Invisible

I was talking to Nacia a week or two ago about the biases that we have and don't even notice. its a weird topic to approach; if donald rumsfield was actually a thinkin' man, i would say that undetected biases are what he meant by those "unknown unknowns." because the thing is about real bias, to you, it isn't bias--to yourself, you just think you're right.

one hint i've used to detect this unknown unknown is i probably have some sort of bias when i just can't manage to be on the same communication planet as someone else--where you have No Idea where they are coming from, and there is basically no point where you can reference. If you realize the difference, it's not something that you can breach because....well, you just can't. you can't let yourself sink to that level. that's the bias. you know (think) you're right.
let me put this in concretes.

there were a number of things that absolutely disturbed me about the presidential foreign policy debate and the VP debate, but the number one issue was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it is talked about and portrayed in the debates and by the US mass media.

For example, yesterday the VPs discussed the issue at length, for a whole segment or so. but not ONCE did they even SAY the word Palestine or Palestinians. not even the word. no comments. no references. just unabashed, unfettered declarations of love for Israel. Biden and Palin were in complete agreement about their undying, loving devotion to Israel, and their running mates, based on the last debate and other past statements, are in absolute agreement as well. its unanimous: the next administration no matter who is elected offers no bright light at the end of the tunnel for Palestinians (or the LGBT community, either, but that's a whole 'nother disgusting issue of disappointment). Palin even had the gall to mention that they would work toward building an embassy in Jerusalem. i mean, holy shit! freaking sign Palin up for the likud party! grrr....
the point is, current US foreign policy on israel/palestine is completely not on the same planet i am. i don't understand how it could possibly BE the way it is, and you know, i don't think i want to. cuz i think i'm right. bias.
some examples of things i absolutely do not understand:
1) why does everyone trip over each other to pay homage to israel? why does everyone que up to kiss israel's ass? sure, its our "only ally in the middle east." but saddam hussein was our ally as long as it served our interests, and as soon as it didn't anymore...yeah. being our ally has nothing to do with being the "good guy" (http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/110568.html) or being "right" or noble or anything like that. it's politics. i guess i understand that, as in i know how it works. and i guess that its our ally because its the only other democracy in the region, but if you want to claim israel as a democracy with all its human right abuses, than you should be able to claim turkey as one, too, and we don't really have anything to do with them (though i guess we ignore the plight of the turkey's kurdish population just as much as we do the palestinians, if not more, so look! it is the same). and is it really because israel is the holy blessed country of god's chosen people or something? thats another one of those religious notions that i always thought, before i came to The BYU, that no one really thinks like that anymore, along with other "duh" issues like women's rights and evolution, and sadly, there have been waaaaay too many times where my hopeful notions of what general sanity means have been proven to be just naivete (sure, bias, i suppose). so i wish that wasn't a factor, but the sad truth is it probably is. I'd just have to do a survey of my sunday school class to find out, but i don't want to take a chance on wounding my fragile testimony or organized religion.
2) why does everyone continue to ignore the fact that the israelis participate in illegal actions? I feel like anytime there is ever, Ever, just one remark that shows the Palestinians as victims, or mentions that hey, guess what, it sucks for 1.5 million people to live in a tiny strip of land with no access to economic resources or control of their own power or food sources and little to no infrastructure and be denied the right to leave, or that hundreds of illegal jewish settlers in the west bank violently attack palestinian villages and people, if anything like that is ever said, then it's all, "the israelis have got to protect themselves!" and man, have they gotten good at 'protecting' themselves. obviously, being such good allies of the US, they took a page out of our Iraqi/WoT handbook and decided that the best defense is a killer offense. These are some of my favorite (read:disgusting) statistics: http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Casualties.asp
check out the rest of the website, B'Tselem, an Israeli Human Rights group. it's powerful. and its undeniable--the israelis are guilty guilty guilty, just as guilty of terrible crimes and offenses, if not more so at this point, than the Palestinians are. How could you ever say that it's "clear" who the bad guys are? okay. that sounds resonable. not.
3) what the heck the media is doing. that i cannot understand, in this situation, or in a million other situations around the world. i pull up CNN today, and all the "breaking news" links are about skinny dippers in japan and the view hosts and way way WAY too many useless gossip articles about the presidential candidates, and not anything new or useful or factual. i had to go through about 17 other articles in the newswire feed to find 3 paragraphs talking about violent deaths between feuding factions in Northwest India were over 40 people have died. but oh, my bad, you are right. that is not important, and neither are deaths in Palestine and in Iraq, and no one cares about Afghanistan anymore except Obama (sellout. don't even get me started). so yes, please tell us something vague and completely uninformative about the destruction of our economy and the democratic system.

so So many other things to say!
But this is ridiculous. because here's the thing: i know i'm not biased, i'm just searching for truth and answers. i don't want to wipe jews off the face of the planet or destroy israel or extract people, anyone!, from their homeland. Israel is a political, socio-economic, viable entity, and however it came about, it is there, and that's that. you have a right to exist. i saw some pro-Palestinian graffiti in Bethlehem once, and it read "to exist is to resist," and i like it a lot, especially because it was so true, and so ironic, because little did the artist know that it applies to both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. they both exist there. they are both going to have to find a way to exist there. to exist is to resist, and that goes for all things in existence, Israeli or Palestinian or Kurd or Tibetan or whatever. no one wants to destroy israel just because they don't think they have the right to be there--that's not what all those "extremists" that call for israel's destruction are saying. they are saying stop the madness. stop the oppression. stop the blockades and the discrimination and the illegal settlements and illegal building of the wall, and everything!

why haven't we learned anything? why do we, as americans still not question? or why do we ask the wrong questions? why does the media fail us everytime? instead of hearing Ahmadinajad or other leaders in the ME saying hateful, violent things against Israel, and saying, "oh, well, they are anti-semitic and clearly enemies of israel and america and freedom and all that is good," why don't we ever ask, why does he say those kind of things? what would cause someone to hate another country that really poses no threat to them? that doesn't make sense. you cannot accept irrational explanations. it's the same type of bullshit they through at us after 9/11--they hate us because of our freedom. i was 13 and i knew that was crap and it didn't make sense. it felt like i was in those sunday school classes you always read about in atheist/agnostic memoirs, where the author heroically asked hard questions until the teacher couldn't answer them anymore, "that's just the way it is, okay?!" never mind that it doesn't make sense. believe. why do you accept that as an answer? don't ever accept that as an answer! why do they hate us because of our freedom? why does Ahmadinajad and Hamas and Zachariah Sheik and so many others want to destroy Israel? the answer is out there, just like it is for religion, you just can't let the Authority, sunday school or the news media or politicians, tell you that it's not. don't let them tell you they already have the answer. especially when you know that can't possibly be the answer. that's just the way it is. they hate us because of our freedom. israel is always the good guy, the victim, and the ally.
because accepting that, that's worse than bias, to accept answers that you know don't make sense. that's worse than unknown unknowns, because that is a known unknown, and one you don't care enough about to find the answer to.
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!!!!