Laying the blame on the Shmucks

It's largely the same in the case of which newspaper you chose to buy, the printed word has incalculable power to persuade.  It's as if the writer has all the answers or at least presents the case in such a way which makes the matter clear. The bias of a newspaper is legend, you pays your money and takes your pick as they say and so long as you are happy to go along and present your mind with a biased, bigoted attitude because you are too lazy to look below the stereotype version of what actually went on.

Bias and bigotry are traits we all recognise, both in others as well as ourselves. They are seen these's days as bad traits, undesirable in a world so full of self guilt that only by reassessing everything we believed in, everything our fathers and grandfathers fought for, which in the process incidentally become a peg to attach our own system of belief.
Today, history is often debunked as being facist, empiricist, racist, as holding opinions ill suited to anything we are now supposed to support. We are led to blame our forefathers for misunderstanding the issues which presented themselves in their day and we are wrong for misjudging everyone one else not born white or born anywhere other than on these islands.

Our bias and our bigotry was of course matched by 'the others' bias and bigotry. The one cancelled the other out, but does it. Does for instance our secular status not allow us space to change and see others differently. Does the bias of a Muslim or an orthodox Jewish person not carry too much suffocating religious predisposition to render that impossible. Does it mean that we carry the burden of 'reformation' because we can modify what clearly is impossible for a religious person to modify. The scripture makes little or no allowance for the unbeliever in the scheme of things and even if you believe in the same god but come from a different religious  structure, you are likely to be condemned by the bias inculcated in what you read.

The question of whether bias, prejudice, bigotry is merely a sensible protective devise, sensible until the world is populated by the same ideology and everyone has  the  same values. Sadly we are a long long way off that utopia. Instead amongst things, such as  race, gender, football allegiance and the funny things we are encouraged to eat now a days everything divides us. Religion divides us and therefore is it any wonder that the secular section of society feels put upon being continually asked to lay aside their prejudice whilst religion flourishes in its bias and in essence challenges our right 'not to believe'.
Of course it leads us to question the philosophical nature of bias, of the human experience and how we build up these mental images, these mental short cuts which feed and develop our prejudice. In terms of survival, the short cuts, the instant reaction to the sight of a snake, the race from danger is built on our prejudice toward snakes, and whilst It's accepted we can't negotiate with animals we can talk to people about  how perhaps we misjudge them in an attempt to close the gap between us.
We can't close the gap if there are fundamental 'no go spaces' fore instance if the basis is based on textual information and not the actuality of modern life.
We can't compete with exceptionalism, be it religious or cultural and it's becoming increasingly unfair to lay all the blame on us poor shmucks