Re:You can't censor away extremism or any other problem
by tired-dev on Friday March 12, 2021 @09:42AM
(#26436290)
Exactly. Racists will generally justify themselves as "not racist" by giving claiming something to the tune of "I'm not prejudiced, I just agree with the numbers!", while appealing to some out-of-context statistic to try and act like those disagreeing with them are "denying science" by acknowledging that there's more nuance to the issue.
Usually I've seen forms like this
"I strongly believe in (basic description of X)"
"You know that's X, right?!"
"I'm not X"
"Alright, would you say you believe in (wikipedias first paragraph on X)?"
"Oh yes! You really understand!"
"You know I just lifted that from wikipedia article on X"
"Let me hear it again. Ok, that's not exactly right." Etc...
Try it yourself next time, it's pretty remarkable. They're not acting in bad faith or trying to deceive.
It's like an addict who believes they smoke cigarettes not because they have an addiction but because they enjoy the taste.
Most people want to believe they've made the right decisions (https://grist.org/article/80-percent-of-humans-are-delusiona...). They think racism is wrong so therefore their beliefs can't be racist.