Quantum Loop Gravity Be For Whitey

[Riad S. Wahby]

"J.A. Terranson" <measl at mfn.org> wrote:
> Why the BedSty student Tim?

Uhh, read more carefully.  He was responding to a specific point from
Tyler Durden.

> You have some incredible moments of lucidity and insight, and occasionally,
> we are the lucky recipients of these fleeting events - but then, just as sure
> as the sun coming over the horizon every morning of every day, you slip back
> into the pseudo-intellectual racist crap.  What's wit dat?

I don't think Tim is racist as such.  He hates everyone equally.  :-)
But seriously, calling it racism seems wrong-headed.  Racism is "I
hate black people because they're black."  Tim hates (some, most,
all?) black people because he percieves them as benefitting unfairly
from his hard work.  I'm pretty sure, all other things being equal, he
wouldn't hate a black person who, through his own hard work and
without taking a penny from the government, turned himself into a
successful, tax-paying "source."  Or, at least, I'm not convinced he
would hate such a person, which is to say I'm not convinced he's a
racist.

It seems that more and more people see "racism" where it doesn't
(necessarily) exist.  Perhaps this is simply because it's a convenient
catch-all counter-argument---"you're arguing that way because you're a
racist, hence you're immoral, hence I win," an ad hominem "trump card"
that more often than not passes for a real argument, probably because
people are afraid to voice opinions to the contrary for fear of being
labeled racists themselves.  Another more insidious possibility is
that as a result of such tactics, people actually _do_ see racism
where it isn't.  The latter worries me.  A lot.

In any case, before you tear into me for being Tim's shill, consider
whether the following examples count as X-ism:

1) I hate X people because they are X.
2) I hate X people because most people who are X are also Y.
3) I hate people who are Y.  Most people who are Y are also X.

I'd say that the first one is the very definition of X-ism.  The
second one seems to me to be a special case of Y-ism (assuming that,
as seems to be the case given the phrasing, Y's are hated for being
Y), but is not X-ism.  The third one, the one I believe describes this
situation, is not X-ism.  You might care to call into question the
generalization "most people who are Y are also X," but even that isn't
X-ism unless the generalization is motivated by a thought process
similar to #1.

-- 
Riad Wahby
rsw at jfet.org
MIT VI-2 M.Eng