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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I've heard it said one should never trust the intelligence of a man who salts his food before first tasting it. This seems an arbitrary grouping, but it also tends to hold true.

I'd say the same applies to a person who holds strong group identification and places it ahead of or commensurate with private, individual critical thinking. "I'm a proud this..." or "I'm a proud that..." is a statement that one has self-limited. One should have principles, of course. But one should also be open to changing his mind, to thinking differently based on circumstances. To self-contradicting as necessary.

It's unfortunately both human and incredibly dimwitted to assess a person based on his last name, or his skin tone. These regressive heuristics probably aren't going to end any time soon. But for God's sake, we shouldn't enable and encourage them.

The frictions between groups (of all sorts -- racial, political, religious, sex) only abate when people start viewing each other as a clean slates. In a truly evolved world, you'd meet another person with no preconceived notion of what his politics, interests, or views would be. He'd get as fair a shot at being accepted by you as you would by him. (This is why I loathe Trump's immigration policy -- it frustrates this progression.) A big step in this direction is abandoning group identification and favoring a more relativist view of everything. Have a few bedrock principles, but don't let any party, organization, religion, or heritage drive your thinking any more than minimally, if at all.

I know, pie in the sky. But it's where we ought to be going as humans.

So don't ignore it, but don't give too much weight to it. Be discriminating, but don't discriminate.

Well, now that we have that solved, let's fix the Syrian refugee crisis.