Please support me if you can!

Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% off

Many politicians try to politicize the deaths of innocent children by claiming our country needs a return to traditional values. I believe the opposite is true. We need modern values that reflect our ever-developing understanding of the human experience.

There’s plenty of evidence that so-called traditional values are the toxic influence that is destroying our country.

Contrary to popular belief, traditional values haven’t gone anywhere. They can be seen in the blatant bigotry towards the LGBTQ+ community. They can be seen in the ever-present misogyny and toxic masculinity that manifests in an ongoing attack on a woman’s right to reproductive health care.

Our country has many problems, and rigid adherence to traditional values has largely helped create these problems. Mass shootings are not a new thing, they’ve been going on for decades. The only thing that’s different now is that shooters have easy access to military-grade weapons.

The obvious truth is that the world is in a constant state of change. Tactics that worked in the past are no longer relevant in our new reality. Many of the problems in our society are a direct result of attempting to force an outdated solution on a modern problem.

American society always goes into the future kicking and screaming. It’s embarrassing that the country that was the first to get to the moon resists progress like a child throwing a temper tantrum. The only responsible action is to understand that traditional values are no longer relevant.

We can no longer accept non-solutions that are disguised as traditional wisdom. We can’t take the lazy intellectual approach of assuming that the past was somehow a better age. That’s a fantasy. It’s time to adopt a philosophy that actually has a chance of correcting the problems we face today.

Religious leaders make calls for mass violence

The dirty secret hidden in plain sight in the United States is that there are many individuals with massive platforms that regularly make calls for violence. Take, for example, the case of the extremist pastor who called for people to be shot in the head.

When a pastor can stand at a pulpit and call for citizens to be shot in the back of the head, you have a clear source of the violence that plagues our whole country.

Words matter, people listen to pastors. Some people see pastors as sources of authority that go beyond our law.

Our media needs to be more honest about the influence American Christianity has in inciting people to violence. Whenever there is a mass shooting, everyone is quick to turn the blame on things like video games. Why is it that we fail to criticize pastors and politicians who routinely make calls for violence in their sermons, speeches, and political propaganda?

Even pastors who don’t make such extreme statements as the one quoted above contribute to an anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment.

Hate speech is handed down to children and normalized through traditional values

It’s shameful that you can’t escape hate speech even if you are attending a high school graduation. A recent speech earned criticism for invoking homophobia under the guise of biblical principles.

American society is extremely tolerant of these backhanded insults. For some reason, when people talk about traditional values, they always forget to mention showing a little bit of respect for the other people in your community.

Instead, it’s considered a traditional value to berate innocent bystanders for their sexuality. People do things like that on a regular basis, and there are organizations in our country that applaud them for their offensive behavior.

The worst part is that when a high school graduate makes ignorant statements like this, they represent something that has been handed down from the parents and the community. The child has been conditioned with hate beliefs that are delivered under the guise of traditional values.

Traditional values connected to mass shootings

I’ve been reading a memoir about a family that suffered an unspeakable tragedy. The book is titled Sins of the System: Trauma, Guns, Tragedy, and the Betrayal of Our Children.

This book explores the years of anguish that come with an incomprehensible act of violence. The American media only covers shootings for a couple of weeks before moving on to the next shooting or another big news event. Our country almost never takes time to responsibly explore the true pain of these tragedies.

A little over a month ago, my community lost a 10-year-old girl who was murdered and raped. That, too, was national news for a few days. The reporters are gone now and the pain is still here. What I’ve had to endure from that experience allowed me to recognize the truth written in the pages of Sins of the System.

The book is heartbreaking because it reveals the shooter was exposed to systemic abuse that included what I interpreted as both physical and psychological torture. Some of these deplorable acts had their roots in strict adherence to traditional values.

What makes this scenario tragic is that our society has advanced to the point where a child should have access to proper medical treatment. Our science knows how to correct these debilitating problems and avoid tragedy.

Traditional values prevent our society from listening to the answers! We are then condemned to endure unbearable tragedies again and again and again.

A massive percentage of our population reveres the concept of traditional values to such an extent that they are conditioned to disdain scientific advancement. We saw this play out during the pandemic when the ignorant masses defiantly refused to wear a mask even to save the lives of vulnerable friends and relatives.

Reverence for traditional values is killing our children

The absurd reverence we show to the concept of traditional values literally leads to people getting killed. It’s become normalized in our society to disregard the opinions of disciplined individuals who have actually made amazing intellectual achievements in their field.

Instead of heeding the advice of a legitimate expert, our society is more inclined to listen to the ignorant words of a pastor who compares mass shootings to drunk driving. A pastor is a traditional authority figure, but there’s nothing in the Bible about AR-15s. Pastors aren’t equipped to provide us with an answer on this issue. The continuing fixation on traditional values is holding our whole society back.

The United States has become a nation of entitled ignorance. Our media has been weaponized to program the population to accept ineffective solutions to a wide swath of problems. Too often, the phrase “traditional values” is just a code word for a return to a time of ignorance, bigotry, and hatred.

Traditional values were conceived in an era that has passed. Many of them are no longer relevant, and the ones that still are relevant are rarely mentioned. Think about this the next time a politician tries to politicize the mass murder of children by making a call for “traditional values.”

Traditional values are not the solution. Traditional values created the mess.

Please support me if you can!

Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% off

I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe