My Fear of Phobia

It's not an unreasoning fear.

First some definitions:

fear
noun
fir 
1a: an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger
b(1): an instance of this emotion
(2): a state marked by this emotion

And next:

-phobia
2 of 2
noun combining form
1: exaggerated fear of
acrophobia
2: intolerance or aversion for
photophobia

This is the current definition of phobia. Note #2 which reflects, I think, a change in how the word is used. Note the original meaning:

-phobia
word-forming element meaning "excessive or irrational fear, horror, or aversion," from Latin -phobia and directly from Greek -phobia "panic fear of," from phobos "fear" (see phobia). In widespread popular use with native words from c. 1800. In psychology, "an abnormal or irrational fear." Related: -phobic.

Excessive or irrational fear, horror, or aversion. Please note that “excessive or irrational” modify the terms “fear”, “horror” and “aversion.” Why does this matter?

A New York psychologist named George Weinberg coined the phrase “homophobia” in 1972. He apparently based this on his belief that people were afraid of gay people, even irrationally so. Before homophobia, there was “colorphobia” and “negrophobia”, terms that are currently not in common use, but which more closely hewed to the original meaning of phobia.

Of course, the original use of the modifier ‘phobia’ entered into the English language with ‘hydrophobia’ as it was believed that an intensifying fear of water was the first sign of rabies. Phobia began to be applied to irrational fears such as agoraphobia (fear of open spaces), acrophobia (fear of heights) and similar psychological phenomena.

Colorphobia was applied as a similar unreasoning fear of people of color, and presented as a psychological problem that needed to be rooted out. The term ‘phobia’ is linked in this way to irrationality.

Homophobia was used in the same manner, and became a successful epithet used essentially to shame anyone that had a prejudice against gay people.

So, what am I afraid of?

The term no longer means an unreasoning fear or aversion, it simply means lack of complete endorsement and acceptance.

As such, its use in terms such as ‘islamophobia’ and ‘transphobia’ immediately stigmatize whoever is the recipient of that epithet and puts them on the defensive, and all rational debate stops.

Which is the point of using those phrases. They are tactical weapons designed to intimidate and silence. And they have been effective, and literally ruined some people’s professional lives.

For example, Dr. Allan M. Josephson was “harassed, demoted, then effectively fired” in 2019 by the University of Louisville for publicly stating his concerns over the current trend to simply affirm a child’s confusion over gender. He voiced concern over starting them down a path for which the long term effects are simply unknown and potentially harmful in terms of healthy growth and development. He had the temerity to suggest that maybe children aren’t ready to make that kind of permanently life-altering decision.

And yet, now, nearly 5 years later, some of the long term issues are coming to light, including serious problems resulting from puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone “therapies” that impact bone density and skeletal development along with a host of other issues, including brain development associated with interrupting the very necessary changes that happen at puberty.

It should be noted that we have been doing live “in the wild” experiments on children with no understanding of the long term repercussions, and which repercussions are now beginning to come to light. And, it’s not pretty. These experiments were done with no controls, no studies, just an adherence to an expectation of compliance with an ideology.

But I digress.

Using the term “phobia” to label and discriminate against people that don’t agree with your position and effectively cowing people with legitimate concerns into silence is dangerous to the common good.

And now, anyone that says, “Well, Hamas did enter into homes of non-combatants in Israel and rape and murder women and children, beheaded children in their beds in front of their parents, and crowed about it on social media, so I kind of get the response from Israel,” is labeled an Islamophobe. And debate simply is squelched.

But, is it irrational to fear a group that will come into your house and murder your family and feel they are doing God’s will.

No, it is not.

Remember people, this Hamas murdering in Israel event is not some innocuous thought experiment being debated in academia. This HAPPENED.

There is no such thing as Islamophobia. There is a legitimate fear of radicalized murderous Muslims on a mission to convert by the sword.

There is no such thing as transphobia. There is a legitimate concern regarding the health and safety of at-risk children being failed by a system that USED TO take an oath to “do no harm.”

Simple disagreement is not phobia.

We should all reject the use of those terms, and call for rational discussion about things that matter.