Agree with what you have said. My worry is basically can we evolve wings before we get to the cliff? Dont know. Trying to deal with the now for now.
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Words have meaning, yes. Beyond the strictly literal, there are many sophisticated communication techniques which are used to convey deeper meanings. Some will always choose to split hairs. Anyone with a high school education knows that DNA in the strictest sense refers to only the biological. It was a metaphor, capiche?
Thank you for taking the time to do that “look it up” step. I think if more folks would do more of that, things on the Internet would be better for everyone! I really appreciate it!
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The specific differences are socialized, and very, very early. Or I should say, the specific desirable traits because it appears that what babies (and also dogs) learn is the characteristics of the in-group rather than the
identifying features of the out group. If high-status people in your family have purple hair, your child will always have an affinity for the purple-haired. But the child’s feelings towards and treatment of people with any other hair color do not seem to be as deeply impressed and can be changed through experience and education.
(You may have seen the horrible oversimplification in the press a few years ago, claiming that “babies are racist.” That is not the case. Your baby just soaked up group characteristics that are important in its society. It has yet to learn what to do with people who have other characteristics. Also, your dog may someday learn that the UPS guy carries treats.)
Which, I think, is why people want to ask why about racism. As in, “How deeply ingrained is this? Can we redirect or recondition? Or drop them off a cliff?”
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Fuckin’ A.
We’ve already played this ‘Humpty Dumpty-words-only-mean-whatever-I-intend’ game too many times before; it sucked, 0/10, would not play again.
Yes there is a genetic component that goes back to our primitive roots which causes us to fear the unknown (ie, “the other”) but given how our species has advanced both biologically and socially over the last couple hundred thousand years, it’s disingenuous as hell to claim that the bigotry and prejudice we’ve been seeing a resurgence of is somehow ‘hardwired’ into us.
It’s not.
Mindless hatred over superficial differences is learned.
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Have you read ‘Lord of the Flies’? William Golding would disagree. Spent much time around schoolyards? Children naturally find, exploit and prey on differences and weaknesses, no different than any other mammal species. Denying this unfortunate truth is part of the problem since we can only prevent the next genocide by understanding that we are all at the root of the problem. As we are seeing it can happen here. Of course socialization that encourages and foments racism and ‘otherism’ is real; My point, echoing the original article is that there are deeper currents at play…that tribalism, populism, demagoguery, fascism, call it what you want comes natural to us as a species. Tribal belonging (gangs for instance) comes natural to us. Anthropologists know this, Sociologists know this, Political Scientists know this. In human history the rule has been tribalism, war and genocide. The anomaly is democracy and the rule of law.
I respectfully disagree with this. Incompetent people usually overestimate their own competence. When you are actually incompetent, but believe yourself to be competent, you then look for external factors preventing you from reaching your self-assessed potential. That’s where the cold, competent people come into play.
Affirm their belief that it’s not their fault and they’ll flock to you in droves. This is how Hitler recruited Brown Shirts, the Confederates recruited a bunch of poor white men, and ISIS recruits bombers. It’s why we have crewcuts buying the Charlottesville Walmarts out of tiki torches. Do you want incels? Because this is how you get incels.
The hell of it is that this makes it easy to recruit and organize a horde of idiots, but trying to get smart, competent people organized is like herding the proverbial cats.
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That a sadly accurate assessment
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Sartre:
Besides this, many anti‐Semites — the majority, perhaps — belong to the lower middle class of the towns; they are functionaries, office workers, small businessmen, who possess nothing. It is in opposing themselves to the Jew that they suddenly become conscious of being proprietors: in representing the Jew as a robber, they put themselves in the enviable position of people who could be robbed. Since the Jew wishes to take France from them, it follows that France must belong to them. Thus they have chosen anti‐Semitism as a means of establishing their status as possessors. The Jew has more money than they? So much the better: money is Jewish, and they can despise it as they despise intelligence. They own less than the gentleman‐farmer of Périgord or the large‐scale farmer of the Beauce? That doesn’t matter. All they have to do is nourish a vengeful anger against the robbers of Israel and they feel at once in possession of the entire country. True Frenchmen, good Frenchmen are all equal, for each of them possesses for himself alone France whole and indivisible.
Thus I would call anti‐Semitism a poor man’s snobbery. And in fact it would appear that the rich for the most part exploit this passion for their own uses rather than abandon themselves to it — they have better things to do. It is propagated mainly among the middle classes, because they possess neither land nor house nor castle, having only some ready cash and a few securities in the bank. It was not by chance that the petty bourgeoisie of Germany was anti‐Semitic in 1925. The principal concern of this “white-collar proletariat” was to distinguish itself from the real proletariat. Ruined by big industry, bamboozled by the Junkers, it was nonetheless to the Junkers and the great industrialists that its whole heart went out. It went in for anti‐Semitism with the same enthusiasm that it went in for wearing bourgeois dress: because the workers were internationalists, because the Junkers possessed Germany and it wished to possess it also. Anti‐Semitism is not merely the joy of hating; it brings positive pleasures too. By treating the Jew as an inferior and pernicious being, I affirm at the same time that I belong to the elite. This elite, in contrast to those of modern times which are based on merit or labour, closely resembles an aristocracy of birth. There is nothing I have to do to merit my superiority, and neither can I lose it. It is given once and for all. It is a thing.
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Human biology is not a rhetorical parlor game. Deoxyribonucleic acid is an actual substance in the real world, not a metaphor for anything else. If you’re not a molecular biologist talking about molecular biology, then say what you mean and leave “DNA” out of it.
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A state of relatively peaceful coexistence is not an “anomaly,” historically speaking.
Even societies that glorify war have always had to spend most of their resources on non-war-related pursuits because if you don’t have enough people growing food and weaving clothing and building shelters then your soldiers won’t be able to wage war for very long.
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But people often react in a counterproductive manner. It is always easier to believe that people perceived to be successful have achieved that success through nefarious means. The alternative is often facing the reality that you yourself might have achieved that same success had you made smarter choices, worked harder, or just been luckier.
So we lash out at people who, rather than cheating or oppressing us, are actually making our lives better. Uganda in 1972 is a good example.
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So let me get this straight. Are you trying to imply that humans are not always logical, thoughtful creatures? Well are you? A pox on you sir! A pox I say!
No, seriously, that is true. It is hard to accept that you have worked hard and tbat other guy got more. Doesn’t make it right, and that is where civilization needs to step in. It is always a very this veneer, but a very important one. It’s all that keeps us from becoming Trumps! (Dum dum dum)
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I’m going to have to agree with @il.luminator, but it gets a lot more complicated than just saying “DNA”. Primates (regardless of where you are on the family tree) have weird things like snake phobias. Even without exposure or cultural “lessons” on snakes, some of us (and other great apes as well) have deep seated phobias of snakes.
I haven’t seen anything that’s really convinced me as to the “why” does this exist, only that it does.
That being said, it’s definitely arguable, that even at “human”, there are likely ingrained hardwired fears and phobias, and it’s not too hard to imagine “otherness” could very easily be one of these.
Now, how people are culturally taught to deal with what’s likely an inherent insecurity is something else entirely. I’d bet that some people are taught to learn and embrace “otherness” and are consequently happier less bigoted people, while others are taught to reinforce their fears and blame everything (and thus the rise of the tRumpsters…).
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The history of this quote is fascinating! And he said it to Bill Moyers, a “young staffer”!
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All humans are different. The lines we draw between which differences constitute normal variation within “our” group and which differences define an “other” group are 100% cultural, not genetic.
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Yes, but there’s some point of phenotypic difference where even small children recognize that things are different. My point is that the biology, or “DNA” of it likely leads to minor behavioral adaptations like 1) the recognition of “other” and 2) some slightly modified behavior responding to it. Extreme cases like actual phobias (snake and otherwise) are extreme examples.
What you do with the recognition is truly 100% cultural.
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Small children can tell the difference between a blonde and a redhead or a right-handed person and a lefty, but in our society most kids aren’t taught that those distinctions are a basis for fear and mistrust.
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That’s my point. We recognize other, and there’s some level of animal comfort in “same as me”. Trust me, as a member of a very multiracial extended family, you see it even with babies. If mom or dad’s not available, the best bet is to hand the kid to someone who looks closest to family (even if not related).
Whether those kids grow up being fascinated by “other” (which is what seems to happen in my extended clan), or learn to fear and revile “other” is entirely social/cultural.
(and my kid’s screwed as she’s a part asian Jew…)
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