3 ms·

I certainly hope you haven't. But yes I know what you're talking about: that is certainly a behavior of a certain type of racist I've encountered. I find quite

by ixtli 7y ago

I certainly hope you haven't. But yes I know what you're talking about: that is certainly a behavior of a certain type of racist I've encountered. I find quite often that people with reactionary beliefs feel that they are personally under attack, or at least its important that they nurture a certain type of victimhood. I must insist, though, that there is another type that comes from a belief that your perceived "genetic" (here in quotes because these people tend to play very fast and loose with that word) inheritance make you in some way implicitly superior to people who lack your "genes". It's for this reason that I bring all of this up: no matter what they say, there is a difference between wanting to relegate people of color or gays to a second class in society and the intolerance of those beliefs. It's this relation that Popper was talking about. I also want to be clear that I'm not trying to say what you've experienced isn't real. There are definitely people like this. My reply was only in the context of the top-level "tolerance of intolerance" quote.

Udik 7y ago
> there is another type that comes from a belief that your perceived "genetic" [...] inheritance make you in some way implicitly superior... On the other hand, I am pretty convinced that my genetic inheritance makes me "superior" (in some vague, but obvious way) to a cat- and yet I've never harmed or desired harm for cats- I actually like them. Or, to make a different example, while we consider it unacceptable to think of race X to be "superior" to race Y, we have no particular issues in admitting that the individual Albert Einstein was "superior" (again, in some vague way) to many other individuals (us included)- and yet from that doesn't follow we mean those individuals any harm or disrespect.
- dTal 7y ago
  You don't compete with cats for resources, and you interact with them entirely on your terms. Once an animal enters your life without asking, and reduces the resources available to you, they become 'vermin', and people will do extraordinarily cruel things to them without feeling the slightest pang of guilt on the basis of that same 'superiority' which you feel towards cats.
  - Udik 7y ago
    Exactly- which means that the issue it's not the sense of (even genetic) superiority per se, but that of being threatened. Btw, we have an entire genre of fiction (a subset of science fiction) in which humanity is threatened by technologically and cognitively superior races coming from other planets- this doesn't prevent us from trying to exterminate them to ensure our survival.

by ixtli 7y ago

Udik 7y ago

> there is another type that comes from a belief that your perceived "genetic" [...] inheritance make you in some way implicitly superior... On the other hand, I am pretty convinced that my genetic inheritance makes me "superior" (in some vague, but obvious way) to a cat- and yet I've never harmed or desired harm for cats- I actually like them. Or, to make a different example, while we consider it unacceptable to think of race X to be "superior" to race Y, we have no particular issues in admitting that the individual Albert Einstein was "superior" (again, in some vague way) to many other individuals (us included)- and yet from that doesn't follow we mean those individuals any harm or disrespect.

dTal 7y ago
You don't compete with cats for resources, and you interact with them entirely on your terms. Once an animal enters your life without asking, and reduces the resources available to you, they become 'vermin', and people will do extraordinarily cruel things to them without feeling the slightest pang of guilt on the basis of that same 'superiority' which you feel towards cats.
- Udik 7y ago
  Exactly- which means that the issue it's not the sense of (even genetic) superiority per se, but that of being threatened. Btw, we have an entire genre of fiction (a subset of science fiction) in which humanity is threatened by technologically and cognitively superior races coming from other planets- this doesn't prevent us from trying to exterminate them to ensure our survival.