Justin

One problem with stereotypes is that people often forget that they do not apply to every member of a particular group. Although many gay men do exhibit stereotypical personality traits such as the ones you describe in your question to this site, one can easily find more than one gay man whose personality traits defy all stereotypes about gay men; and even if you could only find one such gay man, the truth that stereotypes do not apply to every member of a particular group would still hold.

Because of a twisted sense of political correctness taught to the masses primarily by the mainstream media, the complaints one hears about stereotypes are often limited only to the ones dealing with the negative traits of a particular group’s members; but that approach is intellectually dishonest. Someone who objects to stereotypes on principle should be intellectually honest enough to be just as offended by ones that deal with the positive traits of a particular group’s members as he is by the ones dealing with the negative traits of a particular group’s members.

In any honest discussion of stereotypes, the topic of collectivism must be broached; for stereotypes are born of that mindset, which always views people as members of a group – or “community” - instead of as individuals. The twentieth century has appropriately been dubbed “America’s century of perpetual war” because of America’s return to a debt-based monetary system that allowed it to fund wars it couldn’t otherwise afford, and it holds especially powerful lessons about the evils of collectivism. During World War Two, President Franklin D. Roosevelt victimized an entire “community” of Americans when he authorized the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans into war relocation camps. Although Roosevelt touted himself as a “progressive”, that despicable act of collectivism is one of the most regressive policies ever enacted in the history of the United States of America; and it clearly illustrates the terrible danger inherent in the collectivist practice of lumping individuals into a “community” and thinking that all the members of that community are the same because they share a superficial characteristic. Although one would never know it by listening to the mainstream media or spending thirteen years in America’s government-run educational system, the twentieth century was also marked by several horrifying holocausts instead of just one as many Americans are mistakenly taught. The twentieth century’s holocausts occurred in various regions of the world, and they affected people of various religions. All of the twentieth century’s holocausts, however, were the product of heinous collectivism; for they targeted for extermination entire “communities” of people based on such superficial factors as sexual orientation, race, disability, and religion. Another glaring example of collectivism during the twentieth century was the American military’s infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which was instituted under Bill Clinton, another supposedly “progressive” president responsible for a regressive policy that was based on the collectivist concept that all members of a particular “community” are the same because they happen to share a superficial characteristic like sexual orientation instead of being based on the more elevated concept that people should be regarded as the unique individuals that they are. Additionally, the twentieth century was marred by racism, not just in America, but throughout the world. Racism is a narrow form of collectivism because it considers all the members of a particular race to be the same. Collectivism is the parent “ism” of racism, and it is just as abhorrent to people of good will.

Today is a new century, but not much has changed since the last one. America, for example, is still expanding its empire through bankrupting wars financed with exorbitant debt. Collectivism also continues to thrive in the twenty-first century, but we are now appallingly told that it is politically correct. All one has to do to witness collectivism in action today is turn on the television, read a newspaper, or listen to the radio. The mainstream media play a powerful role in defining what is politically correct for the masses. In America, the mainstream media are today vastly under the control of only a little more than a handful of powerful corporations; and those corporations are preaching a subtle form of collectivism when they use the media outlets they control to emphasize the debased and un-American notions of “community” and group rights over the more highly evolved and truly American notions of individuality and individual rights. The part of your question that asks for clarification of the gay “community’s” view of stereotypes about gay people suggests that you have unconsciously adopted certain aspects of the odious collectivist notions preached to you by the mainstream media. It is understandable that you would succumb to the diligent efforts the powerful mainstream media make to covertly affect your thinking in such a manner; but you certainly did not adopt the mainstream media’s collectivist notions of your own free will. They were forcibly fed to you through everything you listen to, read, and watch. What you view on television is called “programming” for a very good reason.

I thank you for your question. It sparked a discussion that will benefit this site’s readership by demonstrating that stereotypes lack validity because they rise from collectivism, a dangerous mindset that gave birth to several holocausts during the last century. People are individuals first and foremost, and their individuality should not be casually disregarded. The mainstream media’s penchant for always dividing people into one so-called “community” or another based on some superficial characteristic is dangerously divisive and demeaning. Gay people were lumped into a “community” targeted for extermination by perpetrators of one of the twentieth century’s holocausts. All people, however, have a responsibility to remember the lessons taught by disturbing examples of collectivist thinking during the last century and this one. Until they do, gay and straight Americans will continue to take pride in actually volunteering to help President Obama kill the innocent men, women, and children of resource-rich countries that never attacked or posed an imminent threat to ours by dropping bombs loaded with radioactive depleted uranium on them; and certain activists will be telling us that the right to voluntarily help pollute the world’s environment and kill innocent civilians is a civil right. Not all the people killed by Obama’s bombs are terrorists. People who tell you otherwise have forgotten the many vital lessons twentieth century history teaches about the evils of collectivism.

I wish you fair winds and following seas.