Nancy Pelosi may become the next speaker of the house - 3rd in line of succession to the president. It’s a brilliant move on the part of the republicans to use the phrase “San Francisco Values” and attach it to Demoncrat Pelosi. They have been using the phrase left coast for years as a filthy word, but focusing in on the heart of it all makes sense now. Because it’s meaningless. They can assign whatever horrendous values they want to it. To more moderate folks it might mean being a little weird, a little mellow, a little woowoo new age crystal not entirely right in the head but generally harmless. To the Very Uber Neocons, it means leather demons sticking their fiery multipronged dirty bits converting and infecting their children and pets with “the HIV.”
I’d like to believe the rhetoric and poison of those latter folks is going out of “mainstream” zeitgeist.

But what I remain concerned about is the folks that brand themselves as conservative family values voters. The ones that don’t necessarily believe the fags are out to get them with the big hollywood leftist gay agenda because they are rational. They love their neighbors and their children. They perform acts of charity. They believe that the neocons are misguided and that Jesus didn’t preach intolerance. But, like my father, might call me chuckling because he saw a man in “normal” clothes wearing high heels, and my goodness wasn’t that a hoot. or “I want you to meet my accountant friend. He’s gay too! I just know you’d get along well!”… or “One of my best friends is black”.

I remember reading a book where someone talked about the “particularly virulent form of sexism practiced by intelligent men that’s nearly impossible to confront and combat because they believe they are simply too intelligent to be sexist.”

Those folks are the ones that worry me. I think there are a lot of them, and I don’t know how to combat that except to just keep being good and nice to people and hope that eventually they’ll learn that their deep seated and irrational fears and hatred are just a drain on their own psyches they would be better off letting go of.

To me, San Francisco Values means letting people do whatever it is they need to do that isn’t hurting anyone else. More than that, allowing, enabling, encouraging them to create the product of that work and trying with all your might to respect the effort regardless of your own beliefs. Not silently (or otherwise) denigrating them for not having your specific set of values. It’s hard not to judge sometimes. Values instilled from birth and by context, however warped, are hard to let go of. In some cases you never do, but trying to remain aware of their instinctive ability to influence your thoughts and deeds is the first step. Acting consciously to override those instincts with your own carefully chosen set of values is the next step. Eventually your chosen values become your new instincts and define the person you want to be inside and out.

Deep Thoughts prompted by an article in The Gate this morning.