[extropy-chat] Redneck Transhumanists

[Olga Bourlin]

From: "Samantha Atkins" <samantha at objectent.com>

> On Jul 2, 2004, at 10:28 AM, Dustin Wish with INDCO Networks wrote:
> > OK, I feel I started something that maybe out of control...lol
> >
> > I hope members of this group do not look at those from the south as
uneducated inbreeds. I do poke fun at the stereotypes we have here in the
south, but know this is not the case for the most part. However, I do
understand that the meth ridden trailer parks of Arkansas do offer a lot of
amusement that their expense.

> Now wait, the poking fun is about "rednecks".  I know of no law of nature
such that rednecks are restricted to the south or even only exist when there
is inbreeding.  Heck, I've even known European rednecks!

It wasn't recent, but I've made my views about the use of the term
"rednecks" before.  Many people here pooh-poohed me.  But I'll say it again,
for the record.  I find the term "redneck" both racist and abhorrently
classist (not to mention "jobist").  In my library I have a book from the
early 1941s filled with jokes about Asians, blacks,  Jews, etc. - each group
getting its very own chapter of jokes.  Ugly stuff, but not unlike the jokes
about "rednecks" here.

One of the meanings of "transhumanism" is that it's a "philosophy ...
favoring the use of  certain technologies to improve the human condition
beyond the constraints of biological evolution."  IMHO we can do a lot to
improve the human condition now by resisting making fun of a certain class
and "race" of people.

Olga