[lbo-talk] Are Conservatives Racist?

[// ravi]

On Aug 20, 2011, at 5:50 PM, SA wrote:
> Why does this pointless cycle persist? Partly because the word racism, as used, is deliberately ambiguous. The savants insist it's "fallacious" to define racism as an idea in people's heads, while the dictionary, following common usage, defines racism in exactly that way. In practice, the ambiguity is not just an unfortunate source of confusion - the confusion is part of the essence of the concept's utility. The word racism is a verbal bloody shirt waved in the air that makes the shirt-waver feel virtuous exactly in proportion to its ability to indict the verbal target.

Virtuosity isn’t just in people’s head either! :-)

	—ravi