Amerika

From the “We’ll pretend we’re not biased so we can accuse you of being biased” department:

To be clear, by racism I mean – the belief that one race is more superior to another. This dangerous meme, unlike suicide for instance, does not directly lead to the annihilation of the host. Its destruction extends far beyond those who have been hijacked by the meme.

You may believe that some breeds of racism memes are harmless or benign if anything. I would argue that racism allows us to be comfortable ignoring an inconvenient moral obligation we all have — to help another suffering human being. Of course, some people’s suffering may be self-induced or even desired, but otherwise we have the moral duty of helping those whose suffering can be reasonably stopped.

Racist thoughts pardon us from feelings of sympathy for a race we believe to be less superior to our own. These thoughts may not completely destroy our sympathy for others, but it may eliminate enough sympathy to deter us from taking a moral initiative. In a sense, the racism memes can cause more damage than any terrorist meme. Many harmful memes like terrorism and genocide depend on racism in order to survive.

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Let’s make it clear what this person wants us to do: they want to control our minds and keep us away from memes they consider dangerous. They also want to keep us away from science.

They would like us to believe we have a “moral obligation” to help any suffering human being, regardless of whether that person is suffering and incompetent.

Natural selection says instead: praise the good, ignore the rest. Nature sorts us out and removes those who cannot adapt. (At this point, I’m not speaking in a racial context, but a general one — race is the metaphor through which this person speaks, and is not the topic of my post).

When we instead feel an obligation to all people, we’re subsidizing the insane, incompetent, perverse, etc. along with the good. Why not make our species stronger, and simply support the good?

Here’s why: because it’s bad marketing, and marketing is basically socialization. If you want to be popular, include everyone. The truth is always unpopular, but it also saves us from destroying ourselves — yet that’s not socially, politically or dogmatically correct.

At least, until the cheap oil runs out.

Tags: morality, racism, suffering