I had another intense and weird dream last night. First I dreamed I was living in a small town with a bunch of people I grew up with, with my "wife" (who was some amalgamation of women), and this new religion became the popular thing. But we decided not to follow it (or any religion). One night I couldn't find my wife, and I looked outside and there was an angry mob with torches, yelling to me that they had her and they were going to kill us both because we were blasphemers. Then my little brother was in the house with me and we were panicking, trying to figure out what to do. My "childhood best friend" (who was Jason Segel from How I Met Your Mother) knocked on the door and came in, to try to convince me one last time that this new religion was the correct way to be. He and I had a long conversation in which I gave this impassioned speech to him, I don't remember it but I wish I did, I remember his reactions, from anger to pain to crying, to realizing I was right and that oppressing people over religion is wrong. He decided to stop being part of the mob but he said they were serious and we had to escape. I told him we needed to rescue ____ (whoever was wife was). He told me that they had her at the mall (???), so he led me and my brother out the back and around the mob secretly and we got into a van and drove to the mall.
Once there, my "friend" was gone, it was just me and my brother and our mission had morphed into finding my sister. We were kids, or teenagers anyway, again and we had my parents' van. This part is a little hazy, I remember we were going to various stores and I kept getting bored while my sister shopped and wandering around. Then my sister got me some sort of handheld gaming system and she started driving because I wanted to play it, and while I wasn't paying attention she scraped the van against some shit. Flash forward I guess, this happened immediately but she utilized the insurance to replace the van with a brand new, way nicer van, and my parents were there (but we were still in the mall parking lot in the same spot). I was worried they'd be mad but my dad was like, way to go, that was smart, now we have a new van. I was really surprised, I could have sworn he'd be pissed. I realized my sister had given me the game to distract me so she could do that, they all thought I'd have a problem with it. Made me feel weird, I was like yo, just talk to me about this shit.
After that my mom and sister wanted to go shopping more, and me and my dad followed them around for a while and then got bored and walked over to the hardware store. On the way I saw a phone store (in a bathroom for some reason) and I need a new phone (in real life, my iPhone's button has stopped working so I have to turn it off and back on to back out of an app or texts or something, and it won't turn sideways anymore either), so I picked one up and went to upgrade it. The sales guy met me in the parking lot, and we began the tedious process of connecting the new phone and checking my old phone to see if it could be traded in. This part was so realistic and detailed, and really, really boring. The guy kept "forgetting" that I wanted to renew my 2-year contract for a cheap price, the phone was gonna be like $900 without that, and he was like, what you want to do is pay monthly payments for it. He was like yeah, it'll take 3000 months to pay off, but it'll only be $30 per month. I started getting pissed because it was taking forever. Finally we got it all ready to go, the new phone was pretty sweet. Then I realized I needed screen protectors and a case, but I was like, shit, I hope this gets done quickly because I really have to pee. Right about then I woke up, and for a few minutes I was like, yeah, I finally upgraded my phone.... but I have to go back and get some accessories. Then I realized I actually had to pee, and that it was a dream, and that my phone alarm was ringing downstairs.
My brain is weird...
But yeah, certain things have gotten better. Or have they? Even if ideas like scientific racism have been debunked, its still in our general 'era' with the same basic methods of discovery that these idea's were introduced. There are still many people that believe such racial ideas and the number is increasing. The idea hasn't been laid to rest.. I truly do not think we have advanced all that much; in a way, its almost unfair to expect it. Human nature doesn't change that quickly. We shouldn't mistake shifting surface details and other cultural upheaval for lasting, real change.
Yes, unfortunately tons of people are still bigots... I think the recent American election proved that to me.