Gut or brain?

Are you insane?! 

NEITHER! 

Because both or stay at home. 

Starting with the gut. What do people even mean when they say this? Some call it intuition but its more than some spiritual reference. See the body has more nerves than the brain. Very logical evolutionarily because those are the parts that gather the information. How else could a brain do that without sensors surrounding it?

The brain is meant to interpret the gut/ intuition/ subconscious/ survival mind by interpreting the data being gathered and stored in the very flesh experiencing it. Yes I said stored. Thats where triggers and knee jerk reactions are clinging beyond intentional personality. 

The trick is the body is educated by experiences, media, connections, self expressions, culture, religions, parents, pain, leaders, etc etc etc 

That means the gut in this society is being programed with systemic bias. Yes, racism, homophobia, ableism, classism, sexism, nationalism, ageism etc etc etc

Even with personal experiences. 

Making the crabs in a boiling point metaphor relative to humans who are unwilling to check their gut/ intuition/ subconscious for irrationally learned bias.

Once had a fellow wyt woman NEEDED to teach me be racist after I asked her politely to not use the n word around me so she lied until a black woman beat me into a concussion. Another time I knew someone who was disabled like me who’s family was taking advantage of it and using him to be the front runner so he went to jail and not them; wouldn’t you trust the only family and community you had available over someone of another race pointing out you’re being used? Of course they both chose the crabs over something new. New is scary. Uncomfortable. In the pot things are known but an escape is into blindness. Where would one go?

And what if someone does decide to question what biases were internalized to face the discomfort? The safest way to do that is TESTING THE WATERS. 

At this point confirmation bias enters the room. 

See the tests people automatically decide to utilize are previous experiences that went awry for another. Ie they hear what got a reaction and decide to see if the reaction is a truth. 

It’s similar to trauma cycling* only its picking up what another put down after they decided to validate their hateful avoidance because of the painful reaction they stimulated. 

This information might be gained from observation, gossip, general social awareness that is being created by every repressed voice crying out as tyranny increases, media… basically all the same ways the gut/ survival mind/ intuition/ subconscious was trained in the first place. 

Just remember accurately targeted attacks are statistically improbable without intentional information gained. (metaphor: no one hits a target’s center without looking first.) You heard what you heard and you let your loyalty choose your action to hurt another until you bought into the standard. Doesn’t matter if that loyalty is to a person or a facet of your humanity. It’s still avoidance of real connection with someone new due to preset bias in place for confirming hateful avoidance through situational testing/ abuses that make it look like the other is the problem. 

This is a call to take awareness of personal behavior and impacts seriously by listening to others.

NOT a shaming of using the gut/ intuition/ subconscious,

NOT a dismissal of knowledge gained, instead it’s a reminder that no one is ever always right. 

That even the times it seemed like it was might be a confirmation bias because you chose to be hurtful intentionally as if you’re righteous enough to have the capacity to test another’s humanity. See even the act of trying to discern through personal hoops created for another to hop is evidence that you have already put yourself above another equally different human.

So yea, if you’re leaning blindly into the survival mind/ intuition/ gut/ subconscious part of the body that creates bias, know that you’re already sitting in avoidance of connection and witnessing another human or experiencing anything new. That makes you the problem. Not their differences. Your choice to evade them through defense mechanisms educated by pain even if it wasn’t your own. 

Don’t go out without being willing to be accountable for your whole self. Hiding behind your avoidance of creating a new experience by proving an old one true isn’t helping anyone, not even you. 

How to check self for connective perceptions:

Is the assumption that all of one group the same? If so, you’re pain/ ignorance is the problem. 

Are you validating what someone who cares enough about you to bear the conflict is willing to say to you? No? Full stop, deep slow breaths. Count to 4 in x 4 held x 4 out x 4 held (4x4s for short). If you can’t hear their pain, its your pain telling you danger is on the way. Take the time you all deserve to communicate clearly. 

Did you gain the information you’re validating from a person or group that already dislikes whoever is in front of you for whatever reason? Full STOP, walk away. If you’re not interacting with someone with the willingness to see them as an individual and not whatever someone else claimed you have NO business in their space.  

Please know that it doesn’t matter if you knew the person personally, if you are socially aware enough to know something might hurt them and do it, you are an abuser, and no matter their reaction, you are still the problem for trying to cause pain to someone just to blame them for expressing what you wanted them to. 

*Trauma cycling is where someone who has experienced a huge pain relives it in their life until they find a way to stop falling into the same. And yes it can be as easy as choosing a profession outside of violence and as hard as getting abusers to stop targeting you for a scapegoat that they use to step up, if only for a moment.