The wrong way of thinking

by BRIAN LOCKHART

In the old TV show Bewitched, Samantha Stevens, A.KA. Elizabeth Montgomery, would make her magic happen by wiggling her nose and poof! – she could zap herself to another location, clean up a room, or change her outfit in the blink of any eye.

It was cute – but only because Elizabeth Montgomery was a rather attractive woman with a cute nose.

All the other witches had to wave their hands or cast a spell to make their magic work.

The nose wiggling thing just wouldn't have worked if it was Dr. Bombay, Uncle Arthur, or Aunt Clara was doing it.

If Samantha wiggled her nose these days to fly herself into a secret meeting at the McMahon and Tate Advertising firm, I'm pretty sure she would be accused of either being a racist, or anti-something, by daring to flash a ‘sign' publicly.

We seem to have entered a new age where the ‘thought police' are indeed demanding you think a certain way or be criticized and shamed publicly via social media.

There was an uproar recently when a returning champion on the TV show Jeopardy! flashed a ‘white supremacy' sign on camera.

But wait a minute - did a nicely dressed, average looking man who was competing on a game show where contestants are generally working people who have the smarts to actually make it on a show that tests your knowledge and intellect, actually flash a known symbol that promotes white supremacy?

Well, no, he didn't. 

Apparently some groups in the US have taken to making some kind of sign with their fingers that promotes their ideology.

The contestant on Jeopardy was neither a white supremacist, a gang member, criminal, or militia member.

If people were more observant, rather than jumping to a conclusion based on hysteria, they would have notice that when the contestant won his first round as champion, he held up one finger. After winning the second time he held up two fingers.

And guess what? After his third win he held up three fingers.

For that simple act, in a few moments he went from knowledgeable contestant to some kind of villain – all based on a hand gesture.

Since when did three fingers make a person a villain? It's pretty common to see basketball players holding up three fingers after sinking a shot from outside the key to celebrate that fact that they just hit a three pointer. 

This type of witch-hunt mentality can place an innocent person in danger based on the accusations of one of these ‘thought groups' based solely on a single accusation that spreads quickly on social media.

For some reason many people believe the accusations simply by reading them without researching the matter at all.

One of these groups could target a neighbor, friend, ex-spouse, or co-worker, simply by posting a suggestion that they saw a person wearing a hat that looked like it belonged to a specific group.

Believe it or not, not everyone on the planet thinks like you do. There are different opinions on every subject under the sun.

I used to have a group of friends who had polar opposite ideas when it came to politics. Did we argue at every chance or accuse the others of having the wrong opinion? No. We just refrained from bringing up a dicey subject and no one ever accused someone of ‘thinking incorrectly.' 

The laws regarding free speech are being tested and not in a good way. Not only are people being stopped from speaking publicly, as seen on some university campuses, they are not being stopped from thinking or expressing a thought that goes against the opinion of others. 

This new way of doing things is only good for the accusers, but what happens when suddenly you are the accused?

If ‘hate speech' laws were truly a legislation against speaking ‘hatred' most of the country would be guilty and many divorce courts would end up with people being arrested for saying something hateful towards a cheating spouse.

When it comes to hand signals, how many of you have at one time or another, given a buddy the ‘thumbs up?' It means A-OK, all-good, let r' rip, hit the gas, I can't hear you over the noise but we're good, start the engine, I'm on the water skis – hit the throttle, or many other things.

There was a time in Australia where giving a guy the ‘thumbs up' might get you punched in the nose. It had a totally different meaning there.

It's time to start ignoring these thought police groups.

If you don't, you may one day find an angry mob in front of your house because you wore your favourite purple shirt and that shade of purple is used by another group, and one of your neighbours may turn you in because they ‘thought' you were a radical.