Can one be bigoted towards bigots?

[Egbert]

Stereotyping people and hating on them, in this case bigots. "They are all the same and the the incarnation of evil and blah, blah, blah...". Looking down on them with a self-righteous air of moral superiority.

What do you think?

[Dinner]

Yes but then you'd be a bigot. Catch-22.

[Jon Miller]

You can definitely be bigoted when you stereotype people as bigots when they are not.

JM

[Egbert]

Yes but then you'd be a bigot. Catch-22.

I reckon some of the people ranting about bigots sound quite like a Ku Klux Klansman ranting about them there n*****s. Just swap the word bigot for n*****. Similar rant, different target.

Seriously, sometimes I think some people act all hyper-indignant about bigotry because they are scared of being seen as having the slightest empathy for bigots. Fear of association?

Of course, those who have themselves been on the receiving end of bigotry will have, a perfectly understandable, antipathy to bigotry.

[Propaganda]

If everyone was a bigot, no one would be a bigot.

[MikeH]

If they are bigots they are either stupid, ignorant, indoctrinated, or just horrible people.

It's not bigoted to inform them of that, because it's true.

[MikeH]

Of course, those who have themselves been on the receiving end of bigotry will have, a perfectly understandable, antipathy to bigotry.

So if you haven't been a victim of bigots you can't oppose it.

[Kidlicious]

You can oppose bigotry until you're blue in the face. It's not going to change anything.

[MikeH]

Tell that to MLK.

[Kidlicious]

Tell that to MLK.

It depends on what your definition of bigotry is. The kind of bigotry that JM talks about is too human of a characteristic to be removed. But if you are so bigoted that you hate people, that's different. That can be removed.

[Kidlicious]

You can even love people and be completely intolerant of their point of view (depending on how you define intolerant).

[Kidlicious]

Tell that to MLK.

Too answer your question directly, I do think he was too optimistic about human nature. The Bible is not so optimistic about human nature, and either am I.

[MikeH]

What JM talked about is just normal bigotry, assuming something about someone based on a couple of facts.


Humans aren't naturally bigoted, it's learned behaviour.

[MikeH]

Some bigoted people have been known to use the bible to justify their bigotry you know.

[Kidlicious]

What JM talked about is just normal bigotry, assuming something about someone based on a couple of facts.

And you really think people are victims of that kind of bigotry? I think people just call people bigots because they really are one themselves.

Humans aren't naturally bigoted, it's learned behaviour.

I'm pretty sure it's natural, the kind that you refer too. It's not natural to believe that you aren't any more right than anyone else. To think existentially means to believe in your own way of thinking and not others. That doesn't mean that you hate other people or mistreat them. That just means that you don't believe that what they believe has anything to do with what you believe.