I am nearly two and half weeks into my recovery from hip replacement surgery. I haven’t taken any pain meds in about 10 days. I am walking slowly with a cane. I push myself, but I aggravated a quadricep muscle yesterday. I think it is the vastus medialis on the inside of the thigh. That is what the pictures on the internet tell me. I digress. The one thing all of this recovery time has given me is time to read, and peruse various news outlets and such. What has surprised me the most is the fixed mindset of the political right. The mindset is so firmly set, that they sound like the individuals from our past justifying human rights violations, (slavery.) I want to explore this mindset, and possible causes.

A fixed mindset is where an individual’s perception is firmly entrenched into a false sense of self. The variables they understand do not change when new variables place their perception into false territory. An example of this is assuming that people who are poor are lazy. The political right has been portraying this false narrative for generations now. Poverty has nothing to do with laziness, hard work, etc… Poverty is a learned condition passed on by generation. Poverty is filled with trauma, needs that are unfulfilled, neglect, and sadness. Yet, the right side of our political system embraces this laziness and continues to funnel their tax money to the people that they think deserve it. The rich, the entitled, the arrogant…

Another fixed mindset is the gender/sex argument. The political right think that there are only two sexes and everything that science has reported (a multitude of genders,) is a false narrative. This is reinforced by the religious demagogues that think the 17th century King James Bible with all of its political rhetoric is the law of god. The mind is so fixed on this obsession it seems, because it threatens the conservative notion of masculinity and femininity within their ideal tradition. Having a rainbow of genders causes their amygdala to run on pure ethanol. My questions for them, “How do you know how someone else feels?” What expertise do you have in reading minds or feelings? Where in the constitution does it give you the right to legislate someone else’s thoughts or feelings?

I personally don’t know why someone identifies as a furry, cis, or trans. My brain is not wired that way, so I don’t understand those feelings. I personally know that it is not my place to tell them how they should feel. I am evolved enough to realize and empathize that they are struggling with an identity that doesn’t correspond with the political right’s sense of normal. Homosexuality and gender fluidity is all over the animal kingdom. There are studies (from Australia) that show how swan offspring of male couples do better than traditional swan couples. When we apply this same logic to humans, and it is expressed through varying gender behaviors it is very easy for me to see or understand that they feel differently. My job as a good human being is to have an open mindset and allow that person to explore their feelings and understand them in a safe place. It takes so little effort to be understanding and supportive. I support people who may have gender dysphoria. How can I help? You matter! How can I make your life safer? Rather than the political right’s fixed mindset, “How can I judge you?”

Another political right fixed mindset is the topic of abortion. It is murder they say. The removal of a fetus that is unviable is murder. Nothing else can change their mind. Yet they are okay with the child once it is born to live in a neglectful society filled with poverty and violence. These same people let foster kids go without. They enforce food insecurity through their legislation. Some of them are so hypocritical that if they get their mistress pregnant they insist on an abortion.

Again, “How can legislate someone’s choice, or need?” Do you understand the variables? Have you ever spoken to a teenage girl who may be struggling with this very decision? Is it our job to judge or be forgiving and supportive? I have been in that position as a teacher where a student has asked me those questions. I am not perfect by any stretch as a person, but I do know that if a student is confiding in me for help, my job is to support the decision and help them… Not judge them… Years later, I see how that decision was the correct one… What about the parents that chose to abort a fetus with a chromosome issue? That is their choice. What if they choose to have the baby? That is their choice. A fixed mindset will judge and harm, and make it harder for the people making a choice. An open mindset will support either case and care about those couples regardless of the decision. Legislating choice or healthcare decisions for an individual is a sign of a fascist fixed mindset. We don’t need this grief in our society… Having or not having a child is a choice. Support the choice, even if you may disagree with it on some arbitrary philosophical system of measures…

Once a criminal, always a criminal… How many men and women are in our prisons due to non-violent crimes? How is our prison system rehabilitating rather than reinforcing recidivism? I know many people who have committed crimes. Some have been successful citizens on the outside, some have not. What motivated the crime? What was the root cause? Was it simply a bad decision made under circumstances beyond our understanding? Should that person be judged the same as a violent crime, (rape, murder, voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, trafficking?) The fixed mindset of the political right basically wants to punish, punish, punish, except when the crime serves the political right. Then it is justifiable on nationalistic grounds. The president is a sex offender, and a felon. Yet he is okay to elect. While many of the criminally convicted, can’t vote. The rioters for the January 6th insurrection are fine individuals, but the kid down the street that sold his friend a marijuana cigarette is a hardened drug dealer worthy of 20 years in prison. Fixed mindsets do not serve our justice system. They punish those that can’t afford a defense and reward the rich for their ability to rationalize their criminal behaviors. (See the Epstein Class.)

As an educator if I used a fixed mindset on a daily basis my students would not grow and learn. Some days when my stress cortisol is high I may get into a fixed mindset, but hours or days later I will regret those decisions made in that mode. These fixed mindsets are not healthy for anyone. They promote biases and hate. When I see politicians use the same fixed mindset on other politicians in forms of biased, or racial attacks I get furious. Seeing Mayor Mamdani’s detractors insulting him for his faith, and drawing parallels against radical terrorists is an example of a fixed mindset to promote hate, or even worse, terrorism. Fixed mindsets in politics make the world a worse place. Not owning those fixed mindsets cause wars, genocide, poverty, and plagues upon a population that are unacceptable. How is it fair that a politician can practice this, but not an educator? Where is the line of justification? I’m sorry, as much as I disagree with theism of any kind, Mamdani does not deserve those comparisons politically anymore than one of my students having to walk around being labeled a troublemaker due to some discipline issues.

Finally, a fixed mindset will declare a breed of dog vicious and dangerous. They will get laws passed to ban that breed of dog based on particular characteristics or data from attacks. An open mindset will take into consideration all of the data and options apparent to them. If I were to ban a Kangal Shepherd Dog in my hometown, I need to justify this beyond few isolated data points. BTW a Kangal Shepherd Dog is a type of mastiff used for protecting sheep in the highlands of Asia. They are independent dogs that need to work. They require expert handling by their shepherd. They do not socialize well due to their breeding, but it is not impossible to socialize this breed of dog. Would a Kangal Shepherd dog be appropriate for my urban setting without a flock of sheep or goats to protect? No. Would I ban it. No. I would highly regulate the adoption of such a dog to meet certain criteria for the owner on a case by case basis by animal control. This Kangal Shepherd Dog, is bred to kill wolf or bear. It can easily kill a human. The fixed mindsets that ban Pit Bulls or Staffordshire Terriers are based on fear rather than open variables. The dogs mentioned in the previous sentence are the most loyal and loving dogs when taken care of by the owner, and socialized properly.

Treating dogs like we treat the gender dysphoric, or the non violent criminal with that same fixed mindset shows a preponderance to fear. The fear of difference. The fear of assumption. The fear of not knowing or understanding (bias.) Governing through this fear like our president, vice president, speaker of the house, governors, senators, and representatives perform use the same Machiavellian playbook. These people are afraid of losing their power and strength if you exercise an open mindset. I think it is time to hold them all accountable. Our press needs to ask them, why do you fear transgender people? Why do you fear certain kinds of dogs? Why do you fear a god, that is supposed to love you and be diving? Open those minds, embrace differences, celebrate humanity in all its different forms…. We are all richer when we embrace, learn, and celebrate our differences…

…so it goes…