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#prejudice

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@USelaine

Agree 100%

The idea that the density of good people is different among different categories, whether races or genders or degrees of ableness or whatever, seems completely suspect to me. So there's that.

But also, abstract goodness is not always the entirety of what is needed of employees. Regardless of what score anyone might get open whatever test you could throw at them, there is intrinsic value and having people who come from different backgrounds. Diverse groups have a better mix of origin stories, and are not just diverse in nature but in nurture.

Diverse groups have walked more paths, seen more things, experienced more situations. There is a greater breadth of empathy. There are more varied sources of inspiration. Inspiration comes in odd ways from different situations.

When solving mysteries, differences in people's personal histories will lead them to see the same situation differently, sometimes shaking them out of overly narrow, limiting, or even toxic assumptions.

When creating policy, having folks present who can more directly represent those impacted can help to call out and perhaps avoid biases, prejudices, indignities or injustices that might be invisible to or unappreciated by a narrower group that is so used to things going a certain way that they don't realize or find it easy to relate to that full space of potential negatives others might endure.

When creating stories, diversity brings more richness of life experience to draw on.

When innovating, diversity brings more points of view a greater breadth of traditions and techniques to draw on, better thinking outside the box because the boxes people have inhabited are so many and varied.

When entertaining, more sources of music, jokes, artistic tools and media. Even with 5000 TV channels and as many grocery store products, we crave variety, which better comes of diversity than a sea of cultural sameness.

One can allege there is a kind of dogged efficiency in eliminating diversity, but there is no reason to suppose it will do anything other than destroy all that has made the US an interesting place to visit, study, and buy from.

The monocultural sludge we are becoming is the farthest thing from smart, safe, healthy, entertaining, or free. Even a highly efficient from of that toxic sludge will still be sludge and will not thrive economically or socially. The stock market is just an early warning sign but there will soon be other even more visible indicators. Our society is melting down before our eyes and the present experiment in selfish, bigoted authoritarianism is the cause, not the cure.

This cesspool of feigned expertise and mindless leadership being thrust upon us claims to be motivated by a desire to avoid bankruptcy, but in fact is the shortest path not only to economic but also moral, cultural and intellectual bankruptcy that anyone could have devised. If there is an efficiency to be claimed it is in the swift path ruin it has charted. Future generations of locusts will study the raw, ruthless, and ultimately pointless efficiency it has required to dismantle and plunder a thriving society in such short order.

#diversity #DEI #DOGE #efficiency #politics #bigotry #monoculture #inspiration #justice #bias #prejudice #injustice

H/T @salixsericea

In a continuing rowing back of regulation, The Financial Conduct Authority & the Prudential Regulation Authority have both shelved plans to get financial services to disclose more about their (claimed) diversity & inclusion policies...

What, really annoys me is that these policies are regarded as 'anti-growth' rather than seeing the prejudice that keeps a range of social groups out of top jobs is not pro-growth, rather its a calamitous under-use of talented individuals!

#prejudice
h/t FT

The 25 words expunged from official language by the new #fascist-#oligarch regime.
The Nazis burned the books.
These Muppets are deleting words and concepts.

Anti-Racism
#Racism
Allyship
Bias
#DEI
#Diversity
Diverse
Confirmation Bias
#Equity
Equitableness
#Feminism
#Gender
Gender Identity
#Inclusion
Inclusive
All-Inclusive
Inclusivity
#Injustice
Intersectionality
#Prejudice
Privilege
Racial Identity
#Sexuality
Stereotypes
Pronouns
#Transgender
#Equality

From the article;
popular.info/p/the-nsas-big-de

Popular Information · The NSA's "Big Delete"By Judd Legum

Long. TL;DR: Exceptions in one's support for universal rights = not actually supporting universal rights and that's bad, mmkay.

Probably not a controversial opinion on mastodon, but if you actively support universal rights for everyone *except* a certain kind of people, I believe you are contributing to some of the biggest problems in our world, regardless of your reasons. You're working for the wrong team whether you know it or not.

"But wait!" some will say, "What about #trans 'groomers'? #Antifa? #Black militants? #Gay pedophiles? Job-stealing #immigrant #criminals?"

Even if those concerns were valid (happy to explain at length how they really, seriously aren't), this argument boils down to: "Because of the actions of some people, I'm willing to deny rights to others who seem similar." It's a willingness to harm some people because they appear to be like other people.

"Now hold on a minute," others might say, "What about #pedophiles? #Terrorists? Drug dealers selling crack to children? Human traffickers? #Billionaires? Misogynists? Racists? #Terfs? Homophobes?"

Yes, those can actually be valid concerns. however, under the hood it's the same problem: every person in our world willing to deny "universal" rights to anyone else (or just to be silent while people around them do so) is a person who doesn't actually support universal #rights, a person who will hurt or oppress others if it is packaged just right. They're a tiny piece of our world that doesn't actually believe in fundamental "#freedom" or "#justice", because those things have exceptions for them.

Multiply those exceptions by a few million people and this is how you get a society that claims to support "#liberty" or "the #constitution" or "#HumanRights" but actually just doesn't; a society that continually misses its marks; a society that has impressive words on the label but never really looks like the pictures in the product brochure. It's a society in which the people truly walking the walk on support for their fellow humans seem like extreme radicals.

I'm not saying avoiding this pitfall is easy; support for universal rights is hard, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes legitimately scary. Even among those aspiring to this, I don't think most (including me) are quite there; we are still silent sometimes when our values would say we should speak up--for example, I believe pedophiles have/deserve the same rights as anyone else, but I rarely say that out loud, even here.

As for how to help myself or others achieve this, I probably have the same bundle of ideas as anyone else. I think we need improved strategies but I'm not sure what they are. I don't think attacks or punitive/shaming gatekeeping are generally great methods, but I also don't think we should stay silent when people in "our groups" demonstrate a lack of support. Encouraging support for universal rights is hard, too.

---------------

Notes:

1. A common way to package exceptions is "For everyone else to have freedom, [marginalized group] must have fewer rights because [danger, real or imagined]." This is 100% wrong and stupid, and this argument should be screamed at with all possible volume whenever it appears.

2. I can't currently think of any valid exceptions to supporting universal human rights. I think "universal rights" means "universal rights," literally no matter who you are, what group you belong to, or what you've done. I'm open to the possibility that there are valid exceptions, but I'm not currently aware of what those might be.

3. This was posted to FB, then edited/expanded a bit for mastodon.

4. This is about principles, not my personal behavior, which falls short of my principles; in other words, I am probably a hypocrite, though I' working on it.

Some of you may notice you got unfollowed recently. I muted a few too, so if we interact a bit, you may not see it.

I like Mastodon because people approach each other in good faith and almost everyone is respectful, but Trump's reelection seems to have driven many to manifest their worst impulses.

It doesn't matter to me which group you hate, whether it's one of the fashionable targets are not.

Even if by necessity only, you should be doing better.

One thing I have noticed since I’ve been on the fediverse, there is just such a deeper sense of community here. When I was on Twitter, I probably had about three times the followers that I do now, but if I put out a message like I did yesterday asking for headset recommendations, if I was lucky I’d get one or two responses. I have gotten a lot of great responses and suggestions since I posted that question yesterday, and thank you to all who responded. Looking back on it, it really seems like Twitter encouraged us to be self-centered, and narcissistic. It really wasn’t about interacting with each other, except in the early days. I hope Macedon and the feta verse never lose that.
by no means am I saying that the fediverse it’s perfect. I know that there are issues with bullying and racism and other forms of prejudice. We are all human after all, and sometimes the Internet can bring out the worse than us, but it can also bring out the best in us if the online community we subscribe to encourages positive behavior. A perfect example is the number of folks who are not #Blind who put #AltText in their photos. I have been on mastodon since 2018, although I’ve switched a few instances since then, but the Fediverse has always encouraged its users to put alt text in their photos, and to describe their videos as well. Certainly, there are folks who don’t follow this rule, but there are also lots of people who try to do their best, or who are willing to be educated.
creating #Inclusive spaces for everyone is not easy, especially since we all have varying needs and some of them oppose one another. but even with the large influx of Twitter users since 2022, I have not seen a huge shift in fetiverse culture. In fact, I would say it’s just the opposite. One of my posts went viral when I was on my last instance. Lots of people responded and asked me to teach them how to write alt text. I have tried doing this on other platforms with zero success, even when a lot of my followers were friends and family. So to all of you out there who are doing your best to include everyone, thank you. You’re doing it because you care and not because you expect any kind of klout.
sometimes, if you are #Disabled or part of a visible minority, it can be hard to stay positive. You experience a lot of #Prejudice or #Discrimination, and, as you get older, it’s really easy to focus a lot on the negative rather than the positive. I’ve been through a lot this year, and had a lot of #MentalHealth challenges. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to dial back the cynicism just a little bit, and to be grateful for the small things that make the world a better place.

@endlessendless : I already wrote that you'll find idiots in each "group" that somehow can be distinguished from one or more other groups.

Most of the time conflicts start because of greed. Any more or less obvious difference between the particular opponents will be magnified as being the cause of the conflict.

I wrote about Indonesia: while I lived there, many Chinese people were attacked. Not related to religion, but because Chinese people were extremely hard working and therefore successful business people.

Last week a young man stabbed random people in Rotterdam, while supposedly he shouted "Allahu Akbar". It looked like a terrorist attack, but it was not (dutchnews.nl/2024/09/suspect-i). This young man has serious psychological problems, and he's not the only one.

There are a lot if stabbings in the Netherlands that hardly get any attention in the media - only because there's nothing remarkable about them. Too many young kids (any skin color) carry knives (some possess guns, but fortunately not as many as in the US).

Regardless, the chance of getting killed in a traffic incident, or even being struck by lightning, is higher than being murdered by a terrorist.

By the way, the person who was the major of Rotterdam until yesterday, Ahmed Aboutaleb, is a Muslim (dutchnews.nl/2024/08/aboutaleb). He was an extremely good major loved by most of his citizens.

Please stop being prejudiced because some people are idiots.

DutchNews.nl · Suspect in Rotterdam stabbing "previously attacked his mother" - DutchNews.nlThe man accused of stabbing a man to death on the Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam seriously wounded his mother in a knife attack two years ago, Dutch media report. Ayoub M., 22, is due to appear in court for a remand hearing on Monday after being arrested at the scene of last Thursday night’s incident. Prosecutors say he may have had a terrorist motive because he was heard to shout “Allah Akhbar” several times as he wielded the knife, but...