Unpopular Opinion

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If your first thought is what you're conditioned to think, maybe you can't access your "defining" thoughts when you're drunk. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by Okokimup@lemmy.world to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world

55 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was reading about Mel Gibson's anti-semitic rants, and his apology about being drunk* when I remembered this meme. I agree with the meme, that our brains tend to feed us what we've heard from our environment, but our conscious mind overrides that with our processed thoughts.

People use "he didn't mean it, he was drunk/high" as an excuse for racist/misogynist/whateverist comments. The response is typically "you don't become racist when drunk, you just drop your inhibitions and reveal who you are."

But if you agree with the First Thought meme, what if being impaired isn't revealing what you really think, but is preventing you from thinking at all, and just getting stuck on your conditioned response?

*Gibson is just an example. This post is not about litigating whether he personally is racist, but about this sort of behavior in general.

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[–] Andonyx@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago

I like this idea. I don't know how modern cognitive science corroborates the idea or not.

But just to tuck this away in the thread, not to derail it: I think the point of the text in the image is much simpler, as the last response is meant to make us understand. The real "first thought" is "I'm a bad person." After some reflection and careful analysis, the poster comes around to, "I'm just a teensy bit hypocritical."

We can forgive ourselves for knee-jerk reactions if we put effort into not letting them poison our relationships with the world and other people. I have no idea if that should apply to Mel Gibson.