I have only come here seeking truth

[andrewducker]

Over on my post about the awful conditions in the Conservative's "model" council channelpenguin asks if it would be easy to find a Labour council that would be as bad.

And I don't know. But I sincerely hope that if I put up a post here trashing the Tories and it's wrong, or if there are equally good examples against other parties, then there'll be responses here telling me that Johann Hari as his facts wrong (with links to a rebuttal) , or that the situation isn't the fault of the local council (with links to the reasons why this is true).

Yes, I have opinions, and I will defend them - but I'm not dogmatic about them, and I'm delighted when someone presents me with evidence of my wrongness. This actually happens on a semi-regular basis, and the great thing about it is that I get to change my mind and be _less wrong_.

If I find something interesting, I link to it. And sometimes I find something interesting, but not entirely persuasive. So I link to it in the hope that someone will tell me why it's rubbish, or provide more information to make it more persuasive. Either is fine by me - I'm just using you all to my own ends :->

Comments

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately logic and emotion aren't always easy to differentiate and delineate. Can't fear of something, in this case the unknown, also be logical? Perhaps it's illogical to continue to be afraid of the unknown after it becomes known, but is it really known? That is, if I were afraid of black people and then had a positive experience with a black person that 'should' lead to overcoming my fear, is it logical for this loss of fear to apply in cases other than this specific person, or to other black people?

Maybe the issue is that, besides emotion, we also tend to operate more on heuristics than logic: This decent black person, to the white racist, is the exception to the general rule?

[andrewducker]

Fear of the unknown may well be normal - but that doesn't mean that the basis of the fear is rationality. If they haven't actively done anything to cause the fear then it's understandable, but not rational.

And yes, bigoted people tend to have ingrained ideas which are hard to break down. That doesn't make them ideas ok.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

By this logic if I were a black man and a bunch of swastika wearing skinheads were on the path in front of me, I ought not to be afraid (or anticipate trouble) because they haven't done anything yet? (True, they might be SHARP skinheads whose wearing of the swastika is ironic, but I wouldn't place too much faith in that possibility.)

Coincidentally there's a book about 50s US sci-fi films called rational fears:

http://www.amazon.com/Rational-Fears-American-Horror-1950s/dp/0719036240/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273141462&sr=8-1

[andrewducker]

There's a massive difference between people who are displaying their ideology openly and people who happen to be born with a particular colour skin. One is a choice, the other is not. One is a deliberate signifier of intent and belief, and the other is not.