The Sin of Projecting

In my last post, I did a bad thing.  I projected my own fears and anger onto others, and did precisely what I was accusing nameless, faceless others of doing: stereotyping and dehumanizing.

Some people built a shockingly unimaginative house on a shockingly large amount of land behind me.  That, and the security shield, is all I know about them.  From there, I concluded they were Out To Destroy My Way of Life and Ruin SL Forever!!1!

Which?  Was exactly what I accused them of thinking about me.

I was being part of the problem of bigotry and intolerance, and not part of the solution.  I don't like my tendency to overgeneralize and to shoot first, and I'm not proud of what that says about me. My beloved

ali_hermes

 called me out on it in comments, and she's absolutely right.

I wish I could just say I overreacted and was in the wrong, and leave it at that.

But, the thing is, everything else I discussed in that post - the griefing, the militant hatred of imagination, the bigotry - it's rampant out there, and we do need to fight back against it.

Take a look at London Spengler's post today in Pandora's Box:  amazing, huh, that post she cites?  I'm just going to leave that there: I'm just so stunned, so depressed by the bigotry.   I'm not afraid for SL - my parts of the world and that woman's would never touch, voice or no voice. But, it's pretty awful to see.

Still, no excuse for my contributing to the hate, and I apologize to all of you -