Prejudice. I think most sane people can agree that it is something we as humanity can do without. History has taught us that most of the world’s conflicts could have easily been avoided if we all sat in a room together and politely discussed everything like calm, reasonable adults.

Except those damn Mexicans. You can put them in any room but they won’t stop being stupid, smelly, lazy spic slobs (that was sarcasm).

Now, why the hell am I talking about prejudice? Because a film about prejudice won Best Film on Sunday at the Academy Awards, that’s why. I have yet to see the movie, but I’ve read enough about it (complete with spoilers and transcripts of dialogue) to know exactly what kind of message it’s trying to convey.

It’s funny. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been told “You Dominicans” or “You Yanks/Americans” do this or that, or how “You Muslims” or you “Ay-rabs” think this or that way. Funnier still because I was told these things by supposed progressive liberals.

Now, I will admit, I myself hold prejudice. But unlike what the talking heads like to tell us, I understand that prejudice is an important part of our social conditioning. Like it or not, since we were children we were taught how superior we were to someone else, be it Republicans, Blacks, Christians, Jews or people from New Jersey.

How many times have you been told how much better your university was over those “pricks” in Georgia Tech or those “fags” in New York State? Or that your family was so much cleaner and nicer then the Browns down the block? Or how your political party is full of smarter and better people then those other guys?

Face it. You (whoever you may be) are prejudice. As a child, I was taught about the evils of capitalism and those who hold personal freedom over collective group think. Of course, today I am a Libertarian, which is the complete opposite of everything I was taught but I have to admit to you, as a child I really believed in these things. I was taught to hate people like Ronald Reagan and Joaquin Balaguer for their emphasis on personal responsibility and not “doing their obligation” of helping those who were less fortunate.

To this day, my father and I scuffle over fiscal and economic issues. At the moment, he seems to have swerved MORE to the left, openly supporting assholes like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales instead of the Kennedy/Clinton liberal I remember him as.

But we both hate Bush. That’s a given.

See: there I go again. Hating all Neo-Cons like Bush because I think they’re spineless, socialist fuck faced pieces of shit for their so called “war on terror”, their submission to the government over issues of personal freedom and their complete mishandling of the economy.

One thing I always found hilarious was with my European friends and acquaintances over me being an American/Yank (never mind that I am the complete opposite of a yank: a Confederate). For whatever reason, Europe seems to have become a socialist paradise, producing a whole generation’s worth of neo-socialists who seem to all despise America.

Which is okay. You may have many reasons to not like the American government for whatever reason, especially in these turbulent times of fake wars and color based alert systems.

One thing I take offence in how most of the Europeans I’ve met and debated issues with seem to all a “holier then thou”, smug, arrogant air to their arguments. Many of them seem to be so obsessed with the idea that people in America are obsessed with race, that they become prejudice of us for being prejudice. Never mind that most of us aren’t, but whenever I spoke to them, they came off as gaining no factual information from real life interaction with actual people or statistical studies, but rather from entertainment mediums such as television and movies. I always asked them to prove to me that Americans in general were racist, and they’d point out things like the “poetry” of Tupac Shakur or movies by Spike Lee.

Heh, right bozos…

Like, there was this guy I knew from France. We once debated the issue of guns and gun control after watching that utter sacks of lies and propaganda “Bowling for Columbine”. He was using Michael Moore’s argument of how crime would not exist if it wasn’t for poverty and that criminals wouldn’t have access to guns if there were stricter laws on gun control in America.

Three questions to ask a smug liberal when debating the bullshit that is gun control: 1) If poverty was the only cause of crime, why is it that in countries with much more poverty like Nepal have such lower crime rates? 2) Why is it that in communities that loosen restrictions on gun control burglaries and murders actually LOWER then when gun laws are stronger? 3) Why has crime raised ten fold in the past 20 years in Western European countries like England, Spain and France if they have some of the strictest gun laws in the World?

His (and I’d assume most non intelligent liberal’s response) and my comments underneath:

1) People in Nepal are more civilized and less prone to violence then people in the West.

Riiiiight.. so what you’re saying is that poor blacks are more prone to violence then even poorer Desis? Good one friend

2) They lower because all the criminals are shot when they try to commit a crime.

That is, when they attack one of their would be victims, they are subdued by a vigilant populace. Of course, people like him don’t believe that victims should fight back, but rather put themselves at the mercy of bloodthirsty, dangerous criminals.

3) The only reason crime has gone up in Western Europe is because people from the third world Muslim countries are immigrating there and they don’t understand the rules and morality of the West.

So you accuse AMERICANS of being prejudice? Look at yourself asshole.

The point is, this person was an idiot. They had no semi-intelligent besides the usual anti-American banter of supposed prejudice of my part and racism (never mind I never grouped a race of people or religious community together; but he on the other hand did.

Or any time a different (this time Belgium) liberal who goes on and on to me about their hatred of America and how prejudiced and evil we are and I were talking about something and I brought up the word “Germanic” (as in, related to the peoples, language and culture of the ancient German tribes of the classical age). This person who claimed to me how the Belgium school system was much SO better then the American one (which I agree with, just not in her case) and how Europeans were so much better then Americans thought I was being stupid and confusing the word “Germanic” with the word “German”. Of course, I explained to her the exact definition of the word and even went as far as to prove it to her with an encyclopaedia and dictionary.

Her response? I had no authority to talk about Germany because I had never been there and that I was just stupid and an idiot (her method was talking to an invisible third: “This guy is SOOOO stupid”, “What an idiot”, etc.)

Ad homonyms and lack of an education aside, this proves one important issue: that of arrogance. I tried to drop the issue many a times, but this person kept insisting with her insults and questioning of my intelligence. Now, you gotta wonder about any system that lets people like her pass any grade, eh? But again, this was a one sided argument: I knew I was right. It wasn’t arrogance, it was just the truth.

I had nothing to prove to her. I knew I was right and that she was just being an uniformed buffoon (I actually read books, unlike her). There’s an old saying about how arguing with stupid people is like winning the Special Olympics: At the end, you’re still a retard. Debates are supposed to be intelligent, informed discussions between people with differing views. There’s no point in debating if Georgia is a country or that most of Iceland is green to a person who doesn’t know. No matter what you say or what they say, its not a debate. If you’re right, you don’t have to prove anything. If you choose to humour them, its just to educate them NOT to debate anything (which would imply a difference of views or opinions).

Anyways, because of her arrogance and how she had been taught since she was a child how we Americans are all stupid mules and how continental Europeans are the greatest, most superior people on Earth, she choose the route of insults and name calling.

The best part is she still thinks she won (if there really can be any winners here). I am just a stupid American with no authority on Germany because I’ve never been there. Now I bet she’ll go back to her native land and tell everyone how she beat those dumb Americans on stuff everyone in Europe knows (that being that “Germanic” was never a word). Pity on the world for letting the stupid rule…

I’m not trying to imply that all Europeans or Liberals think a certain way (or are as stupid as those two fuckers were) but certainly, the whole leftist, “criminals are just victims” and “guns are evil” and “Europeans are so much better and smarter then Americans” crowd really, really has to make better arguments if they hope to win debates with people with brains like myself (although any educated European would know about the word Germanic).

And take my experience in urban America. All my life I’ve heard about how the white man does nothing but oppress people of color by holding them down and trying to break any sense of self confidence or pride they may have.

But then, I actually went, lived and worked in a mostly poor, black area.

I was constantly harassed, lampooned, teased, threatened and called things like “Ay-rab”, “Camel fucker”, “Chico”, “Sand Nigga”, “Cracker” (because I was articulate and spoke big, incomprehensible words like “responsibility” and “deviant”) amongst many, many other things.

There goes the whole “people of color all stand together against the evils of the white man”.

Interesting note: I live in the American South; the supposed bedrock of racism and prejudice in America. Yet not once have I been mocked, teased or insulted for my race or religion in the suburban, white areas. Food for thought, eh?

The point I’m making and have always tried to make is prejudice is much more common then we think, even amongst those who claim to be on the moral high horse and keep “open minds” about everyone and thing.

It’s if we learn to kill those thoughts of prejudice and bias when we meet someone who breaks the mould of what our predisposed minds tell us that really, truly matters.

Remember to ride the rocket kiddos!