Jerkism

I take a course on diversity. In it, I've become aware of various "ism"s. Most of them you already know. The areas of race, sex, age, sexual orientation, etc.
I'm not perfect in these areas. Like all of us, I'm a work in progress. I like to think I'm reasonably good at seeing someone and not forming stereotypes based on whatever the prefix is. That's because I've found that every time I think I know someone, I'm always wrong.  I can't count how many potentially meaningful friendships I've lost because I've put someone in a mental box and then walked away.

But I do have one area where I'm a neanderthal.

I'm guilty of jerkism. I'm a raging jerkist. I don't like jerks. I just don't. I have zero tolerance for them.

If I was president, I'd pass a law making being a jerk a crime. There's be misdemeanor jerkism and felony jerkism. For the latter, the defendant would be tried by jury and if found guilty, would go to jerk jail and be kept among other guilty jerks. This might be the best form of rehab. Having to deal with other jerks.
I try to avoid labels but when it comes to jerks, I just cannot see past this one dimension. No one is "jerk-y". They're either a jerk or they're not.
I don't think liberals have yet made us feel uncomfortable or guilty in this area. So I can explore my jerkism on my own, free of being castigated for it.Virtually everyone I know is more tolerant of jerks than I am.
Jerks, almost by definition, are men. I suppose there are the female equivalents, but I find I almost never use the "b" word. Even now, I can't bring myself to type it, although everyone knows what it is. Women, most in fact, can be that way at times. But I can't think of a single woman I've met in my entire life who I'd label that way. The closest is a co-worker, who really was (that word) on the job. But away from the job, she was really nice. 
Maybe I'm jealous of jerks. I'm one of those guys who, when I was younger, would see hot girls going out with jerks and me, being the proverbial "nice guy", would be home alone. I never understood it. There have been studies about why girls seemingly prefer jerks over nice guys. None of them ever made sense to me. So maybe this is some teenage issue that's carried over into middle age.
Not only that. Jerks are generally wealthy. I've never met a poor jerk. I'm not saying that wealthy people are jerks. Not true. I know many wealthy people who seem humble and down to earth. And I wish I was like that.
I'd like to be a jerk, truth be told. Maybe I am. Although I suspect I've never been labelled that way. I've been called some names over the years, but "jerk" has never been one of them.Maybe I've always been too poor. I haven't met the minimum wealth level to be a jerk.

I seem to be quick to label someone as a jerk too. Particularly when my head is in a bad neighborhood. I'm not proud of this. Again, I've probably lost some good relationships this way. I've found on occasion that when you get to know the jerk, he's often someone who's just insecure, or lacks confidence, or any number of other areas that I can totally relate to, as I'm often the same way. I can see him three dimensionally and I'm the better for it. But these are exceptions. More often, I find myself wondering how anyone can stand to be in their company. How do they have friends? Yet, they do.Who would marry them? Yet, they are.

That's it...no more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm going down the Jerk Highway. Just as soon as I let that Beamer in ahead of me.