Commentary

What are you afraid of?

October 23, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Phobia – the extreme or irrational fear of, or aversion to something.

I don’t like spiders.

Insects in general don’t bother me at all, but spiders, if they get to close, there’s just something about them that creeps me out.

On the other hand, I’ve had a boa constrictor wrapped around my neck at a reptile petting zoo while the person next to me was freaking out from being within 10 feet of a snake.

We all have our own little weird quirks.

However, I don’t have ‘arachnophobia’ – an extreme or irrational fear of spiders. If one did drop down on me from above, and that has happened, I would just flick it away with my finger.

Everyone has a fear of falling. I once read that it is the only fear that your are born with, and all the others are learned.

Claustrophobia is the fear of confined spaces, and a word I think almost everyone is familiar with. I would think that feeling claustrophobic in some cases would be fairly normal. Who really wants to be in a confined space? It feels unnatural.

The tighter the space, the more unnatural it feels.

There are a lot of different types of phobias.

My friend’s aunt had a severe phobia of making a left turn in her car. She would plan her entire route when leaving her home, and if necessary, would make right turns all the way around a city block to get to her destination rather than make a single left.

True phobias are rare. As the definition explains, it is a fear that is irrational.

I’ve never been with anyone who suddenly freaked out because they spotted a squirrel in a tree or had a panic attack because a room was painted a colour they were afraid of.

I’m sure it happens, and I have sympathy for anyone who struggles with an issue like that. However, it is rare.

The word ‘phobia’ is now a common part of the lexicon, and it is used incorrectly all the time.

Just because a person doesn’t agree with your opinion, it doesn’t make them phobic.

Many groups like to use the add-on “phobic” to describe anyone who won’t join their political party, agenda, religion, way of life, or share their opinion.

It doesn’t make a person phobic – it means they don’t agree with you.

Some members of the gay community use the phrase ‘homophobic’ at the drop of a hat, and direct it at anyone who doesn’t support their lifestyle.

People aren’t afraid of homosexuals if they don’t appreciate their lifestyle. I’ve seen plenty of videos where gay people scream and curse at others for being in their gay neighbourhood and not being gay.

But none of them would ever admit to being ‘hetrophobic,’ and I’ve never even heard anyone use that word.

As far as I can tell, most gay people just continue on with their lives as normal, they don’t attack others.

There is a Christian church in Hamilton now being sued by a Muslim group because the church objected to an Islamic group trying to start an Islamic school in their building.

Of course the group’s lawyer quickly brought up the word ‘Islamophobia.’ What a surprise.

He then went on to use the other current buzzwords like ‘inclusive,’ diversity,’ and ‘acceptance.’

Those modern buzzwords are nothing more than an attempt to make someone else look bad if they don’t agree with you.

I think this lawyer and his group are the last people that should try using words like inclusive and acceptance – and that’s no secret, it’s an easily verified doctrine.

The church isn’t displaying a type of phobia, they are concerned, just the way any other organization, whether religious or secular will react when they feel threatened by another organization that is hostile toward them is getting too close.

The Christian church has been under attack many times over the past couple of decades, including church burnings, and I’ve never heard anyone use the phrase ‘Christophobic.’

The federal government barely acknowledges there is a problem with this.

It’s time to just eliminate the word ‘phobic’ when it comes to anything not related to a true phobia.

It’s either that, or start using it during every occasions where someone doesn’t agree with you.

In that case there’s going to be a lot of liberphobic, conservaphobic, blackophobic, whiteophobic, straightophobic, towncouncilophobic, moviephobic, musicphobic, loudmufflerphobic, and loudneighbourhoodpartyphobic, discussions happening.  

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