Jim
Nets of Wonder
Thank you. That provides a good example of the stereotyping and animosities across lines of prejudice that I was discussing, an example that I can use to consider how it could be said differently, without grouping people by what they believe and don’t believe.
That was in response to someone suggesting that I start a group of my own, so “they” includes me, in the first post in this thread identifying me as a Baha’i, and at the same time stereotyping and stigmatizing Baha’is as people who believe that anyone who is not a Baha’i is not for peace in the world. That illustrates what I was saying about stereotyping and animosities across lines of prejudice. Now I want to consider an example of what views could possibly be behind it, and how it might be said differently.
It could be that some people who call themselves Baha’is and/or some members of the Baha’i Faith have said or appeared to think that anyone who is not a Baha’i is not for peace in the world. If so, then that would be an example of stereotyping and depreciating people across lines of prejudice. Also, in my own experience, all the people that I’ve seen doing sidewalk preaching in Internet discussions, including preaching for the Baha’i Faith, look to me like they’re stereotyping and depreciating people across lines of prejudice. Actually I don’t think that there’s anyone, including me, who does not do that sometimes. It’s just that using other people’s threads for sidewalk preaching is especially invasive, intrusive, insulting and contemptuous of forum rules, and it might seem like all the people waving Baha’i banners in Internet discussions are doing that.
That was an attempt to give an example of how to discuss cross-divide issues without grouping people according to what they believe and don’t believe. Another way to consider it is for people to stop thinking of the names of religions, names of religious and anti-religious factions, and “atheism,” as names of belief systems.
