Blah, blah, neither one of you really understand it. Racism doesn't have anything to do with power. It is a survival mechanism. Your brain creates stereotypes on purpose. Once you've seen one lion eat your buddy, you know all lions are dangerous. Only way to beat racism (in yourself) is to understand this and take account for it in your decision making. Everyone is racist. It is the way we are built. You must work to negate it.
That is an age old defence of racism, by trying to re-define it as simply the fear of otherness.
I suppose you can live your life as though every other human being in the world is your enemy, but there is absolutely no logical reason to define an enemy as just someone with a certain skin colour.
Racism is about treating someone based upon their race rather than as an individual.
Yes I know what the dictionary definition of racism is.
To summarise how black people can be racist, when I was at school in the 80s we had 3 black kids in our class (UK, inner London school). Two considered themselves to be Jamaican, and therefore would pick on the third who they considered to be African. Their interaction with him consisted of bullying, abuse based upon his perceived country of origin etc.
That's not racism though, is it? If I as a white Englishman call a white Frenchman a cheese-eating surrender monkey, I'm not being racist. If I bully a white German kid, I'm not being racist.
The black Jamaican kids weren't picking on the African because he had black skin and they didn't like people with black skin, were they?
A white racist would see the Jamaican and African kids as the same because they had black skin. That is why racism is so stupid, and why all racists are by definition stupid people.
Racism may be about power, but it is a position of power *under the circumstances* not whether you have over-arching power in society at large.
I didn't say that racism was only about power, and I certainly didn't say that all power relationships are based on race. It's just the case that in the West, the people in power who are racist are likely to be white (e.g. look at the Met's problems).
I believe the Bible also says something about spreading out and populating the world. Perhaps people shouldn't be crowding together, living in cities if they aren't ready to build a sufficient sanitation system.
Yeah, everybody should just live on their luxury ranches and enjoy the easy life.
"The ultimate test of moral fiber has always been "doing the right thing when nobody is watching", how is it possible for someone who believes in an omnipresent god to take that test?"
Very, very well said.
Ah, but if a man performs an unwitnessed heroic act and then dies when a branch falls on him in the middle of an empty forest, has an heroic act been performed?
You don't need to backup your atheism with lies and self-delusions. Are you afraid of pursuing the truth because of what you might find? Are you afraid of losing control? Your "self-control" is an illusion. You are a slave to your desires.
At least I don't believe in a grown-ups version of the fucking tooth fairy.
self-identified atheists have been known to get married in a church
Self-identified atheists have been known to go to listen to sacred music in churches. Self-identified atheists have been known to go to children's baptisms. Self-identified atheists have been known to say "oh my god".
So what? Atheists don't deny that religion is intertwined thoroughly in society, there aren't many who refuse to enter the doors of a church, or who can't enjoy some of the religious-related ceremonies and traditions.
As an atheist, I don't refuse to celebrte Christmas.
Believe it or not, one time another woman at work said it to my face, in so many words: "Sexism is anything that makes me uncomfortable." [emphasis mine] She really did. My jaw hit the floor
The fact that there are stupid women in the world does not mean that sexism doesn't exist.
Here's a couple of anecdotes: I worked with a black colleague once who believed that all "Pakis" smelled of curry and were thieves. I had another Indian colleague who believed that all "coons" were lazy and stupid.
It just proves that stupidity crosses all gender and skin colour/cultural lines.
No, she's more or less right. Racism is primarily about power. And stupidity. Black people can certainly be as stupid as white people, but they tend not to be the ones in power in the West. [*]
Making it an absolute statement is silly, as there are certainly black, Asian and other non-white people who are racist, especially when they are the ones in power.
[*] Yes I know the POTUS is black. That did not magically make racism disappear overnight.
That's not a fair accusation because you are examining those actions through the lens of modern warfare where precision munitions are a reliable and effective tool. That capability didn't exist back then and they applied the technology they had as best they could.
Whether you agree with them or not, the firebombing of Dresden and nuking of Japan weren't just cases of "oops, we missed the docks/tank factory and accidentally hit a school". They were deliberately targeted at the civilian population to cause shock and awe.
If war was more horrible people would do more to prevent it.
Didn't work for WWII. 15M or so dead for WWI, 40M or so dead for WWII.
Did work for the Cold War, when governments realized their existence could be vaporized in mere minutes.
Lesson learned: Threaten governments, not people.
The Cold War proved that if all-out war is really horrible enough, you just use proxy wars instead.
So, if i'm a sysadmin in an Irish (or Swiss, or other non-NATO, neutral) hospital, and my internal databases get hacked, in such a manner that patients lives are put at risk / lost, and I _think_ I can trace the attack back to Virginia, what do I do?
Realistically, there is nothing you can do other than write a stiffly worded letter of complaint to President Obama. Ireland or Switzerland are hardly going to declare war on the US.
The Evernote app on Android has the permission to read your contacts. No thank you. I downloaded Keep for that reason alone. Plus it's fast and easy to use. So far I like it.
Personally, I keep all my contacts in a dead tree notebook and only ever enter them onto my phone via a special one-time encryption app I had written for me by my handler in Moscow.
Just don't try and attach video clips or pictures to your Evernotes or you'll run out of your 60MB/month and have to pay for premium service.
Gosh, the evil fucking bastards. I mean, obviously I should be able to use Evernote as free unlimited online storage. If I want to upload HD videos 24/7 as backup, they have a moral obligation to give this to me for free.
And there are no photo/video sharing sites available anywhere on the internet, so Evernote are basically forcing me to upgrade to their ludicrously overpriced premium service (which I have just checked is an eye-watering GBP4 a month).
Meanwhile, in the real world 60MB/month is a lot of actual, you know, text notes.
Google says "Here is a fantastic new app to use. Please make part of your daily workflow." Some arbitrary amount of time later, Google says "Nevermind." If I have indeed made it a part of my workflow, I am required to change my workflow on their schedule on their notice. Maybe you are lucky enough to have never had life fall apart. Maybe you've never been so busy taking care of life changing issues, you could miss everything short of bombs exploding in your path. At such times, the last thing you need is for stupid little things, like a note taking app, to require attention.
I have been, and at that stage I wasn't worrying about either "workflow" or software applications.
Fortunately, the Geneva Convention specifically excludes non-state combatants from its protection. Mercenaries, terrorists and insurgents/freedom-fighters are all excluded. The moment you take up arms without being in the military, you are not covered by it.
Indeed, but you are still covered by the civilian laws of that country. Terrorists are arrested, tried and convicted for murder and sent to prison, not indefinitely detained and tortured.
The British worked this out a while ago with the Troubles.
Residents of Manhattan might head outside the next morning to a city that's largely intact, and eventually see photos of the smoldering cratered wastelands that used to be the Jersey Shore
So, what you're saying is that every cloud has a silver lining?
If some jackass in BFE Wherever, USA gets bored and decides to DDOS a hospital up in Canada, does that put the USA as a whole in violation of this treaty?
We've conducted cyber attacks against Iran, so by this convention we've declared war on the nation state of Iran right?
I think it's OK if the US does it. If any other country on Earth had invaded another like Iraq, their head of state, generals, admirals and the rest would be swinging from gibbets as war criminals.
Slashdot Mirror
Blah, blah, neither one of you really understand it. Racism doesn't have anything to do with power. It is a survival mechanism. Your brain creates stereotypes on purpose. Once you've seen one lion eat your buddy, you know all lions are dangerous. Only way to beat racism (in yourself) is to understand this and take account for it in your decision making. Everyone is racist. It is the way we are built. You must work to negate it.
That is an age old defence of racism, by trying to re-define it as simply the fear of otherness.
I suppose you can live your life as though every other human being in the world is your enemy, but there is absolutely no logical reason to define an enemy as just someone with a certain skin colour.
Racism is about treating someone based upon their race rather than as an individual.
Yes I know what the dictionary definition of racism is.
To summarise how black people can be racist, when I was at school in the 80s we had 3 black kids in our class (UK, inner London school). Two considered themselves to be Jamaican, and therefore would pick on the third who they considered to be African. Their interaction with him consisted of bullying, abuse based upon his perceived country of origin etc.
That's not racism though, is it? If I as a white Englishman call a white Frenchman a cheese-eating surrender monkey, I'm not being racist. If I bully a white German kid, I'm not being racist.
The black Jamaican kids weren't picking on the African because he had black skin and they didn't like people with black skin, were they?
A white racist would see the Jamaican and African kids as the same because they had black skin. That is why racism is so stupid, and why all racists are by definition stupid people.
Racism may be about power, but it is a position of power *under the circumstances* not whether you have over-arching power in society at large.
I didn't say that racism was only about power, and I certainly didn't say that all power relationships are based on race. It's just the case that in the West, the people in power who are racist are likely to be white (e.g. look at the Met's problems).
I believe the Bible also says something about spreading out and populating the world. Perhaps people shouldn't be crowding together, living in cities if they aren't ready to build a sufficient sanitation system.
Yeah, everybody should just live on their luxury ranches and enjoy the easy life.
"The ultimate test of moral fiber has always been "doing the right thing when nobody is watching", how is it possible for someone who believes in an omnipresent god to take that test?" Very, very well said.
Ah, but if a man performs an unwitnessed heroic act and then dies when a branch falls on him in the middle of an empty forest, has an heroic act been performed?
You don't need to backup your atheism with lies and self-delusions. Are you afraid of pursuing the truth because of what you might find? Are you afraid of losing control? Your "self-control" is an illusion. You are a slave to your desires.
At least I don't believe in a grown-ups version of the fucking tooth fairy.
self-identified atheists have been known to get married in a church
Self-identified atheists have been known to go to listen to sacred music in churches. Self-identified atheists have been known to go to children's baptisms. Self-identified atheists have been known to say "oh my god".
So what? Atheists don't deny that religion is intertwined thoroughly in society, there aren't many who refuse to enter the doors of a church, or who can't enjoy some of the religious-related ceremonies and traditions.
As an atheist, I don't refuse to celebrte Christmas.
Believe it or not, one time another woman at work said it to my face, in so many words: "Sexism is anything that makes me uncomfortable." [emphasis mine] She really did. My jaw hit the floor
The fact that there are stupid women in the world does not mean that sexism doesn't exist.
Here's a couple of anecdotes: I worked with a black colleague once who believed that all "Pakis" smelled of curry and were thieves. I had another Indian colleague who believed that all "coons" were lazy and stupid.
It just proves that stupidity crosses all gender and skin colour/cultural lines.
Oh good, so she's just a blithering idiot.
No, she's more or less right. Racism is primarily about power. And stupidity. Black people can certainly be as stupid as white people, but they tend not to be the ones in power in the West. [*]
Making it an absolute statement is silly, as there are certainly black, Asian and other non-white people who are racist, especially when they are the ones in power.
[*] Yes I know the POTUS is black. That did not magically make racism disappear overnight.
Bugger the children!
As the priest said on the Titanic.
They ( We ) didn't even try, and we still have ' collateral damage'.
War is total. The side that knows this and practices to an unfair advantage it will be the winner.
I don't think Hitler lost WW2 because of having too many scruples about engaging in total war.
That's not a fair accusation because you are examining those actions through the lens of modern warfare where precision munitions are a reliable and effective tool. That capability didn't exist back then and they applied the technology they had as best they could.
Whether you agree with them or not, the firebombing of Dresden and nuking of Japan weren't just cases of "oops, we missed the docks/tank factory and accidentally hit a school". They were deliberately targeted at the civilian population to cause shock and awe.
If war was more horrible people would do more to prevent it.
Didn't work for WWII. 15M or so dead for WWI, 40M or so dead for WWII. Did work for the Cold War, when governments realized their existence could be vaporized in mere minutes. Lesson learned: Threaten governments, not people.
The Cold War proved that if all-out war is really horrible enough, you just use proxy wars instead.
Total war really is the only just form of war. There is still some line, bombing an elementary school deliberately would be crossing it; for example
No, you can't have it both ways. There either is a line or there isn't.
So, if i'm a sysadmin in an Irish (or Swiss, or other non-NATO, neutral) hospital, and my internal databases get hacked, in such a manner that patients lives are put at risk / lost, and I _think_ I can trace the attack back to Virginia, what do I do?
Realistically, there is nothing you can do other than write a stiffly worded letter of complaint to President Obama. Ireland or Switzerland are hardly going to declare war on the US.
The Evernote app on Android has the permission to read your contacts. No thank you. I downloaded Keep for that reason alone. Plus it's fast and easy to use. So far I like it.
Personally, I keep all my contacts in a dead tree notebook and only ever enter them onto my phone via a special one-time encryption app I had written for me by my handler in Moscow.
Just don't try and attach video clips or pictures to your Evernotes or you'll run out of your 60MB/month and have to pay for premium service.
Gosh, the evil fucking bastards. I mean, obviously I should be able to use Evernote as free unlimited online storage. If I want to upload HD videos 24/7 as backup, they have a moral obligation to give this to me for free.
And there are no photo/video sharing sites available anywhere on the internet, so Evernote are basically forcing me to upgrade to their ludicrously overpriced premium service (which I have just checked is an eye-watering GBP4 a month).
Meanwhile, in the real world 60MB/month is a lot of actual, you know, text notes.
In Korea, only old people use memes.
Google says "Here is a fantastic new app to use. Please make part of your daily workflow." Some arbitrary amount of time later, Google says "Nevermind." If I have indeed made it a part of my workflow, I am required to change my workflow on their schedule on their notice. Maybe you are lucky enough to have never had life fall apart. Maybe you've never been so busy taking care of life changing issues, you could miss everything short of bombs exploding in your path. At such times, the last thing you need is for stupid little things, like a note taking app, to require attention.
I have been, and at that stage I wasn't worrying about either "workflow" or software applications.
iGoogle is for old people
Shouldn't that be gmail?
And how much did you pay for it back then?
What exactly has that got to do with how long it's been available?
Grow up, fanboy.
Fortunately, the Geneva Convention specifically excludes non-state combatants from its protection. Mercenaries, terrorists and insurgents/freedom-fighters are all excluded. The moment you take up arms without being in the military, you are not covered by it.
Indeed, but you are still covered by the civilian laws of that country. Terrorists are arrested, tried and convicted for murder and sent to prison, not indefinitely detained and tortured.
The British worked this out a while ago with the Troubles.
Residents of Manhattan might head outside the next morning to a city that's largely intact, and eventually see photos of the smoldering cratered wastelands that used to be the Jersey Shore
So, what you're saying is that every cloud has a silver lining?
The US doesn't follow the existing Geneva conventions of war
Oh bullshit.
If we didn't follow the Conventions there'd be no Gitmo and Iraq and Afghanistan would have been completely depopulated by the end of 2003.
Bullshit to you. The Nazis didn't follow the Geneva Convention and they didn't completely depopulate the countries they invaded.
If some jackass in BFE Wherever, USA gets bored and decides to DDOS a hospital up in Canada, does that put the USA as a whole in violation of this treaty?
We've conducted cyber attacks against Iran, so by this convention we've declared war on the nation state of Iran right?
I think it's OK if the US does it. If any other country on Earth had invaded another like Iraq, their head of state, generals, admirals and the rest would be swinging from gibbets as war criminals.