Just saw this posted elsewhere, and it reminded me of this thread.
Suppose you were a mouse.
You are living in a mouse community with other mice who have created a stable, working society in which all the mice can work and play in relative security.
The entrance to your community -- the hole in the wall -- is carefully controlled, because there are dangers out there. Like cats who want to eat you.
Not all the cats want to eat you. Some of them are quite content eating cat food. A mouse could sit on top of the head of those cats without being in danger. There are many good cats outside the mouse hole.
Nonetheless, there are cats out there who eat mice. There is no way of knowing which are the friendly cats and which ones want to eat you, just by looking at them.
Your mouse community does have a system in place, however, to admit cats. A screening process determines which cats are friendly and which ones have a history of mouse-eating. The friendly cats are allowed in, and your government provides them with cat chow.
Some of your fellow mice believe that it is prejudiced and bigoted to screen the cats who want to come in, because it works on a presumption that all cats are bad. They object to cats being detained during the screening process, as well.
So your fellow mice vote and the majority elect a leader who will widen the access hole and allow in all the cats who want to come in. Those who vote "no" are ostracized as intolerant, narrow-minded bigots. They are banned from mouse social media and sometimes lose their jobs.
Some of the cats who come in, grab and eat your fellow mice on a regular basis. Your elected leaders deny there is a problem. In fact your leaders order the mouse police not to arrest the rogue cats: that would "stigmatize" them.
Some of the mice you know have been eaten. Others have lost arms and legs. But the ones who voted for the open mousehole still favor the policy -- even though they must run from a rogue cat at least once a day. They are proud of how tolerant they are, and that they live in a progressive mouse society.
Ask them about the mice who have been eaten and they get angry at you.
Mouse Media also reinforces the open mousehole policy on a daily basis. Therefore those who oppose it are afraid to speak up. The objectors, not the rogue cats, are the "bad guys."
The elected leaders live in homes protected by mean-looking bulldogs. But the common mouse is forbidden to own a bulldog because they might hurt a cat.
Does this kind of society sound attractive to you? Do you believe that such a society is sustainable for long?
We're just talking about an imaginary cartoon society, so don't get upset.
