It is reasonable to presume that people become passionate when they believe they have been discriminated against, retaliated against, or treated unfairly, based on how others are treated in similar circumstances.

Double standards can be seen in every aspect of life. Bullies in school who taunt other kids live by a double standard. Bullies can be ignorant, downright stupid, and survive making fun of others who actually are smarter and better behaved because the bullies get away with it and are more protected by the school and the parents than the kids taking the heat. It doesn’t matter that those being bullied have equal, often more, rights that are being taken from them than the bully.

We have carried that scenario over into adult life. Mainstream media opinionists – no longer journalists or reporters of facts – always apply a double standard to those with whom they don’t agree while continuing to tell those people they are the ones who need to be “more tolerant.” While watching the news as I write this, a celebrity couple publicly made a statement that they are a successful family-first couple and are now under attack by someone who must have experienced failure in his own family life so he feels the need to publicly express his opinion to criticize something he knows nothing about as a means to question, if not destroy, the integrity of this couple.

The reason for our extreme divide in the political arena is a perfect example of double standards. People who have broken laws, acted in treasonous ways against our country, were part of sex crimes or covered for sex crimes are now casting judgment on others in an effort to take the spotlight off them. Americans are fed up with the double standard regarding the rule of law, or the lack thereof. We see examples everyday of regular Americans who get harsh punishment for much lesser offenses; we see other politicians with faults – not crimes – being threatened with an out of control judicial and legal system while those who should be imprisoned are running free and left to continue in their crimes and lies with no consequences at all. We see run-away judges no longer interpreting laws, but writing them to fit their own political agenda.

The whole business of being told to be tolerant while being bashed for holding differing beliefs demonstrates a double standard. Expressing one’s religious values is celebrated as long as it doesn’t interfere with that person’s own agenda. Expressing one’s sexual orientation somehow has become important and is celebrated until someone else disproves of it, suddenly making that person a target for name-calling to physical attack. People can have an opinion on abortion until it is revealed that one person disagrees, opening that person to attacks.

America’s moral compass has changed. The double standard has now become the ‘standard’ as to whether a person is accepted or bullied.

At the end of the day, who cares? Americans should!