BicycleTree said:
Racism, or its broader cousin, tribalism, is an ingrained feature of human psychology. Otherwise, why would it be so prevalant?
I don't for a second believe that it's natural, because all humans come from the same original gene pool. It's prevailent because it's taught, consciously or not, by people who are insecure in their own existence.
BicycleTree said:
Why is it that psychology experiments like this one: show an instinctual bias against those in other groups?
I'm not all that hot on psychology to start with, and this seems like a particularly lame excuse for an experiment. The participants, just in being segregated by colour in the first place, are indoctrinated with the notion of 'us & them'.
BicycleTree said:
I bear no conscious racism towards anyone. But the instincts are there...
I still don't see how you can believe that the instinct is there unless at some point you've experienced it. I know that it certainly isn't in me. Maybe it's just because of my multi-ethnic background, but I doubt it.
BicycleTree said:
you and everyone else has approximately the same genes as any member of the KKK.
Exactly. Me and everyone else, including Chairman Mao and Martin Luther King Jr.
BicycleTree said:
healthy people have some desire to copulate with very many of the attractive potential mates they encounter.
In my case, all of them, they don't have to be all that attractive, and I couldn't care less what race they are. Naturally, I want my children to be 1/2 like me; what the other half is doesn't matter a bit.
BicycleTree said:
Now, why you would jump to conclusions to believe that I myself must be racist, consciously so, is beyond me, as I have never said anything of that nature.
Covered in 3rd item above.
BicycleTree said:
My best guess is that you felt your ideals were threatened and were subconsciously looking for something to discredit in your mind the person who "threatened" them, so that you could by extension disregard the "threat."
They weren't threatened; they were hugely
insulted.
BicycleTree said:
Or maybe you were merely unsure of how someone might not connect assertion of an aspect of human nature to action on that aspect. Talk about cynicism.
Again, see item #3.
Alright... I totally disagree with everything you've put forth regarding that theory of instinctual racism, particularly as it relates to humour, but you've convinced me that you meant no malice. It certainly didn't seem so at the time, because you were very antagonistic in your assertions. You definitely could benefit from some practise of diplomacy. The foregoing post was a fairly good start. If you had acted in this civilized a manner back then, the whole issue probably wouldn't have arisen.
That being said, I'm sorry that there was a misunderstanding. Let's start it over fresh.
Your surrealistic posts are still annoying, though.
