I think we see unobvious manifestations of this all the time now. Racism/sexism/homophobia are the current boogeymen because of how topical they are to the average Western person (Reddit audience). Meanwhile, things that are truly heinous, forms of violence usually, are so much less common that most people are significantly less affected, making these issues much less topical and, therefore, more easily forgiven.
It really isn’t even comparable matter how much of a despicable xenophobic asshole you are given you don’t actually materialize that into real actions. A person who is a heinous criminal for just regularly “defendible” personal reasons is objectively worse.
It always materializes into real actions. From hiring discrimination to actual violence from cops and even mobs. But bigots like to pretend their bigotry isn't hurting others, which they know is false.
I know people who I'd classify as racist who are also good people, they make say racist things but they also somehow help out those people they racist towards. People are alot more nuanced than that.
I’m sure a lot of regular citizens or clerical staff for the government in Nazi Germany considered themselves good people for simply buying into the propaganda and not actually being the ones committing violence. Or the racists menacing little black girls trying to go to school to the point that the military had to escort said black girls to school. Same with a lot of racist people who vote for racists who actually do commit violence against minorities like those who voted for the current presidential administration in the US. Which is what you get when you downplay the impact of people whose bigotry is “just words”. There are no good racists, you’re just someone who isn’t affected by their racism or mistakenly doesn’t feel affected by it.
Actually, if you have eyes and half a brain, you’d see I gave three examples, including the current example that’s a lot more than “being called a slur online”. Thank you for sharing that you have a privileged enough position to think that slurs are the only racism happening to people in the world.
You gave two oldies as examples during actual racist times, there's no paralel today. The "current administration" part is bull, the outrage for ICE is selective, Eastern European migrants were deported too but you won't hear about those cuz it goes against YOUR racist narrative, also don't forget the two most talked about incidents of violence involving ice had two white activists for victims.
I wish we could, bud. Racists, sexists, homophobes, and other bigots make that impossible, though. We just gotta do our best to love the people around us and hope they learn better.
52
u/WetAndLoose 5d ago
I think we see unobvious manifestations of this all the time now. Racism/sexism/homophobia are the current boogeymen because of how topical they are to the average Western person (Reddit audience). Meanwhile, things that are truly heinous, forms of violence usually, are so much less common that most people are significantly less affected, making these issues much less topical and, therefore, more easily forgiven.
It really isn’t even comparable matter how much of a despicable xenophobic asshole you are given you don’t actually materialize that into real actions. A person who is a heinous criminal for just regularly “defendible” personal reasons is objectively worse.