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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/04/2023 00:54, bill w wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.283.1681084457.847.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans
ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">Labels - where
would we be without labels and groups? Worse off by a long
shot. We would have to explain in all the little details
just what we are talking about, whereas the label tells you most
of it and then you can say just how you deviate from it. We
cannot do without generalization.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans
ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans
ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">Without: I am of
mostly European origin with some parts for Scotland, some from
Ireland, some from France,and a little bit from India. </div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans
ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans
ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">With: I am white,
mostly western European</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans
ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans
ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">Loosen up out
there! bill w</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
I think you both have a point.<br>
<br>
I call myself an atheist, have for a long long time. But I've lost
count of the number of times people take that to mean I'm something
that I'm not. The problem with then trying to clarify it, is that
those people take no notice of what I'm telling them because the
term seems to have poisoned their minds. Anything I say after that
is (often, if they're religious) interpreted as an attack on them.<br>
Of course, with that particular example, there does seem to be a
general confusion between not believing something is true and
believing that it's not true. A great many people apparently aren't
capable of seeing the difference (or simply refuse to acknowledge
the difference).<br>
<br>
Another, perhaps simpler, example is 'Transhumanist'. A lot of
people have simply stopped calling themselves that, because of
persistent misconceptions about what it means. But I think it's a
useful term that summarises a whole mindset.<br>
<br>
'Extropian' is much less well-known, and always needs to be
explained anyway, to most people.<br>
<br>
Ben<br>
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