There's this issue that has come to my attention about when it comes to people who are willfully ignorant. I know the phrase "ignorance is bliss" tells it best when it refers to ignorance being better to live with. I believe these people who believe ignorance is bliss are just using a common defense mechanism, denial, to rid them of anxieties in their lives. This is really understandable, but also really unreasonable in times of important facts.
For example, an issue took place in which a scheduled show for a fashion designer in aSsouthern town in North Florida took place. The day before everything ran smoothly. The next day's fashion show, however, was another story. The anonymous fashion designer ran into trouble when one of the models didn't have a badge. You would think you just need the badge, right? It's on him. Well, that same fashion show I was supposed to be working. I had no credentials and went up to the desk requesting a badge for the person I was working under. Unfortunately, they were all out of badges for this specific person, but they gave me a random one. They didn't look at my ID, didn't ask my name, didn't do anything. So why is it that when the one model out of the bunch didn't have a badge the whole show had to be stopped? This one model who resulted in the entire show being cancelled. In fact, it was really messy. They wouldn't even let the designer back stage and in fact were threatening to call the cops. This might seem like a coincidence without knowing the full details. The event in question was basically a women's (predominantly white women's) expo in which a specific type of person was expected to be present. The designer was also a specific type of person too. A black gay man, who is an absolute teddy bear, shown to be treated in such an awful and unexpected way. Perhaps someone could suggest that there is a reason he was treated differently?
In fact, when my mother suggested this rudeness was due to race and sexuality to my grandmother, she had a fit. My grandmother is one of those people who believes that if they don't see something it didn't/doesn't happen, and that even IF they saw it, it doesn't mean it was for the very clear and plausible reasons that are suggested. She is also a FOX news watcher, but I degress. This is the type of situation where people refuse to see any other reasoning. To elaborate, I saw another fashion show group go on into the dressing room afterward badge free. No issues or complaints from management then. But if you said this to someone like my grandmother, it would be very shocking to even think that social standing was the reason behind the absurd thing that took place.
I think it's a real problem when people refuse to hear facts in order to boost their own egos or show people they aren't a bad person, that everyone else is misguided or sensitive. When you show facts about things like murders made by police on people who commit petty crimes, they still defend the murderer because they believe that racism is no longer a reality despite countless comparisons and amounts of data. These people also believe that "political correctness," otherwise known to some as human decency, is a bad thing that's going to transport us into the stone ages. I wish people wouldn't just constantly be on the defense all the time about protecting outdated beliefs or shielding themselves from something they see as harmful to their own comfort. People who refuse to believe that their child is telling the truth about being molested is another example of this.
In the future I hope we as a people move past the intense denial that we naturally cling to when we don't want to be wrong about something. Being wrong doesn't mean you can't learn, nor does it mean that things have to end that way. There is always room for improvement for everyone. So why not try to put aside personal beliefs to understand the world?
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