Which people-groups are currently allowed to be hated?

Post Reply New Topic

Pretty much, they are just labels to attach to anyone that another disagrees with. The disagreement need not even be related to the appellation.

The thing is that we're not oppressors, some people generalize that we are.

Hate can be good if it provides a motivation that leads to actions that facilitate the preservation of the values and way of life you hold dear.

*sigh*

i agree with dox and keet.

well, to an extent. i agree with dox's statement completely. i agree with keet's (and tim's for that matter) to the extent that, as a white male in america, it's hard not to take offense at the notion that white americans are all racists.

the problem is that white american racists exist and often make themselves known. it's the same problem faced by blacks and hispanics in urban areas where crime is rampant. i can see why a black college student could be angry about being arrested because someone just robbed a liquor store nearby and they happen to be waiting for a bus in the area. at the same time, i can see why a white man with a black partner could be offended at the implication that he is racist just because some racists look like him.

i'm not black so i don't know exactly what it feels like to be profiled by the LAPD for that.

my daughter doesn't live with me and a lot of people i only know as acquaintances either don't know i have a daughter or don't know that she's (half) black. when it is implicated that i am a racist because racist white people look just like regular white people, i can become enraged. racist comments by white people can make me even angrier, though, because it makes me feel like they're just making it worse.

i do so love a complicated issue!

in 6th grade, the other kids threw rocks at me every day as i walked to the field for P.E. and every time i fought back i would get in trouble and the bullies would get away with it. the teacher and most of the bullies were hispanic, so i decided that hispanics were crappy people. after a bit more experience with people, i decided that i couldn't find any one race to be crappier than another and that the only way to proceed was to acknowledge that there are no human subspecies and, as such, there is no valid reasoning for racism.

i think learning that i am wrong about something is even more fun than learning something new (which is almost always fun). overuse of the words "racist" and "homophobe" has detracted from their effectiveness. also, "homophobe" feels like a word used by people who don't dislike homosexuality to tease people who do dislike homosexuality by saying "oh, you're just scurred of 'em!" when the truth is that people accused of homophobia are being accused of disliking homosexuality.

does that mean that racism and anti-homosexuality don't actually exist?

i don't think so.

but, as with any overused terms, it does seem to nullify the impact.

you are allowed to hate anyone, but you should have a god reason for doing so. saying you hate someone "just cos"

you also should not be allowed to deny someone basic human rights because you hate them

"They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up." - Martin Niemöller


give me one good reason why people should be hated.

Overused how exactly? Calling racists racists?

Are you saying that terrorist and socialist are overused too?

I know what it feels like to be profiled. I have a beard again and whenever I do and go out in public I get askance glances, glares, and often even police officers pestering me occasionally. When I shave cleanly I don't get such attention. I think that some people assume beard = "terrorist", and as such if I'm bored I'll talk about how weapons work with anyone nearby - it usually clears away the most paranoid of the bunch and I don't mind that so much.

It seems that it is perfectly okay to hate "people" as a whole, or perhaps "people who aren't me", judging by how misanthropes seem to be received.

As a person myself, I'm not sure how I feel about this.

You don't live in the US do you?

At least in this country, the level of hyperbole has made those words overused.

Hyperbole in the "news" media.

awesome perspective.


and BigK: calling a racist a racist is a good use of the word. i think dox probably has an interesting perspective on whether or not the word is overused. you might try asking him what, in his experience, leads him to think that it's overused.

i get upset when people call it hyperbole when it's accurate but i can understand dox's position as well. racism is a stereotype for white americans and so "racist" has an added layer of silliness for some of us.

Racist, socialist and terrorist are overused words because they're politically useful and instigate fear or shame, just like words like heretic and witch were during the inquisitions in the middle ages. "Obama's a socialist! Very socialist. You wanna vote for him? You shouldn't vote for him! You don't want Hitler to come back do you? He's also a terrorist..."

That's hitting the nail upon the head. Thanks.

This is pretty close to how I would have put it, but as BigK seems to have taken his bat and ball and gone home, I haven't felt the need to further clarify. Personally, I'm a bit suspicious of this particular rage-quit, he was unhappy that the discussions regarding the running of PPR were not going his way, and making a big dramatic exit like that would on the surface seem to support his assertion that our "offensive discussions" discourage minorities from posting. Hopefully his motives are equally transparent to the mod team. We'll have to see if he stays gone, my bet is two weeks.

or Obama belongs to a minority (black), don't vote for him, I mean, such words do actually correspond to reality sometimes, it isn't as there are no such a thing as racist, homophobe, socialist, etc. but that they can often be misused, such as with anything else. (note- I'm not implying that that is your point)

The term socialist seems more of a problem than the others, given that the problem of that seems more noticable, some who make accusations like that don't seem to fully acknowledge the issue regarding socialism, or at least don't seem to be that honest, and by the way wasn't Mccain's campaing who accused Obama of socialist?

Maybe a clearer analogy would be "the boy who cried wolf", except in this case "he" has cried "racist!" "socialist!", "homophobe!" and "terrorist!" so many times that no one takes much notice of those terms anymore; they've been devalued through over use. It's like lexicographical inflation...