I’m consistently amazed at the number of people who seem to think that you can’t possibly hold a position unless you expressly, explicitly identify as holding it. 

Guess what. Most racists don’t think they’re racist. Most sexists don’t think they’re sexist. Lots of misogynists will claim to love women, and they really mean it. They’re just wrong.

All too often, people hold positions they’re not even aware of. Beliefs entail ramifications that exist whether you want them to or not. Take for example the sort of person who believes in some sort of wishy-washy Karma — “good things happen to good people” and all that. This is a fucking horrible belief, because it implies by corollary that anyone who suffers a terrible disease or disaster must have had it coming. But if you tell these people that they hold a disgusting, fuckwitted, reprehensible belief, they’ll stare at you like you told them their left eyebrow is a hippopotamus. They simply cannot conceive of the notion that what they believe isn’t all nice and dandy. But regardless of whether they know it or not, regardless of whether they intend it or not, their belief is still disgusting, fuckwitted, and reprehensible.