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by pjc50
2819 days ago
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> the majority of people have acted like this (or perhaps more "live and let live") by default for a long time The majority of people where at what times? Does it actually matter why people hate, only that they do? Your argument seems to be that all racism etc is systemic and structural, and therefore there's no individual responsibility? |
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Do you expect me to be an expert on the moral history of every group on earth? I'm not going to specify in exact detail, but my point is that I think people naturally default to ambivalence and have to learn (or be taught) to mistreat specific groups of people.
> Does it actually matter why people hate, only that they do?
Yes, it matters if you want to do anything about it.
> Your argument seems to be that all racism etc is systemic and structural, and therefore there's no individual responsibility?
Yep, pretty much. Or at least, most racism. Individuals are responsible for forming the opinions but to make any real difference you need to take away the reason they formed the opinion.
If you want to reduce oppression at scale, you need to address the systemic issue. Do you think a racist hates some set of people arbitrarily? Or do you think he might have a (obviously invalid) reason to hate them, such as feeling they are a threat, are inferior, can be exploited, are ridiculous and so on? Dig down into those reasons and I believe you will find a systemic root most of the time. Obviously that person shouldn't hold those views, but how are you going to address the problem? Attempt to force everyone with a bad opinion to change that opinion? Or do you address the reason they acquired the perception in the first place, meaning that the next generation has less reason to discriminate? I think the latter is more viable.