Yesterday there was a post on this blog about Tim Hardaway and his public statement that he “hates gay people.” The post suddenly disappeared. People wondered if Hardaway’s people “got to me” and threatened to sue.
No. Nothing that interesting.
I approve reader comments before they get posted. You didn’t see the worst ones. The reactions to my Hardaway post were making me lose the last morsel of respect I have for humanity. It was a personal decision to kill the post and stop the incoming comments on that topic. I couldn’t read them anymore.
I tried to focus the Hardaway post on his incredibly bad decision to publicly announce his hatred for gays while at the same time he was a paid ambassador for the NBA. I figured my readers could stick to that point and not make it a referendum on political correctness, gay rights, the n-word, the holocaust, and worse. But things got ugly fast. So I yanked the post.
For the record, while I don’t share Hardaway’s opinion of “gay people,” I totally support his right to hate anyone he wants, for whatever reason he wants, no matter how irrational. I even totally support his right to announce his opinion in any shape and fashion he chooses. I just think he was stupid to not expect the reaction he got. I am amused by people who have unusually bad powers of pattern recognition.
I have an aesthetic dislike for any sort of irrational hate talk. And it’s not good to expose kids and idiots to that sort of thing, since it might influence their own opinions and actions. But that’s the price of free speech.
I have some strange sympathy for the Mel Gibsons and Tim Hardaways and Jerry Falwels and anyone else who spouts hate talk and gets hammered for it. They are being punished for their honesty, more so than for their opinions. It’s not a crime to think irrational and ignorant thoughts. It’s only a crime to act on them. Unfortunately, talking is in that grey area between a thought and an action. It’s a little of both. And to the extent that voicing a bad thought can rile up people and make it more likely that someone else will act on similar bad thoughts, it’s probably healthy for society to nip it in the bud.
It’s a worthy goal to love all types of people in exactly the same amount, but it’s not something any of us can achieve. The impulse to discriminate is a feature of our brains. We look for patterns and make decisions based on them. Sometimes the patterns are illusions, and we come to irrational conclusions. Likewise, we all have different preferences. It would be impossible for everyone to love and respect everyone else in the same amount. Our brains aren’t wired for that. The best we can do is try.
Here’s a scary thought: Scientists can already monitor the brain and identify attraction and repulsion to various stimuli. Suppose an employer of the future decided to scan job applicants for unacceptable forms of hatred. They could put the sensors on your head, then show you pictures of various types of people, and measure your responses. In other words, science can already identify thought crimes.
If the brain scan shows that you hate Elbonians, but you have no record of ever discriminating against anyone, should the potential employer be allowed to deny you employment on that basis?
It’s going to happen.