Why Be Racist When You Could Just Be Silent?
Having the right to be a horrible person doesn’t mean you have to confirm that you are, indeed, a horrible person
Although its origin is unclear — having been attributed to both Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain — most of us have probably heard it said:
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
One doesn’t have to say anything, after all. Silence is always an option.
And yet it boggles the mind how often people forget this. Some, it appears — a great many in fact — seem almost compelled to spew forth whatever comes into their heads, like a fire hydrant opened on a city street during a sweltering August afternoon.
It’s a tendency that has likely always haunted the human species. Something about the ability to speak appears to dovetail with our desire to do it, even when we shouldn’t.
But however ancient the affliction, it has doubtless been aggravated by the modern age with its technologies of instant gratification capable of amplifying foolishness in ways that would have been unthinkable two decades ago.
Shorter version: most ignorant, uneducated racists would have only been known as such to their…
