Racial Integration in the US: Is it an ever-receding dream....

[CruzNichaphor]

Skin pigmentation is not binary. There are many different shades.

Agreed.

Differentiating between "self & other," however is binary.

Maybe pay attention to how the entire world has functioned since recorded history, namely Europe to see what I mean.

I fail to see how a uniform distribution of skin pigmentation in the human species would put an end to the species.

Uh, okay?

First of all: I'm not focusing on skin pigmentation; that was rhetoric - and obvious rhetoric at that.

Secondly: if you "fail to see" how differentiating between "red shirt v blue shirt" allows people to survive (particularly when red shirt is doing better than blue shirt & blue shirt is figuring out a way to resolve the difference), I don't think I have the time to assist you.

 

[George-ananda]

I agree the media uses flashy headlines and controversy to increase readership because it's a business, after all. How exactly does the left (whatever that constitutes) play into this?

They are the ones that buy into (and ultimately support) the flashy headlines. And they are the ones to get riled up and fuel the fire of increasing tension. They insufficiently see themselves getting manipulated.

 

[Desert Snake]

Racial integration. Define race.

 

[godnotgod]

They are the ones that buy into (and ultimately support) the flashy headlines. And they are the ones to get riled up and fuel the fire of increasing tension. They insufficiently see themselves getting manipulated.

But isn't it the Right that has the economic clout to publish, execute, and perpetuate their propaganda and outright lies, including the all important practice of demonizing/dehumanizing the left as crazy unauthorized people in general, and not to be listened to, as per slobs like Rush Limbaugh et al?

Hitler successfully convinced the German people that the Jews were responsible for their economic plight, and that the Jews were racially inferior as untermenschen, even using the 'science' of eugenics to 'prove' it. This was the foisting of the national German shadow onto the Jews, making it possible to see them as not human, or 'defective', and therefore, expendable. I see this kind of approach as a very real danger in the process of becoming a reality in the US, especially if the Christian camp gets their way in making America officially a 'Christian Nation'. Then the bloodletting will begin.

 

[CruzNichaphor]

But isn't it the Right that has the economic clout to publish, execute, and perpetuate their propaganda and outright lies, including the all important practice of demonizing the left as crazy people in general, and not to be listened to?

Absolutely not. Ever heard of the internet? How about Hollywood?

Also: is there actually a third way to characterize people's political views?

Because, if there is, I doubt many people have any time for it.

 

[George-ananda]

But isn't it the Right that has the economic clout to publish, execute, and perpetuate their propaganda and outright lies, including the all important practice of demonizing/dehumanizing the left as crazy unauthorized people in general, and not to be listened to, as per slobs like Rush Limbaugh et al?

I see more left dominance than right dominance in current American media.

Hitler successfully convinced the German people that the Jews were responsible for their economic plight, and that the Jews were racially inferior as untermenschen, even using the 'science' of eugenics to 'prove' it. This was the foisting of the national German shadow onto the Jews, making it possible to see them as not human, or 'defective', and therefore, expendable. I see this kind of approach as a very real danger in the process of becoming a reality in the US, especially if the Christian camp gets their way in making America officially a 'Christian Nation'. Then the bloodletting will begin.

Making America officially a Christian nation??? I see the opposite trend in ascendancy. I feel I am hearing unwarranted paranoia above.

 

[godnotgod]

I see more left dominance than right dominance in current American media.

Perhaps so, but those in power have many convinced that the media is 'fake news' and even the 'enemy of the people', and that there really is such a thing as 'alternative facts'. This is the beginning of a justification for the shutdown of the free press, and it won't take much to do it, even calling out martial law. If only the good Germans were as paranoid of Hitler as you think I am, they might have aborted Hitler's rise to power.

Making America officially a Christian nation??? I see the opposite trend in ascendancy. I feel I am hearing unwarranted paranoia above.

Christians at their base are an insecure lot*. The more accretions they can attach to themselves, and the more labels of officialdom they can adopt, the more secure they feel, especially in a mercurial world they see as evil to its core. Passing a law to make America an official 'Christian Nation' would cause all hell to break loose. Non-Christians would be ostracized, even dehumanized, and denied civil and human rights as 'unworthies'. That is already the case with the Christian Right seeing certain groups as even being demonic. It's enemies have become feminine based practices like Zen, Wicca, Sufism, Yoga, and even, or especially, Darwinism, since the patriarchal Christian faith has failed to deliver the love and nurturing that humans so desperately crave.

*Alan Watts once said: "Christians are like men huddled in the dark, shouting to lend comfort to one another"

 

[George-ananda]

Perhaps so, but those in power have many convinced that the media is 'fake news' and even the 'enemy of the people', and that there really is such a thing as 'alternative facts'. This is the beginning of a justification for the shutdown of the free press, and it won't take much to do it, even calling out martial law. If only the good Germans were as paranoid of Hitler as you think I am, they might have aborted Hitler's rise to power.



Christians at their base are an insecure lot. The more accretions they can attach to themselves, and the more labels of officialdom they can adopt, the more secure they feel, especially in a mercurial world they see as evil to its core. Passing a law to make America an official 'Christian Nation' would cause all hell to break loose. Non-Christians would be ostracized, even dehumanized, and denied civil and human rights as 'unworthies'. That is already the case with the Christian Right seeing certain groups as even being demonic. It's enemies have become feminine based practices like Zen, Wicca, Sufism, Yoga, and even, or especially, Darwinism.

I think you are worrying about a minority that is on the decline and will continue to be on the decline in political influence.

 

[godnotgod]

I think you are worrying about a minority that is on the decline and will continue to be on the decline in political influence.

Really? Then why is Trump in power and has the support of over 94% of the Evangelicals? I mean, Hitler's Brown Shirts were a minority that cleverly exploited people's paranoia just as Trump exploited American's paranoia and hysteria. No, I am not equating the one to the other, but only the conditions that brought them to power.

 

[godnotgod]

Absolutely not. Ever heard of the internet? How about Hollywood?

Also: is there actually a third way to characterize people's political views?

Because, if there is, I doubt many people have any time for it.

Rush Limbaugh does a pretty good job of trashing the left as crazy people every single day on public radio.

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

I think you are worrying about a minority that is on the decline and will continue to be on the decline in political influence.

A loud, angry minority...

 

[CruzNichaphor]

Rush Limbaugh does a pretty good job of trashing the left as crazy people every single day on public radio.

Limbaugh is hardly a comprehensive representation of "the economic clout to publish, execute, and perpetuate [one-sided] propaganda and outright lies".

 

[CruzNichaphor]

Really? Then why is Trump in power and has the support of over 94% of the Evangelicals? I mean, Hitler's Brown Shirts were a minority that cleverly exploited people's paranoia just as Trump exploited American's paranoia and hysteria. No, I am not equating the one to the other........

Yes you are.

 

[godnotgod]

Yes you are.

No. I don't see a Hitler type regime coming into power. That paradigm has passed. But the conditions that spawned it are a similar nutrient rich source. What has the possibility to emerge will be far more sinister, considering in part the far higher degree of technology the power grabbers will have at their disposal for torture, surveillance, and total oppression.

 

[godnotgod]

Limbaugh is hardly a comprehensive representation of "the economic clout to publish, execute, and perpetuate [one-sided] propaganda and outright lies".

I believe he really is just that to many people, along with Trump and his supporters., like the Koch brothers.

 

[CruzNichaphor]

No. I don't see a Hitler type regime coming into power. That paradigm has passed. But the conditions that spawned it are a similar nutrient rich source. What has the possibility to emerge will be far more sinister, considering in part the far higher degree of technology the power grabbers will have at their disposal for torture, surveillance, and total oppression.

The internet is almost a totally unfiltered medium - hardly a vehicle for totalitarianism.

You brought up what is an essentially defunct political movement from the 1920s for no apparent reason except to bash Trump; not me. So I ask you: why are you blubbering about Hitler?

 

[CruzNichaphor]

I believe he really is just that to many people.

"Many" or "most"?

Because the difference is actually critical.

 

[godnotgod]

"Many" or "most"?

Because the difference is actually critical.

Not always the case. Ghandi singlehandedly drove the British from India without having fired a single shot.

 

[Augustus]

disagree. I would say environmental stimuli.

The in/out group distinction is an inescapable aspect of our cognition well documented by scientific research.

What criteria we make such distinctions on is fluid though. For example, if you assign people to arbitrary red/blue groups people will start discriminating against to other group.

There is no reason that race/ethnicity is a point of distinction assuming there is another group identity that people all belong to.

One problem is the current obsession in many circles with identity politics which specifically highlights and reifies distinctions on such grounds. Research has shown that the greater race is pointed to as a marker of identity, the greater it becomes an aspect of cognition with regard to in/out groups calculations.

It is therefore quite likely that current strain of progressive ideology that promotes identity politics is counterproductive to a goal of reducing prejudice. It's even considered 'racist' to promote a worldview that minimises focus on race.

 

[Jumi]

There's a trend for worse. All kinds of loud bigots speaking and escalating public debates on race tends to do that to society.