Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
This is an example of generalizing run amuck. What you've done here is dangerous, and demonstrates a lot of what is fucking up our national discourse.
I'll have to unpack it, because there's a lot wrong here.
First, you cannot call someone racist because he's an alleged Islamaphobe. A racist hates people of a certain race, not of a certain religion. I suspect you are using racist where "xenophobe" or "religious bigot" is appropriate because it confers more moral authority. "Racist" has bite those terms do not. (But not for much longer, if people keep intentionally misusing it as you have here. Recklessly throwing any hyperbole around desensitizes people to it.)
Second, Harris is not an Islamaphobe. Nor is Maher. Both men look down their noses at all religions. The only reason they're labeled Islamaphobes is because they have stated that Islam is the most violent religion currently, the "problem child" of religions of the moment. That's fact. You cannot dispute that. Citing a fact does not make one a religious bigot.
That Maher brought Harris on to make a fool of Affleck is immaterial to this discussion. But since you raise it, I'd say it was a public service. Affleck should be mocked for being ludicrous and illogical, and for offering hyperbole in service of sophomoric virtue signalling.
Your last comment is truly dangerous generalizing. There, you take all of these disparate issues and lump them under the Trump banner. Trump has nothing to do with Harris or Maher (both of whom detest Trump, by the way). This is you conflating issues to confuse the discussion. Everyone hates Trump, so I shall link all these things to Trump and that will be my winning closer! Nevermind that Harris and Maher were critiquing religion long before Trump was on the campaign trail.
I do not agree with tariffs, or the trade war. I do agree that Islam is the most violent religion of the moment. I think Trump is a disaster, a national embarrassment. But I do not think that banning Muslims is a "racist" policy. It is a stupid religiously-bigoted and xenophobic policy. These are unique issues, unique offenses, and unique positions. There is no credible way to lump them under one umbrella, and your attempt to do so is transparent and comes off as disingenuous.
You have to stop with the generalizations and start looking at things on an issue by issue basis to have intelligent discussions about this stuff.
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Look, what both Maher and Harris do is make wild generalizations and stereotypes about Islam, the Middle East, Arabs, etc. Unpacking where they're being bigoted based on race and where on religion is tedious and unproductive and usually results in the answer "both". They each know jack shit about the region and its history. They cast aspersions against a wide range of people with no basis but their genetic pool and/or religion. You've obviously picked up many of their views from the above.
If you have problems with generalization, you really ought to puke at those two and stop with it yourself.
What a fucking waste of time. And yes, this sort of intellectually lazy bigotry (aka, "Economic Distress") is what Trump is all about.
