated shit pedestals. We're all on our own individual paths, though, and sometimes it means treading through muddy waters. I know I've had my time megaphoning against the things I didn't understand. The genuine truth-seeker, though, never stays camped out in one place. Eventually, new light sheds upon old suspicions and our mental lens sharpens its focus. All in good time, if one has the Will to know.

Well you can educate ignorance but you can never fix stupid.

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Feb 16, 2015 4:42:23 GMT 8 @jamie said:

Well you can educate ignorance but you can never fix stupid.

Yep. Stupidity is self-maintained ignorance. These people choose not to know. You definitely can, however, be a beacon of truth so that they at least have the opportunity if they ever change their minds.

I've gone through several phases where I was absolutely certain that I knew something; and despite the pain of my ego trying to cling onto the old or faulty information, I still pushed forth to higher understanding. What I was against yesterday — out of the bias and the absolution that only seemed to empower me — I am more embracing of today.

If we don't evolve our ideas and perspectives through new information then we never arrive at any solutions or any real conclusions. That's why it's important to me that I believe people can wake up, and why it's important to me that I share what I know with positivity and patience. It's the pessimistic and defensive way of being that only stagnates and destroys these possibilities.

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You're touching on a question here that I've always found very interesting: why is it that some people are open-minded, open to new influences and ideas, while others aren't?

I'd say probably there could be many reasons why a given individual might be closed-minded. But one reason, I feel pretty sure, is that they have something to protect. E.g., one man I know fairly well. I've got the impression that when he was young, he was made to feel pretty worthless. I.e., his ego, his self-esteem were seriously under attack. So he reacted by clinging fiercely to the conservative religious and political views he grew up with. He was nailing his colours to the mast, so to speak. He was saying, "This is what I am." And in that way he feels comfortable because he knows where he stands and who he is.

But challenge his views--and I've seen it done--and he flares up in a hurry. When you're challenging his views, you're challenging his ego, and he simply can't afford that because his ego is so fragile. I've also seen him go out of his way to state his opinion on certain matters when there was really no call to. He was simply reinforcing his ego.

This is why it's so difficult for a transperson to acknowledge that they're trans. You have something to protect--your standing in society. It can cost you a lot to recognize that you're not the male or female that society insists you have to be. So you go into denial. But eventually the pressure becomes too great: it starts costing you more not to recognize what you are than it does to recognize what you are. You have to open up because what you're protecting comes at too high a price. You've found something else you need to protect.

People can be under different sorts of pressure, and they react to them differently.