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Poverty leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to censorship. When people feel (economically) insecure, they become selfish and so
by mLuby 6y ago
Poverty leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to censorship.
When people feel (economically) insecure, they become selfish and sometimes lash out at the Other as the cause of their troubles. For 1930s Germans going through hyperinflation and WW1 reparations, the Other was the Jews. For 2010s Americans going through the Great Recession and unequal recovery, the Other (who was non-white, non-Christian, and non-patriarchal) was "taking our jobs."
Unfortunately after this pandemic, we should expect another wave of xenophobia resulting from all the economic damage, although it's not yet clear if the Other will be different this time.
And I should say that while lashing out in this way is absolutely wrong, it also should be quite understandable.
So the "simplest" fix is making the economy work for everyone, so people feel financially secure and can focus on pursuing their dreams.
- odessacubbage 6y agomaybe, but most of the contemporary calls for censorship ime are not coming from the poor, they're coming from a class of culturally sheltered, hypersensitive & over-medicated professionals. as far as xenophobia, i think the knowledge class has largely been insulated from the effects of migration & trade policy and thus have only ever reaped the benefits. we'll see if that stays true once faang starts offshoring to remote workers in kiev and mexico city.
- mLuby 6y agoRight, the groups you mentioned increasingly want to censor speech from the groups I mentioned. The original question boiled down to "can we reduce the incidents of censor-worthy speech via education?" to which I say yes, but via financial security rather than education.