keep in mind i don't believe any of this

if i were to walk up to anyone here and say i hate fat people, jews,black people,poor people,old people, religious types, anyomne who doesn't think what i think and believe what i believe.
keep in mind i don't believe any of this


i know you or most of you would flame me and then ban me because you would be offended and appalled.

but may i ask exactly why would you be appalled would it be a knee jerk reaction or would you have to go through a process of thought.
what specifically would make you feel this way. what exact emotions would you be feeling. what would have too happen to make you not feel offended

I don't understand the question. Are you asking why we would be offended?

yes why exactlly and what would happen in your brain to make you feel that way


Rae

Its all down to history methinks. Before the slave trade, no one knew of 'racism' as such, that is why it was so wide spread. But as a few realised that beating black people, making them do hard labour and treating them like animals was so utterly, utterly wrong it became a (rightful) taboo. Its all down to what the majority thinks as well. Now, call me a pessimist, or negative, but I would bet money that we have racists on this forum. Such people wouldn't post because they would rightfully get flamed to hell. Its a complex question, and not even one that my psychology knowledge can answer.

Personally I would be offended by anyone sying those things, and yes it would probably be an automatic, knee-jerk reaction. But I think this is because most people have already thought through the reactions they have towards racism, ageism, homophobia and know why it is that they react in that way. Therefore I know I don't need to think about "Hmm...do I accept the fact that this individual claims to hate all blacks/Jews/gays because of (insert excuse here)?" because I have already made the conscious decision that I don't accept that kind of general discrimination under any circumstances.

I can accept that a person may dislike someone who is black/Jewish/gay for a certain reason and they have that right. But it should not be physical characteristics that determine someone's feelings.

I think it is fear that makes people react with hatred to the unknown or unfamiliar. But that doesn't make it OK.

It'd be an automatic knee-jerk reaction for me, deffinitely. I grew up in a climate of hatred towards differences, so I've thought out the paths of my reaction to the point where it only takes a split second to register.

At the moment of the reaction, I'd probably be feeling lots of rage. Rage at the thought that this person could believe that they are better than someone else because of minor physical or religious differences. I have cousins who are Jewish and a cousin who was adopted from India. My Jewish cousins are completely normal and intelligent little kids, and my adopted cousin is one of the most intelligent people I know and is, in fact, my favorite cousin overall and one of my favorite people in the entire world. The thought that anyone could class them as being less human for not being white or Christian makes my blood boil.

And I don't think that there's a single thing that could be said to make me not feel offended. Even if the person reversed right afterwards and said that they were joking I'd still be offended. I grew up in a place where hatred was the every-day norm for a good ammount of my supposed peers. It's no laughing matter.

Has anyone here ever seen American History X? It's an amazing movie about this subject. It deffinitely deserves it's R rating, but I feel it's message overweighs the graphic situations.

this is very good and closer to helpfull than i had expected. i proposed this topi on another board where the reaction was hat nobody could not be appalled by these things and that everybody knew why (not that they could say why exactly) and that to even suggest the topic i must hold all of the afore mentioned opinions and that i was therefore a terrible person who deserves to have every topic i ever started from that point on filled with hate mail and every opinion i expressed bashed.
all in all it makes me think that while that board was one of he best goth boards and had good sections for sewing and some fairly interesting people it was in some ways very imature and closed minded. even the admin wgho was 35 ended up indulging in this behavior. i guess i'm just the person that other misfits love to hate

I used to go to a school for 'disciplinary problemed' kids...
and if you were even the slightest bit racist...if you shot a negative glance to the other race (It went both ways, mind you), you'd have the sense pummeled out of you...
i stayed neutral, because i honestly don't understand what all this stuff is about ...
'oh, we're better than you'
'no, we're better than you'
'nu-uh, i will fight you, and disprove your theories that i am violent'
>_>
Suure.
Whatever color you are, you are still fecal matter, and you have no right to open your mouth to even carry the oxygen to your brain that gives the thought that you are better than anyone else.

And that's my view on things =D

Personally, no, I would not be offended. Those are your personal beliefs and beliefs are sacred to those who carry them, but some beliefs I feel are ignorant and I would try to delve deep down in your psyche and try to open you up to another point of view.

As Asenyth has already said - I probably would be slighty annoyed but only due to the fact that you hadn't given valid reasons for your views and I would insist that you explain yourself.

I'd probably be offended after you'd explained yourself though. I've spoken to a lot of very bigoted people and although they can explain their point of view very well, it's always a slightly screwed train of thought.

I don't find bigotry acceptable (although I am sure almost everyone, myself included, is guilty of it to some extent in some shape or form). However, I'm also going to be devil's advocate for a minute and ask:

Are our typical reactions to attitudes of hatred prejudice, prejudicial in themselves?

I think it's possible for someone to be a bigot but otherwise be a generally good friendly person. Provided racist/homophobic/anti-semetic etc attitudes didn't surface, many people wouldn't have a problem with them. But if that person makes their bigoted beliefs known, they will most likely be thought of as an entirely undesirable character. The way I see it, this is prejudice in itself. It's basing an assumption of a person on one element of their character.

Just something that occured to me.

That pretty much sums up why I feel the way I feel about this. A person can still be a 'good' person and be bigoted against a certain group of people. If a neo-nazi saved a kitten from a tree would it still not be a good deed? That is what I think that the problem with bigotry is, it is just ignorance or ingrained teachings. If you are told something all your life, how can you not believe it. It takes a lot of time and effort to do that and if you stay surrounded by people that feel the same way, those things don't change. It's not a bigots fault perse that he is a bigot, but it is the enviroment in which he is a part of.

I've met people rather like that (although not with the full range there). If they are capable of talking in any manner about their ideology then I ask them questions about why they believe such things.

Usually I ask about something that is easier to discuss and try to use that as a way in to their reasoning. For example, there was one person I met who was of the belief that humans are not polluting the planet and that global warming is entirely caused by termites. Now, there is a minority of scientists who agree with him, but the vast majority agree that there is human influence on things such as climate change.

He was taking this study to support his view that a car produces no pollution in the general environment. Apparently there is some pollution that is 'very local' but nothing beyond that. I asked him how he explained that most scientists disagree with him, and his solution was simple, 'those scientists are wrong. You can't trust scientists'. Riiiiiight... So what about the scientists that wrote the stdy that he is championing? 'Those ones are right.'

The conclusion that I've come to is that most people will not respond to rational arguments especially when they have a vested interest in feeling that they are right. This man sells cars, and so does not wish to believe that cars cause any harm to the world. Instead of being realistic and encouraging fuel efficiency he would rather deny that the problem exists entirely. He was the same way on every topic that I managed to raise before my family intervened (he is distantly related by marriage and they have to see him more often than I do. I think his wife rather enjoyed me picking holes in his arguments! ).

However, just because people will not always respond to rational arguments, that does not mean that I will stop trying.

To use the terms of the initial question, if you walked up to me with those views I would also judge whether it would be likely that you would attack me for disagreeing with you. While I do believe in standing up for equality and social awareness, I also believe that you need to choose your times to do so. Sometimes it's best to let people pass and wait for another day.