[ExI] Famous Scientists saying Racist Things

[William Flynn Wallace]

A pale is a wooden or iron stake put up around some place to protect it.
The fence is called a palisade.  So 'beyond the pale' means outside of us -
foreign, unwanted, dangerous etc.

bill w

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 10:09 AM Robert G. Kennedy III, PE via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> It's a Russian Jewish thing from the Tsarist era.  With a uppercase "P".
>   Related to persecution / pogroms.  If your question wasn't rhetorical,
> maybe you don't want to know?  If you do want to, look up "Pale of
> Settlement" established by Catherine the "Great".
>
> You'd be surprised/depressed at how many common expressions have their
> roots in racism, repression and persecution.  I never use "beyond the
> pale" for this reason.  To avoid such mistakes and short circuits in
> thinking, I am always guided by George Orwell's wonderful essay,
> "Politics and the English Language".
>
> K3
>
> On Sun, 5 Jul 2020 09:13:07 -0500, William Flynn Wallace
> <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Message: 9
> > Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2020 09:13:07 -0500
> > From: William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
> > To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> > Subject: Re: [ExI] Famous Scientists saying Racist Things.
> >
> [snip]
> > well, that's well beyond the pale (and who knows the
> > meaning of 'pale'?)
> >
> > bill w
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>
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