General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)results supply. I've been reading DU for years, but this sort of thing is one of the reasons I hadn't joined until recently. It's very hard to have discussions of some of the things which very much need to be discussed because a mob mentality seems to develop and facts are dismissed. Admissions of any failure to hold strictly progressive views on every aspect of every issue, even when one is admitting a developing realization that the unenlightened views a just that, or when one is asking for help in understanding the problem with those old views, are almost guaranteed to make the person wish they'd never brought up the subject.
I am in no way defending the OPs attitude nor, most certainly not his past actions, but he seems to be describing the reprehensible views he had toward women and sexual conduct back in his youth in stark, offensive terms for the sake of honesty and admission of past ignorance, not for shock value or to champion that ignorance. But since, thankfully, most here never held such views nor knew people who did, they cannot accept the fact that these view were not uncommon in certain circles.
Again, the results of the survey reported above support the OPs claims that such horribly misguided attitudes could easily have been part of his micro-culture. Also, I happen to have had the misfortune to have encountered teens/men who held such beliefs. I'd rather not go into details about my dreadful experiences resulting from having fallen in with such people.
As revolting as it is to see a child dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes, I don't see that we can blame the child. As long as their family and friends are Klan members and racists, at what point is the child expected to break free from the brainwashing?
And, if that child was fortunate to have fallen in with non-bigoted people has begun to see their past beliefs as wrong, can we not do better to educate and encourage that development rather than to send that person back to the old familiar territory?
It's very late. Maybe I'm not expressing my self coherently, but I'm trying.