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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Friendperson Since: Aug, 2018
#258351: Oct 22nd 2018 at 7:57:32 AM

Progressivism will win in the end. Eventually all the boomers and bangers will die off.

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#258352: Oct 22nd 2018 at 7:58:07 AM

Progress is not a straight line.

A lot of the racists and misogynists are young white men.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Ultimatum Disasturbator from Second Star to the left (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Disasturbator
#258353: Oct 22nd 2018 at 7:59:52 AM

> Progressivism will win in the end. Eventually all the boomers and bangers will die off.

A wild idealist appears!

New theme music also a box
Bur Chaotic Neutral from Flyover Country Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Not war
#258354: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:05:08 AM

[up][up][up] Iran says otherwise.

Edited by Bur on Oct 22nd 2018 at 10:05:25 AM

i. hear. a. sound.
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#258355: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:06:33 AM

Cross-posting part of an article from the Sexism thread.

With the Trump administration trying to change dictionary definitions to eliminate transgender and intersex people from reality, here's a little primer on the futility of their anti-science position. Hopefully it won't last.

    Full article text 
Emphasis mine.
While the relevance of this discussion is not going away, some public intellectuals like the author Michael Pollan have suggested that bringing this policy memo to the forefront of national conversations is savvy politics just before the midterm elections. “Don’t take the bait!” he tweeted this morning. The implication is that the intention of the administration is to stir a culture war that, rife with misinformation and fear-mongering, will rally Trump’s base around the idea that liberals want to destroy the concept of men and women and, so, God and family, desecrating the very idea of America.

Looked at another way, the policy could just as well raise objections among people concerned about “big government” and defending individual rights. Scientific implausibility aside, this is a federal agency proposing widespread genetic testing and keeping records of citizens’ genitals. This is a proposal by the government imposing an expectation that everyone look and act in one of two ways, and that everything in between is somehow not right—an aberration, an anomaly, a flaw, a problem, a disease—rather than a marvel of the natural world, a way that humans survive and thrive not despite but because of our complexity as a species.

Even those who believe a simplistic dichotomy does and should explain the world—regardless of the millions of people who exist as evidence to the contrary—should see reason to question the American-ness of government imposing such a rigid prescription on everyone.

It's the last few paragraphs I wanted to quote for this thread specifically. How does everyone feel about the US government having a database of your genitals? Of your childrens'? Or is this the GOP's latest Think of the Children! dogwhistle to the public?

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#258356: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:21:35 AM

Unfortunately, for too many people, that only applies if their children aren't... well, the words they would use for it are ones I'll never type. But you only have to look at the rates for abused, homeless and murdered queer kids to know how that pans out - Republicans only care about their children in the abstract, and are perfectly willing to simply insist that they don't have children.

It's been fun.
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#258357: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:25:18 AM

@Friendperson: Beware the "Unilinear Evolution Fallacy". A lot of people have made the mistake of assuming that cultures necessarily progress in one specific path and converge on one point. In truth, as cultures progress they can diverge and take all sorts of routes. For that matter, a lot of the social mores that one might consider "regressive" are not necessarily old.

It's comparable to the fallacy of Goal-Oriented Evolution/Evolutionary Levels.

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#258358: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:25:28 AM

As in physically examining you and keeping what, picture records? I'm a little confused by what you mean there. Because they kind of already do in the form of noting our gender down when we're born, which is a normal medical thing if you're born in a hospital.

Like, I'm not even arguing the immorality of it, I'm having trouble parsing what exact action you think will be taken here.

In any case, maybe we ought to stop using phrases big or small government and start replacing them with "invasive" and "non-invasive" government. Because when Republicans start wanting to do things to enforce whatever bug is up their ass, it's guaranteed to be invasive as all hell.

Friendperson Since: Aug, 2018
#258359: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:28:53 AM

I think that the GOP has literally- not figuratively- convinced themselves that trans people don't exist, simply based on how tiny a fraction of the population they are. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#258360: Oct 22nd 2018 at 8:56:15 AM

[up]Actually, that's very likely true. In fact, I think I'd even go a step further and say "they were never convinced they existed in the first place".

To a lot of people, the gender dichotomy is ‘’so’’ engrained into their upbringing and the like that it comes across as very basic common sense to them. I’m not justifying it per se, but it should be understood.

Edited by Protagonist506 on Oct 22nd 2018 at 9:21:04 AM

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#258361: Oct 22nd 2018 at 9:03:12 AM

Didn't Iran have a big popular reform movement before the bosses said, "Hmm, no."

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
math792d Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#258362: Oct 22nd 2018 at 10:12:10 AM

For that matter, a lot of the social mores that one might consider "regressive" are not necessarily old.

Generally speaking, at least in the Western tradition, science based on 'race' is technically a younger idea than the idea of the rule of law being universally applied to everyone regardless of class.

Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#258363: Oct 22nd 2018 at 10:35:51 AM

Racism was basically created to justify persecution of Jews and Muslims in Spain.

And also the slave trade.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
RainingMetal Since: Jan, 2010
#258364: Oct 22nd 2018 at 10:50:51 AM

Acting like Trump but being smart behind the scenes is physically impossible.

Let me rephrase what I had said. How about a progressive Trump? Same Large Ham, but an intelligent understanding of how the world works. Would attack conservatives just as savagely.

Edited by RainingMetal on Oct 22nd 2018 at 12:51:04 PM

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#258365: Oct 22nd 2018 at 10:56:51 AM

[up][up]I'm willing to bet racism predates both of those things.

Probably goes as far as "Neanderthal bad!"

Edited by sgamer82 on Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:57:13 AM

Silasw Since: Mar, 2011
#258366: Oct 22nd 2018 at 10:58:24 AM

A progressive Trump is an oxymoron, Trump is defined by being a reactionary.

The phrase you’re looking for is a bombastic progressive, but that’s not being a mirror of Trump, the key defining thing about Trump isn’t that he’s bombastic, it’s thats he’s a bigoted idiot.

RainingMetal Since: Jan, 2010
#258367: Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:00:05 AM

Close enough. I just would love to see Trump and the alt-right get a taste of their own annoying medicine.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#258368: Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:37:10 AM

[up] then we would have to deal with that same annoyingness as well.

smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#258369: Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:37:48 AM

It also wouldn’t work because Dems aren’t held to the same standards as Republicans, or rather, the other way around. They can get away with screaming and crying until they’re foaming at the mouth, but if a Democrat so much as forgets to salute a passing soldier, then they’re the rudest and most apalling president in history.

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#258370: Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:37:53 AM

@sgamer82: Yes and no. Modern concepts of race are pretty new, and therefor what we would call "racism". Having said that, proto-racism of sorts is intrinsic to human nature (many societies care an awful lot about bloodline, culture, etc). Same thing goes with nationalism too-the idea of the "Nation" is a fairly new concept, and was often conflated with what we might call "race".

For example, Greece thought of themselves less a single nation or people, but rather a collection of "civilized states" and the people outside of it were "barbarians". It was akin to how we think of the vague concept of "The First World".

Edited by Protagonist506 on Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:40:02 AM

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#258371: Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:41:52 AM

[up] yeah, in a lot of ways, it’s just “rebranding” a thing that’s been part of human society from the beginning. It manifests in different ways, but the basic concept of “fear of the other” is universal.

Edited by megaeliz on Oct 22nd 2018 at 2:48:17 PM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#258373: Oct 22nd 2018 at 12:13:33 PM

It means a lot on the individual level. A guy who lives in Greece who is black is different from a guy who is a barbarian because he's black.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
AngelusNox The law in the night from somewhere around nothing Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
The law in the night
#258374: Oct 22nd 2018 at 12:33:29 PM

Scientific racism, as in, we define other ethnic groups as inherently inferior or attributed certain characteristics to specific races. Was, as a whole, rationalized during the 19th century and during the 18th century there was the believe on the god's chosen people, mostly to justify the domination of other races as being the will of god and by using the biblical passages that justify slavery of lesser races.

During the 20th century, the whole scientific racism became even more refined, specially with the eugenics craze that didn't really end until well after WWII.

However, I'd see that during ancient times, there was less of a codification for racism, than it was a certain form of tribalism or proto-nationalism. There were stereotypes associated with certain state cities and cultures, but no specific mention of race though.

Inter arma enim silent leges
CookingCat Since: Jul, 2018
#258375: Oct 22nd 2018 at 12:59:10 PM

Iran says otherwise.

Have you seen Geography Now's video on it? While the government is still a conservative mess, the Iranian people are becoming more and more liberal.

Edited by CookingCat on Oct 22nd 2018 at 1:00:40 AM


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