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Don’t you see the problem here? Racism is bad and people are right to be frustrated about it, but an increasing number of people have abused this frustration in
by SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
Don’t you see the problem here? Racism is bad and people are right to be frustrated about it, but an increasing number of people have abused this frustration in order to prevent critical analysis of their views. You say nobody will ostracize me for interesting views on local government, but in some circles claims like “Lincoln High is a good school name” or “we should have test-based admissions” are considered racist.
If the zeitgeist has advanced so far that even an abstract defense of free thought is racist, as you seem to be claiming, that’s a pretty big reason for concern.
- grey-area 6y agoFrankly I think those are invented problems, invented to defend the status quo. You are also equating someone somewhere saying something is racist with broader censure - nobody us going to be ostracised for saying Lincoln high is a good school name. I didn't say 'an abstract defense of free thought is racist', I said I knew the article would be defending a racist because of the excessive abstraction in the title to dance around the actual problem, which is not interesting views but racist views, something quite distinct.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y agoIt's not an invented problem. Multiple college acquaintances of mine have specifically announced they're ostracizing people for a similar naming dispute at my alma mater. I'm not saying you'll be instantly expelled from polite society for disagreeing with the consensus, but there's an increasing range of topics where you have to seriously weigh whether the benefit of thinking critically about them is worth the risk of losing friends.