Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/05/why-some-people-hate-jews-and.html
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It’s an interesting perspective on an ugly vista most people who study history are very familiar with. Bigots tossing in homeless people and drug addicts with highly successful “model” minorities when the going gets tough (often due to the economic policies the bigots themselves supported) shows yet again that no matter how you look at the views of Know-Nothings you always see the same thing: a big pile of steaming BS that isn’t owed a platform.
groups that are stereotyped as both “cold” (the opposite of “good-natured, sincere and trustworthy”) and competent (“ambitious, intelligent and skillful”) are more likely to be targeted for, um, extermination.
While it doesn’t have a lot of experience with right-wing populist regimes taking power, this country has a long history of trying to marginalise intellectuals.
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Wow. That just speaks to societal stupid. Because, you know, when times get tough, the first people to eliminate are the competent ones. Or, better stated, “Never underestimate the evil people in large groups may be capable of carrying out.”
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“Why” doesn’t really matter, does it? Explaining evil doesn’t make it good.
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Never more true than now.
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Why some people hate Jews and Asian-Americans
Because they’re assholes?
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Of course it matters. “Explain” isn’t synonymous with “excuse”. If we learn how people fall into the mental traps of bigotry, we can use that knowledge to devise better ways of extracting people from it, or preventing them from falling into it in the first place. And goodness knows, we sorely need a way to cure this particular mental disease at the moment.
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If you wish to do something about it that has a shot at success, understanding “Why” matters a lot.
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Careful.
This isn’t mental. This isn’t even cognitive.
This is just a social disease.
(FTR, haven’t read the op-ed, and not sure I will.)
ETA: strike disease, too. Problem might be better.
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Certainly good to understand a phenomenon, but always dicey to say anything even close to "people hate group X because group X is… It verges on, or cracks the door open to victim blaming. Making these claims makes it incredibly important to explore where they perceptions of coldness/competence comes from, who is amplifying them and who is helping translate them into “sneaky, not-quite-human and devious” and that level of careful detail tends to get lost below the fold in psychology reporting in the popular press.
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I think you might stil have the phrasing a little off. Maybe more of an intrinsic social phenomenon that requires recognition, preferably early on, to STOMP out. Viewed that way, understanding how and where it may arise is quite useful.
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Like gonorrhea.
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Is there any evidence there is a cure?
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It makes a lot of sense if you are, yourself, incompetent. You see things getting tough, you know that resources might tighten, and you know that in a true meritocracy you will be found wanting. So, to head that off, you work to revise the metrics of merit and dispose of competent competitors for those resources. This idea is not limited to the “stupid” crowd.
Compare to anxiety about access to higher education. In the early 20th century, Harvard College had an entrance exam: pass it and you’re in. Testing biases aside, a true meritocratic outcome. But once they noted the incoming classes were 50% Jewish or higher, they dropped it, and instituted the idea of “legacy” as a measure of merit. When you can’t compete, change the rules.
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And that is the Republican election strategy in a nutshell!
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Yes. Exposing them to an anaerobic environment.
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Dont misunderstand me, by “societal stupid” i dont refer to a group of folks lacking in IQ points. Any significantly large group of individuals seems to lose higher intellectual function with frightening speed, and stress tends to make the slope steeper.
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Sure, if you’ll take anecdotal as an existence proof, I’m way less shitty than I used to be. It’s quite possible for individuals to have the scales pried from their eyes.
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Basically damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Why matters a lot, if your goal is fighting the problem. Imagine crafting some type of anti-bigotry ad campaign. One strategy that might be appealing is countering negative stereotypes. If this research holds up, it would probably be counter productive to highlight the competence of these groups in times of increased resentment. A more successful strategy might be focusing on fighting the cold stereotypes.
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