Woj, is writing about stereotyping!
While Woj writes about stereotyping he uses simplistic and simple minded reductions to explain stereotyping as a cognitive faculty... kind of stereotyped thinking that gives a bad name to evolutionary explanations about human nature.
While Woj writes about the stereotyping of the bigoted left he exemplifies the most reductionist type of stereotyping of the left. His attempts to define and "understand" bigoted stereotyping becomes an illustration of his own, usual bigoted stereotyping. He does all of this without even noticing that his post is an example of the self-righteousness he condemns. He presents an example of judgmental thinking as a condemnation of judgmental thinking. Constantly, Woj stereotypes working people as stupid sheep who should be guided by open minded and enlightened people, of which I suppose he presents himself as an example. Constantly he condemns the left for psychological processes he exhibits in his condemnations. Amazing!
A little self-consciousness, a little self-irony may have helped matters. Of course, it may help me too, and since I have been for some reason unable to rise above myself, with salt and iron, humor and empathy, I have recently been mostly silent, and now I have no idea why interrupted, my otherwise blissful (for others at least) silence with this screed against Woj.
Sorry Woj, I apologize. It is just that the unintended humor of your post struck me. Did you mean it humorously? Am I missing something? Perhaps not only can I no longer serve the salt of irony, but I can't taste the salt either.
On 4/12/07, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
> [WS:] What this story illustrates is stereotyping - which is an integral
> part of human cognition. We all do it in all social situations. It is
> hard
> wired in our brains. It is not possible to get rid of it without
> lobotomizing people.
>
> Stereotype is a cognitive response to emotional reaction to something that
> may pose a threat 9which is pretty much reflexive). It is basically an
> attempt to reason in a situation when sufficient information is not
> available. You see a members of an ethnic group that is known to have a
> higher probability of committing a crime. Your automatic emotional
> response
> is fear, which your "thinking brain" (cortex) is trying to resolve by
> utilizing information available to it. An in most situations there is
> insufficient information - since we have no way of knowing who the person
> in
> question is and what his intentions are. Consequently the brain may use
> the
> only information available - memorized hearsay - and that often leads to
> the
> formation of a stereotype.
>
> Racism is a very different cognitive phenomenon - it is a conscious belief
> that a particular ethnic groups is inferior (mild version) and should be
> discriminated against (strong version) that is held *regardless* of any
> empirical evidence. In other words, a negative stereotype will disappear
> if
> the holder finds additional information that disproves it - e.g. that the
> menacing looking guy on a deserted after 8PM Baltimore metro is a Johns
> Hopkins surgeon going home later than usual. A racist belief, by
> contrast,
> will not disappear under similar circumstances - in fact empirical
> evidence
> is irrelevant for racists.
>
> Here is another real life example, from my own life. When my ex was
> student
> at UC Santa Cruz, we lived in student housing on the campus. One day on a
> weekend, I was approached by a Black guy who asked for help. He said that
> he was a new student moving with his family to student housing, but his
> wife's car broke down before they reached Santa Cruz, and he needed money
> to
> fix it. Unfortunately, his old folk could send him cash only on
> Monday. I
> was initially suspicious (the initial automatic emotional reaction
> mentioned
> earlier), but then I started thinking. I realized that anyone could be in
> a
> similar situation, so there is no reason to hold negative stereotypes
> against this guy. So I wrote down his name and address from his driver
> license and "loaned" him $200.
>
> When my Ms. Radical-Fuck-the-Rich-and-the-White-Middle-Class ex learned
> about it, she was furious and called me a whole bunch of names of which
> "idiot" was the mildest. However, our finances were rather thin back then
> and $200 was a considerable amount of money, so her wrath was
> understandable. Of course the guy did not return the money, and his
> driver's license turned out to be fake. When I reported that incident to
> the campus police, they were bewildered that someone could be that naïve.
>
> The above was an example of stereotyping that was resolved based on
> empirical evidence. That evidence turned out to be fake, but that is
> another story. Had it been a racist belief, I would have told the guy to
> go
> to hell, in which case I would have been $200 ahead.
>
> The way lefties tend to approach this subject is crude, self-righteous,
> and
> judgmental, devoid of any sense of proportion or attempt to understanding
> what is actually going on. You are either with us, or you are an asshole,
> fascist, racist, and disgrace to the humankind. This self-righteous,
> judgmental way of thinking is the main reason that I parted my ways with
> the
> left. I used to be quite annoyed by that, in the way as I was annoyed by
> religious preaching. Today, I for the most part ignore it as I do any
> other
> noise. Life is too short to waste it on such bullshit.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
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>
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