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Why does discrimination exist?

Kinanza

Kinanza

Member
Jun 25, 2018
577
Like, it bewilders me to no end. Why do straight people and white people feel the need to look down upon the LGBT+ community and different races? They're people, just like the rest of us. So what the hell, is it like some sort of superiority complex?

Look, I'm sorry for the random topic, it's just that I'm extremely compassionate and I care a lot for people in the minority; I just want them to be happy. I just don't understand why there is discrimination upon them. I'm kinda getting teary just typing this. Even people with autism like me face these kinds of problems. I'm just looking for an answer.
 
subpar spatula

subpar spatula

Refuses to Wash his Ass
Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,147
Looking different is the easiest thing to ridicule. Instead of the older days where we just murdered anyone who looked different as if they were a threat 'cause the world was so small in those days, kids are now able to go to school with one another and go, "Hey, that person isn't as white as me, time to make up a joke as to why they aren't" then it spirals out of control because there's no one stopping it.
 
Cenauru

Cenauru

Dragon Girl Supremacy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,980
Because it challenges their worldview, and anything that challenges their worldview is seen as an immediate threat. They don't want to admit that what they have been taught isn't 100% correct, because it means they can't trust everything they've been told and have to start questioning what is right and wrong for themselves.
 
shadowsdarknes

shadowsdarknes

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
8,706
People form biases based upon a number of factors.
Whether conscious or unconscious those biases, they can manifest into discrimination.
 
Tom Penny

Tom Penny

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,252
User banned (5 days): drive-by trolling in a sensitive topic + previous ban for the same thing
Only straight and white people discriminate. Makes you think.
 
MazeHaze

MazeHaze

Member
Nov 1, 2017
8,583
People who are aware of their own flaws but lack the willpower to acknowledge them seek solace in having some undeniable "trump card" quality that makes them inherently better than others. They focus on amplifying this perceived fundamental superiority as a means to replace and compensate for the things they dislike about themselves.
 
Sei

Sei

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,718
LA
Weird need to feel superior, and to claim achievements of others as their own.

Rarely I see just discrimination on it's own, like someone having an extreme bias for a specific something over another.

Discrimination usually comes in the form of "this OTHER is bad, and WE are better because WE (not really them) created this better thing".

Really, it is a form of tribalism. Others said it.
 
CrazyDude

CrazyDude

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,745
Tribal instinct. It's why a lot of cultures around the world use to call other cultures barbarians. Even we were hunter and gatherers humans probably viewed another tribe with suspicion and disdain.
 
Otherist

Otherist

Member
Oct 27, 2017
873
England
In the vast majority of cases it's a means by which people manage unhappiness; rather than seeking the true causes of corruption and suffering, people arbitrarily designate other types of people - who in reality tend to be going through the same things or much worse - as somehow responsible, and deserving of sadistic treatment.
Needless to say this is extremely convenient for whichever system happens to be in operation.
 
I_D

I_D

Member
Oct 27, 2017
572
It's significantly easier to blame other people for problems than it is to find the flaws in yourself.

People also seem to inherently dislike differences. 'My way is the best way,' and so forth.
 
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julia crawford

julia crawford

Took the red AND the blue pills
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,298
This is like the most complex thing ever. I think it boils down to dehumanization and objectification, both of which are easy ways of self determination and self value by introducing an abstract currency that does what's otherwise very hard to do, like explicitly declaring and manipulating the perceived value of a person or oneself.
 
Digital Dinosaur

Digital Dinosaur

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,058
Rita Repulsa's Moon Palace
Tribalism is wired into the human brain. But culture and ideas transmitted by culture give that ancient wiring more fodder to work with.

And because culture is an invention of the same human brain, ancient tribalism tends to inform the kind of culture humans create. It's a vicious cycle which is difficult to break out of.

The thing is, neural plasticity is real and the human brain can remap a surprising amount of "instinctive" behaviors. A person's individual experiences can rewire their brain away from kneejerk tribalism - it is possible. Achieving it at scale however is one of the challenges of humanity as a whole.
 
diakyu

diakyu

Member
Dec 15, 2018
17,540
Because people are different, discrimination will always exist at some level.
 
Gamonbozia

Gamonbozia

Member
Feb 25, 2019
78
People that are unsuccessful in life are afraid to accept their own flaws, so they try and convince themselves that they're 'superior' on the basis of their race. They are insecure about their own shortcomings so they try and convince themselves that no matter how stupid/unsuccessful they are, they'll always be better than those that they discriminate against. The way that they think is completely irrational but their minds are so twisted they don't even realize it. In addition to that, I think many people suffer from ignorance and a lack of knowledge. A lot of people who are racist have never even seen a person of color in real life, so they form these ignorant, racist ideas about what they're really like. In reality they're wrong and if they ever met a person of color in real life they would realize how ignorant and unrealistic their beliefs are. At least, that's my theory. I don't really know why people discriminate since I'm not a racist/bigot. The entire idea of hating someone because of the color of their skin just seems ludicrous to me.
 
antonz

antonz

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,309
Its an animalistic trait that Humanity has inherited from its more primitive days. The fear of the unknown, of the different so you marginalize it and seek to establish that you are superior to it. We look 99% the same but because your skin tone is different that means somehow you are a lesser human being. Its all things that we are supposed to be able to evolve past and understand that its a primitive reaction but obviously its not something humanity as a whole has gotten past.
 
AnansiThePersona

AnansiThePersona

Started a revolution but the mic was unplugged
Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,682
"You not look like me. You bad! Bad!"

The first act of discrimination ever recorded by man
 
The BLJ

The BLJ

Member
Feb 2, 2019
698
France
We're naturally wired to seek order and be scared of disorder. We're scared of what is unpredictable or dangerous. That means we're scared of beasts, of bad weather, etc., but also that we are scared of other people who look or act dangerous, unpredictable, or simply not according to the social norm.
We're scared of those we do not feel we share a common identity with (either through a personal relation because this other person does not look or act anything like what I can predict or expect, or through a group relation because this othe person strays too far from the established norm), and that is tribalism.
 
Whompa

Whompa

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
4,254
If you think racial discrimination is purely a straight white male thing, I have some bad news for you...
 
Ashlette

Ashlette

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,254
Fear of the unknown, ignorance, and poor reasoning (creating generalizations, analyzing social statistics improperly, following the leader, etc.)
 
Soliloquy of a Dogge

Soliloquy of a Dogge

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,984
Because those who benefit from their privilege, heterosexual white people, get further ahead by marginalizing and subjugating others and they want to keep it that way.
 

Deleted member 13496

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,409
You guys do understand that discrimination exists in non white countries too right? I know that's impossible for some American posters to grasp but it's actually true.

Look at China.
 
Marin-Lune

Marin-Lune

Member
Oct 27, 2017
609
Kinanza said:
I'm talking about the majority against the minority here.
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bangai-o said:
I dont think you thought about that statement.
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kitchenmotors said:
In my experience, yeah. They're the driving force behind it, look no further than our Government and the Republican Party.
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WascallyWabbit said:
You ever read the butter side up war by Dr Seuss? Even if we all looked the same and acted the same in 99.9% of life we'd find some shit to find difference and discriminate like what side we butter our bread on



This is just not true
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Hint: Era is an international board. Singling out groups (and countries) is the best way to get your own thread derailed, OP, by other posters who are going to talk semantics rather than discussing the actual question.
 
julian

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,786
Marin-Lune said:
Hint: Era is an international board. Singling out groups (and countries) is the best way to get your own thread derailed, OP, by other posters who are going to talk semantics rather than discussing the actual question.
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You don't even need to live outside the US to know that. Just follow even a tiny bit of international news to know that genocides and ethnic cleansings are currently taking place in non-white nations. Or just know a little history.

But it works for the OP because it shows how these things can happen. Taking the actions of some and then blaming all the worlds problems on anybody who fits in whatever category you've decided to lump those people into.
 
TissueBox

TissueBox

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,033
Urinated States of America
The BLJ said:
We're naturally wired to seek order and be scared of disorder. We're scared of what is unpredictable or dangerous. That means we're scared of beasts, of bad weather, etc., but also that we are scared of other people who look or act dangerous, unpredictable, or simply not according to the social norm.
We're scared of those we do not feel we share a common identity with (either through a personal relation because this other person does not look or act anything like what I can predict or expect, or through a group relation because this othe person strays too far from the established norm), and that is tribalism.
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Kai Dracon said:
Tribalism is wired into the human brain. But culture and ideas transmitted by culture give that ancient wiring more fodder to work with.

And because culture is an invention of the same human brain, ancient tribalism tends to inform the kind of culture humans create. It's a vicious cycle which is difficult to break out of.

The thing is, neural plasticity is real and the human brain can remap a surprising amount of "instinctive" behaviors. A person's individual experiences can rewire their brain away from kneejerk tribalism - it is possible. Achieving it at scale however is one of the challenges of humanity as a whole.
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^ As they say.

*selectively switches anchovy pizza box for pepperoni*

As for why neo-Nazism, white supremacy, and the anti-LGBT agenda exist, they are a systemic case of self-perpetuation and self-preservation. The specific history has no exact start date -- its roots begin long ago. The issue today is why it is promoted or allowed to progress substantially in the face of civil rights movements and activism. It is a battle of awareness, sovereignty, identity, and strength.
 
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duckroll

duckroll

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,218
Singapore
Kinanza said:
I'm talking about the majority against the minority here.
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And in your example you are only thinking of the United States. That in itself answers why there is discrimination, because at the heart of it, people think of their own situation and surroundings first, without really thinking about other perspectives.
 
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