A short treatise on bigotry.

A bigot is a person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from his or her own, and bigotry is the corresponding state of mind.


The term is a contradictory paradox. To accuse someone else of being a bigot, the accuser must be intolerant of the views of the bigot, thus making the accuser a bigot. All cretans are liars.


To call me a bigot because of my personal opinion is to be a bigot. Just because you may not like my own views doesn’t make you correct and me wrong. It simply means we have a difference of opinion.


The term falls further when it is used as a pejorative term without proof or evidence. This is the most common use of the term in modern language when the simple use of the term is sufficient to end an argument. Statistics and facts are left behind when skin colour, religion or ethnic background enter an argument.


Should I say, perhaps, that the majority of terrorist murders in London in the last 3 years have been committed by Muslims, the accusations of bigotry will flay fast and furiously. The fact that it is demonstrably true doesn’t matter in the mind of the accuser. I must be a bigot because I mentioned a religious minority.


Tony Blair, hardly a right wing racist, was called a bigot in 2007 after he came out with the news that everyone had known for years. That London is in the grip of a black violent crime epidemic. To mention crime and black in the same sentence is to paint a target on your backside and await the bigot accusations.


But Blair was speaking from the strength of statistics. The black population of London is 10% of the total, yet they account for 25% of crimes involving stabbing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_British
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/statistics_of_knife_crime_in_lon


He simply told the truth. His comments may have offended people, but calling him a bigot was unwarranted and incorrect.


The white house was accused of bigotry in 2006 for calling for measures to tighten border security before passing any guest-worker program. This was not bigotry, but a government doing what it was entitled and expected to do. Protect the nation.


In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic anyone who commented that it was predominantly spread by homosexuals was immediately labeled a bigot. The sheer facts prove them right. Not to put too fine a point on it, the anal passage has no lubrication mechanism. Aggressive penetration by an unlubricated penis will tear the thin membranes of the passage. HIV virus contained in sperm will pass easily from one male to another via “sperm to blood” transmission. The passage via male/female intercourse is more complex and problematic. These are facts, and the statistics bear the facts out. But the chances are someone will accuse me of being a bigot for even daring to say it.


Let me make it clear.
Personal preference is not bigotry. It is our right.
Factually based comments are not bigotry. They are facts.
Freedom of speech exists despite what others may think.