Just a Phase
"It's just a phase." This is something a lot of people say to a lot of other people. Atheist? "It's just a phase." Activist? "It's just a phase." Doing something that doesn't fit in with the social norm? "It's just a phase." I won't ask your permission to get angry. I won't ask your forgiveness for getting angry. I'll just get angry. And why? Because saying "it's just a phase" is a perfect way to invalidate someone's choices, choices that take a person out of the bounds of "normality", outside of somebody else's expectations, by implying that they have no rational basis for their decisions and that they'll soon be conforming to what society wants. By saying "it's just a phase", you are effectively saying "I know what you want better than you do, and what you want falls in line with my desires". You are overriding a person's right and ability to m...