[ExI] Protest

[Dan TheBookMan]

It was more bands than tribes, but recall my second sentence:

“If you go back far enough, yeah, people do discriminate, but it’s along different lines.”

In other words, yeah, discrimination goes back a long ways, probably into prehistory. My point was, rather, that modern categories of race are rather recent — dating to the modern period and, specifically, growing stronger in the 18th century. Sure, before that people found other ways to despise each other, but earlier people’s found other distinctions more compelling.

Also, I think there are some built-in defaults for people or one’s acquired early in life. Gender seems to be acquired very early — to the point that Cordelia Fine calls young children “gender detectives.” (See her _Delusions of Gebder_.) This might mean that if children aren’t raised to inculcate conventional categories, then they won’t default to these as adults. 

And people hold many false ideas and stupid behaviors that would be better for them to change, don’t you think? For instance, it seems if you ask most people their view of everyday physics isn’t even Newtonian. It’s pre-Newtonian. Should we just give up and forget about trying to correct ideas that can actually be dangerous to hold? (Not understanding momentum and inertia can get you killed in many situations.)

Regards,

Dan
   Sample my Kindle books at:
http://author.to/DanUst

> On Jun 13, 2020, at 6:43 AM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Can we agree that for a long time humans existed as tribes?  Good.  Then you have tribalism - your tribe is right about everything.  The neighboring tribe isd a bunch of robbers and rapists etc.  A person with different clothes, face paint etc. was one to fear.
> 
> This gave rise to xenophobia - in the genes I assume.  So humans discriminate against anyone different, just like the hens pecking to death a chick who looks malformed.  
> 
> Not like us - that's the motto.  It can be skin color or just anything.  And we still do it-  by race, by religion, by nationality and so on.  All the way back.  A million years?
> 
> Fear is our most important emotion.  It keeps us alive.  It goes back to the beginning.
> 
> bill w
> 
>> On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 9:42 PM Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>> On Jun 12, 2020, at 6:45 PM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>> Racism has been cutting lives short for over a century.  adrian
>>> 
>>> How about ever since different races appeared?  I keep saying that racism, sexism and some other isms are perfectly normal; expected.  It would be astonishing if they weren't bases for discrimination (not prejudice - we in the South know blacks quite well and are not prejudiced.  Discriminatory, of course.)
>>> 
>>> bill w
>> 
>> Not really. If you go back far enough, yeah, people do discriminate, but it’s along different lines. For instance, recall the piece I sent citing Bacon’s Rebellion. That was mostly a class rebellion but the authorities managed to drive a wedge between lower class Whites and Blacks. This meant that before the rebellion Blacks and Whites were working together against the upper class.
>> 
>> Of course, if meant when modern racial classifications took root, okay, but those were fairly recent. They start in the modern period and particularly pick up steam in the late 18th century. They don’t go back to prehistory or even ancient times.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Dan
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