Canary Beck is looking at people’s prejudices in Second Life™. She is writing about being on a panel discussing prejudice in SL. Seems prejudices are alive, well, and popular in SL just as it is in RL. She is thinking of studying the SL version of prejudice… but her preliminary questions seem superficial, uninformed, and narrow to me. What annoys me is prejudice is seen as the problem, it isn’t the problem, it is the symptom. So, I take exception to some of her thoughts and ideas.
In this day when political parties and activists have teams of psychologists and marketing types tailoring their messages and delivery systems based on the Lenin/Alinsky model. Looking at any behavior in this limited context is likely to miss the causes of our behavior. But, see Canary’s article: Real versus virtual prejudice comes down to choice in Second Life. I see a missing part of the thinking expressed is the basic foundation concept of: a Right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The current victimization thinking seems to replace it, people are victims. Just because someone is a prejudicial asshole doesn’t mean I have to be their victim. Victimization seems to be the underlying theme in most racial and LGBT issues and I don’t hear Canary expressing alternative thinking.
When Canary states, “What we cannot change, are our psychological masculine or feminine traits” I shake my head. Studies coming out in 2009± supported and promoted that idea. Since about 2012 the data being presented in research circles shows that simply is not true. The authors of the 2009-2010 studies saying sexual preference was genetic, have changed their minds and published new papers. The idea sexual preference isn’t a choice is correct but, misleading. Change of all learned behaviors is possible. That sexual preference is not a ‘learned behavior’ is held scared by many. But. ‘studies of twins’ give us a different set of facts and eliminates the genetic reason for being a victim.
Consider. We never choose to like either Devil’s or Angel’s Food cake. We notice our preference and decide we like one or the other. We also have ‘acquired’ tastes, which are learned preferences. Why we have a preference is a complex question. We have lots of studies on gender preference or more technically accurate: Gender ID, which is the mental side of sexual identity – thinking of one’s self as male or female regardless of genitalia.
The ‘preference’ studies are plentiful and one can use the studies to support a number of beliefs by cherry picking studies to quote. But, trying for the truth, the best information shows people have changed their sexual preference and the source of Gender ID is based mostly in our childhood environmental and life experiences.
Formation of Gender ID is a very personal thing as twins growing up in the same household have been documented with different sexual preferences. So, saying either genetics or parents are the shaping influence is not supported by evidence.
Nor is this preference thing set for life. People go both directions at various times in life… straight to gay… gay to straight… and variouls levels in between. There is the claim that people were always straight, gay, or bi and just didn’t recognize it. A demeaning idea suggesting people were not smart enough to figure it out. All my gay/lesbian friends new early on in their life what their preference was. There is a smaller set of people for which this ‘didn’t know’ idea may be/is true.
My point being popular information is full of fallacies. One needs accurate information to be able to form good questions for a study or experiment.
Canary discusses what is called the brown-blue-eyed experiment. If you don’t know of it, it is well worth your time to learn of it. While Canary doesn’t mention it, the experiment uses the basic techniques of mind control. They work amazingly well on EVERYONE. (The Rape of the Mind) Not everyone reacts the same, but everyone reacts and most react as one would anticipate.
She then goes on to express the basic idea that whites in power fail to notice the manifestation of racial prejudice, a basic racist statement in itself. (I wonder if she noticed?) The current political agenda is to divide the races and is to all appearances working well.
The facts show startlingly different stories than what we are hearing in the news. FBI data on the race of those killed by police officers is seriously incomplete. So, Peter Moskos, assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, used figures from the website Killed by Police (I think this is the correct site, it has the information, I didn’t tabulate it to check him, but feel free).
His breakdown on those killed by police officers from May 2013 to April 2015: 49% white, 30% black, 19% Hispanic, and 2% Asian and other races. 49 verses 30… that is 63% more whites than blacks (30×1.63=49). This isn’t what you hear in the news. Mind control works and we can see its influence in many places, including Second Life.
Peggy Hubbard is a great example of someone NOT buying into the current propaganda of Black Lives Matter. (Language warning)
Also, if one looks at who is in control of states and cities with the most racial violence against blacks, they are mostly controlled by blacks… (look at who was in charge for the last 10 years for such locations) Yet, one can make a very good argument that the race of those in power is far less influential on racial violence than the political ideology of those in power regardless of their race.
Racial or sexual preference prejudices are NOT inherent in humans. A fear of the unknown is. Canary says racial prejudice is ingrained. I agree. But, so is sexual preference prejudice. Both are learned behaviors. But, understanding how thought control works and prejudices get ingrained allows us to avoid being controlled and having negative ideas implanted in us. Desegregation makes other races a known, nothing to fear.
In the 60’s Martin Luther King was breaking down ingrained prejudices attempting to mix the races. From the 60’s through to the early 2000’s race relations were rapidly improving. About 2007 the political agenda changed. Economic class, race, and as many other divisions as could be thought up began being promoted as a political tactic. That isn’t a new tactic but, its use significantly increased. Since then race relations have rapidly and seriously deteriorated. Once again segregation is being promoted, not so much as segregation but as ethnic identity. Whatever we call it, it has the same result and divisions alone racial lines are seriously dividing people.
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