brimstoneSalad wrote: ↑Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:43 am
Ethically Jewish, or religiously so?
Ethnically Jewish. That being said, I think there probably would be a heavy amount of bigotry necessary to cut out the possibility of dating somebody you may have a successful relationship with just for being religious.
The matter is about the root of *why* the asker of the question may think the person giving an answer might say no.
When it comes to Jewish ethnicity (rather than religion) there's really no room for confusion there. People aren't so misinformed about what a Jewish person must be like to think that's a reasonable question unless they're racists.
There's a lot of otherwise innocent confusion about transgender issues.
Do you think all transwomen look like men? Easily corrected.
Do you think they're all liberal? Again, a misunderstanding.
Well, this doesn't answer the question of why they are a racist in the first place. As Jebus pointed out, racism is learned, not inherited. If somebody is raised in a racist environment with racist friends and/or racist parents who keep parroting misconceptions about the Jews, the blacks, the Arabs, etc., the chances are that that person will grow into a racist. Likewise, if somebody is raised in an environment with friends, parents and acquaintances who keep parroting misconceptions about trans people, there is a heavy chance that that person could become a transphobe. In either case, there is reason to try and correct these misconceptions before we judge either person too heavily. However, if those people continue to believe racist/transphobic lies despite the evidence contrary to them, then they are likely beyond saving.
This I would like to make clear: I think I was probably wrong to suggest that hostility is the correct response to meet somebody who holds transphobic beliefs with (I do however think that those who will continue to hold those beliefs, despite being proven wrong, should be met with hostility). That being said, I think that whatever amount of hostility we meet a transphobe with, the same amount should be met towards a racist as the explanation for somebody holding those beliefs is more or less the same.
Ignorance is wrong, but there are various levels of defensibility of the character of those plagued by the ignorance.
SOME DAY it will be as indefensible to believe those things about trans-people as about those who are ethnically Jewish. But I don't think that's the case *yet* in our modern context.
Firstly, although society in general has became significantly more tolerant of racial minorities, there are still significant amount of children raised in racist communities. I think they have just as much explanation of why they hold those ideas as a person with transphobic beliefs, as in either case, it is because of their upbringing. Ergo, the level of defensibility of the character is more or less the same.
Secondly, it isn't as indefensible to be transphobic as it is to be antisemitic in today's society, but I don't think that we are helping matters any further by treating antisemites more hostilely than transphobes. This only really adds legitimacy to the idea that one is more defensible than the other.
There's no reason to give a Nazi the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe not a Nazi, but there is just as much reason to give somebody misinformed about racial issues the benefit of the doubt as there is reason to give that to a person misinformed about trans issues.
Give it a couple more years for the zeitgeist to catch up and for people to be generally better informed before you shoot first and ask questions later. I know it's not fair to ask trans-people to basically wait while cis people get less stupid, but that's how it goes with all social progress.
That's true, however, social progress won't really be helped along by trying to educate people who have made it abundantly clear that they are never going to change their mind. Those sorts of people should be met with hostility in order to demonstrate to them and to society in general that their values are as inexcusable as those of a racist.
You can't treat somebody who is ignorant about trans-issues like a Nazi, one is much more stale and inexcusable.
Definitely not, as most people who become Nazis aren't just doing it because of the environment that they are being raised in. That being said, I believe you can, and you should, treat somebody who is ignorant about trans issues the same as you would somebody who is ignorant about racial issues.
Kind of how we understand being a flat-Earther is a bit different from being a climate change denialist. Both equally wrong, but one has been consensus a lot longer and there's less excuse for ignorance.
I personally don't really understand that at all. Both a flat earther and a climate change denier are likely to hold those beliefs for the same reasons (e.g. ignorance of the facts, not enough access to relevant information, distrust of "the official story", etc.). I actually think being a climate change denier is much worse, for the sheer impact of the consequences of catastrophic climate change that can be exacerbated by denial of climate change. Besides spreading ignorance, there isn't that much of a negative consequence to thinking that the earth is flat.