Scapegoating

Gays are a convenient scapegoat for the anger and insecurity that already exists in many people. Any despised minority is an object of focus and target for projection to get their anger out and direct it away from themselves. This scapegoating may not always be specifically homophobic in motive, but it is based on a rationale and justifications for someone to blame for current problems.

This anger may be against social conditions, national enemies, parents, relatives, friends, superiors and all authority figures who have caused pain and guilt. Often this anger cannot be directed against authority figures because of fear of repercussions. Those who won't or can't fight back and have little social support because of their misunderstood differences become convenient targets. Thus is scapegoating a social safety valve, preserving social mores and behaviors.

Often the blue-collar working class have the most anger at society because their lower social position makes them defensive, and with macho attributes to uphold, are the ones who will most likely vent their anger at gays and other minority groups that they perceive are sufficiently different and have little power. Their belief in behaviors appropriate to their social position are those of solving problems by simple physical force, I.e., violence. For example, the classic male redneck attitude is one of anger and violence, often exacerbated by the liberal use of alcohol. Why does this exist? Often these are poor, little-educated, dysfunctional and abusive families who have transmitted this dysfunctional tradition down through many generations with nothing to intervene and break the cycle, not education, new moral examples or hope. Their mostly black and white, fundamentalist Christian beliefs and hypocritical tradition of violating those beliefs create an enormous amount of guilt. Alcohol use is a way to cope with the emotional pain, but often leads to lifting the inhibitions against venting anger in violence. Being poor and living in disadvantaged rural areas, the bootleg distilling of alcoholic moonshine or more recently growing marijuana was a fiercely protected way of life and survival for these people. Society and government became their enemy. So they distrust government, education, new social movements and anything of authority.

It is interesting to note that prejudice in the lower classes may be more amenable to change than in the higher classes. It would seem to be more ingrained in the lower classes, lacking education and exposure to a wider diversity of lives, but education and exposure doesn't always alleviate prejudice; it may only cause it to be more subtle, indirect and rationalized. The lower classes, when they meet the object of their prejudice and get to know them as persons, may more easily give up their prejudices because they have less to lose and may suffer only a minor identity crisis. Prejudices can be ingrained in the higher classes who must protect their socioeconomic status, identity and business/social relations. So power and class, as an expression of power, have an influence on prejudice.

Bullying is a form of scapegoating that arises from insecurity. The bully always picks on those hir perceives as weaker to give self a feeling of superiority, a sense of power. Also, young men of any class who are not sure of their social position and sexuality and may need to prove their manhood to themselves and peers may strike out when threatened by differences they do not understand. Therefore, an attack may manifest as racist, homophobia, rape or gang violence. Groups and whole nations can be bullies. Why this insecurity? It may come from a dysfunctional and abusive family and thus is a compensation to handle relating with others. On a larger and collective level, it is the product of a dysfunctional society. Western culture's hierarchical patriarchy and its system of domination that is expressed in sexism, racism, erotophobia and its belief in cultural superiority is dysfunctional. Its structure requires that there must be higher and lower classes and that the lower classes may be exploited, read abused. Everyone passes the abuse from above down the chain of class. Everyone wants to be superior. Even in our free and democratic society there is always jockeying for power-superiority. There is still little sense of personal and social responsibility to raise up and provide those of the lower classes the opportunities to make the American dream come true.