INTENSITY²
Politics, Mature and taboo => Political Pundits => Topic started by: El on September 12, 2009, 03:29:54 PM
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Random thought: If a gene were discovered which was thought to (through whatever mechanism) be responsible for people holding racist views, what do you think the reaction to that would be?
Pretty sure it's scientifically impossible; I'm more interested in the philosophical mindfuck it gives me when I contemplate it. For example, I'd assume there would be people who would push for this knowledge to be used for eugenics in some form or another, but they'd likely be the same people who had the gene in the first place.
I'm also half-wondering if Petermac or someone will pop in and say "Actually, one was found, and [FIB with info]." :laugh:
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There is one, or probably several, racist gene(s). It's "natural" to be racist.
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There is one, or probably several, racist gene(s). It's "natural" to be racist.
Hence why I said right off I know this isn't a scientifically sound issue. :P Human beings definitely have a basic (and probably hard-wired) tendency to prefer "us" to "them," and I'd say racism is an obvious (although not necessary) extrapolation from that. (As well as, of course, from the political climates that generate and sustain racism.)
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Racism is something you feel intuitively, but it's not as simple as tied to skin colour. Race goes much deeper than that and "racism" can be hatred towards a certain type of face/physique/smell that exists within many races rather than hatred for an entire race.
I know exactly what type of faces and smells I'm programmed to dislike and what types appeal to me. I have found "my race" in several other races, I've also found the race I hate in several other races. Iranians/persians have an overrepresentation of the race I hate while japanese have an overrepresentation of the race I bond with.
According to my theory, japanese and persians should be some of the least genetically compatible people. And reality actually proves this to be the case. Iranian immigrants in Japan are truly hated, on a level beyond the hatred targeted at many whites. The japanese football team is always more anxious when playing qualifying games in Teheran. Sometimes there have even been players crying.
I harmonize with the japanese "type" but feel disgust towards the persian. This is just in general, and not specific for each and every individual. On the other hand, germans have a slightly higher rate of people compatible with japanese. Other "compatible" races, in general, are nordic borreby and certain african niggers. Many intermarriages exists between borreby people and niggers. This is all programmed into the genes of people.
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nigger nigger nigger joo joo joo
look at me in my SS boots
i'm such a baddass
:moon:
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Racism is something you feel intuitively, but it's not as simple as tied to skin colour. Race goes much deeper than that and "racism" can be hatred towards a certain type of face/physique/smell that exists within many races rather than hatred for an entire race.
I know exactly what type of faces and smells I'm programmed to dislike and what types appeal to me. I have found "my race" in several other races, I've also found the race I hate in several other races. Iranians/persians have an overrepresentation of the race I hate while japanese have an overrepresentation of the race I bond with.
According to my theory, japanese and persians should be some of the least genetically compatible people. And reality actually proves this to be the case. Iranian immigrants in Japan are truly hated, on a level beyond the hatred targeted at many whites. The japanese football team is always more anxious when playing qualifying games in Teheran. Sometimes there have even been players crying.
I harmonize with the japanese "type" but feel disgust towards the persian. This is just in general, and not specific for each and every individual. On the other hand, germans have a slightly higher rate of people compatible with japanese. Other "compatible" races, in general, are nordic borreby and certain african niggers. Many intermarriages exists between borreby people and niggers. This is all programmed into the genes of people.
You're addressing an issue I already said I count as a nonissue in this hypothetical in order to spew your persona onto a fresh thread.
Also, WTF is a "borreby"?
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It's a race. :toporly:
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Random thought: If a gene were discovered which was thought to (through whatever mechanism) be responsible for people holding racist views, what do you think the reaction to that would be?
Pretty sure it's scientifically impossible; I'm more interested in the philosophical mindfuck it gives me when I contemplate it. For example, I'd assume there would be people who would push for this knowledge to be used for eugenics in some form or another, but they'd likely be the same people who had the gene in the first place.
I'm also half-wondering if Petermac or someone will pop in and say "Actually, one was found, and [FIB with info]." :laugh:
I've not heard of one, but I think racism almost certainly has a strong genetic component and that it arises from a fairly fundamental aspect of animal psychology. When you strip away all the culturally-derived fluff, what you're left with is basically a kinship recognition and response system, which you'll find in any social species, from ants and bees to antelope and bonobos. These systems work by assessing the relatedness of other organisms and then producing a behavioral response, which is usually some form of aggression towards members of the same species that are too distantly related, or that are members of a different colony or herd.
Humans are a lot more nuanced than other species, and can recognise both genetic relatedness and political relatedness arising from group memberships (family/tribe/nation/race/religion) in fine-grained detail, and their higher cognitive functions give them more control over their instincts, but they still have this system in their heads that tweaks their emotions and twists their perception according to it's assessments of self and other, and subject to as much individual variability as other mental functions.
Speaking from personal experience, if I'm walking along the street and I see someone coming towards me who looks African or Asian, it makes me feel even more uncomfortable than I usually feel when I see people walking towards me. Sometimes I even feel a chill and a sudden squirt of adrenaline, but there's no rational reason for it; I'm not afraid of them or have any hatred towards them that might explain it, and it's something I noticed about myself back when I was a kid. I used to feel inwardly embarrassed at myself for reacting that way, but as far as I'm able to tell, it's just my kinship recognition and response system pulling my strings and trying to get me to howl and throw poo from the treetops. It's similar to the stomach flutter that I get (or used to get, at any rate) on seeing women that I was attracted to; same sudden squirt of adrenaline, but a different emotional response coming from a different but similarly ancient and fundamental pattern recognition and response system that's wired according to a different set of genetic instructions.
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Elle: we found the racist gene, or genepool. Its name is Soleiyu.
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Elle: we found the racist gene, or genepool. Its name is Soleiyu.
I have austrian origins. Many austrians carry racist genes.
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Elle: we found the racist gene, or genepool. Its name is Soleiyu.
I have austrian origins. Many austrians carry racist genes.
:agreed:
Adolf Hitler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler)
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Elle: we found the racist gene, or genepool. Its name is Soleiyu.
I have austrian origins. Many austrians carry racist genes.
:agreed:
Adolf Hitler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler)
Also rumoured to be part Jewish. Apparently razed his hometown to destroy records of his birth.
Soleiyu: if your were an animal, you'd be known as a bitzer, or mongrel. Bits here and bits there. Fucking one minute you claim Austrian descent, then Swedish descent, next you want to become Japanese. Fuck, what next? A Rastafarian Hindu cross Mormon?
I'd tell you to go fuck yourself, but as you claim asexuality, you wouldn't have a clue where to put it.
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Elle: we found the racist gene, or genepool. Its name is Soleiyu.
I have austrian origins. Many austrians carry racist genes.
:agreed:
Adolf Hitler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler)
Also rumoured to be part Jewish. Apparently razed his hometown to destroy records of his birth.
Soleiyu: if your were an animal, you'd be known as a bitzer, or mongrel. Bits here and bits there. Fucking one minute you claim Austrian descent, then Swedish descent, next you want to become Japanese. Fuck, what next? A Rastafarian Hindu cross Mormon?
I'd tell you to go fuck yourself, but as you claim asexuality, you wouldn't have a clue where to put it.
My father's side of the family is austrian, my mother's swedish.
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and your maternal grandmother finnish and so on and so on.
As I said on another thread, why don't we just call you Heinz?
57 different varieties, all of them full of shit.
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I wonder if it could be bred out of people.
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I wonder if it could be bred out of people.
You mean use eugenics to eliminate racism if we were able to?
(See the mindfuck yet?)
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I wonder if it could be bred out of people.
You mean use eugenics to eliminate racism if we were able to?
(See the mindfuck yet?)
That does not mean we should do it, I was wondering if it was even possible. Humans aren't dogs.
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I wonder if it could be bred out of people.
You mean use eugenics to eliminate racism if we were able to?
(See the mindfuck yet?)
That does not mean we should do it, I was wondering if it was even possible. Humans aren't dogs.
I beg to differ, Alex. You breed down through the generations long enough, you can get rid of the tendency and the behaviours. It's how civilised society works. But the big thing is, if we did wipe out the 'gene' (if it exists at all), wouldn't we then want to enlarge on that to wipe out something else? I mean, what if some boffin came up with a theory on a 'religious' gene? They've talked about a 'violence' gene for murderers, what about one that predisposes god?
Maybe things were simpler back in the pre-Cambrian days, where all people had to think about was where they got their next meal. No-one worried about race, creed or colour.
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I beg to differ, Alex. You breed down through the generations long enough, you can get rid of the tendency and the behaviours. It's how civilised society works. But the big thing is, if we did wipe out the 'gene' (if it exists at all), wouldn't we then want to enlarge on that to wipe out something else? I mean, what if some boffin came up with a theory on a 'religious' gene? They've talked about a 'violence' gene for murderers, what about one that predisposes god?
I've done a wee bit of reading up on that one and actually that seems to be about as ingrained as our tendency to sort and segregate ourselves. Not religion per se, but a tendency to attribute random/suprising/big events to forces beyond ourselves (fate, karma, luck, the FSM, whatever). It's a fascinating quirk of evolutionary psychology- we're blueprinted to have a hard time being 100% atheist all of the time.
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If we really did manage to isolate a racism gene, I think that many groupings in our society would start arguing its necessity. They'd probably say that it's an evolutionary thing to protect the village or something.
And the bigots and the racists would continue as if nothing had changed.
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If we really did manage to isolate a racism gene, I think that many groupings in our society would start arguing its necessity. They'd probably say that it's an evolutionary thing to protect the village or something.
And the bigots and the racists would continue as if nothing had changed.
I think they probably would.
They could argue that favoring the people from your village would tend to favor people who are more related to you over the people who aren't and would enable more of your genes to survive.
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Yes, because racism was never about reasoning.