I was reading about Mel Gibson’s anti-semitic rants, and his apology about being drunk* when I remembered this meme. I agree with the meme, that our brains tend to feed us what we’ve heard from our environment, but our conscious mind overrides that with our processed thoughts.
People use “he didn’t mean it, he was drunk/high” as an excuse for racist/misogynist/whateverist comments. The response is typically “you don’t become racist when drunk, you just drop your inhibitions and reveal who you are.”
But if you agree with the First Thought meme, what if being impaired isn’t revealing what you really think, but is preventing you from thinking at all, and just getting stuck on your conditioned response?
*Gibson is just an example. This post is not about litigating whether he personally is racist, but about this sort of behavior in general.
Can you choose to have beliefs?
I cannot. If you were to hold me at gunpoint and forced me to genuinely believe, say, in the Flying Spaghetti Monster you would have to shoot me.
It’s almost certain that I have beliefs that are wrong and I’m they are wrong. Doesn’t mean I can just stop believing in them.
Ordering someone to change their beliefs at gunpoint is kind of the opposite of asking them to think. You can’t reasonably ask someone to not have been born to minority parents, because it’s impossible, but you can ask someone to think about why that might not be reasonable, or improve the quality of information that is the basis for their considerations, which are possible.
As for FSM, make pilgrimage to the pasta plains to witness the world’s spaghetti supply descending from the sky, and cast a critical eye on media peddling conspiracy theories like “wheat” and “rolling machines”.
Uh… Yeah. All beliefs are chosen. Just because you wouldn’t find a gun a convincing argument doesn’t mean you can’t choose to believe in the FSM (may you be blessed by his noodley appendages). You’d just have to work at it a bit, find evidence to support your views, and ignore any and all evidence counter to your views.
People raised in a cult can have beliefs they did not choose, but were forced upon them.