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I blame nobody in Syria right now if they have a fear/hatred of bearded Arabs, or Afghan minorities of Pashtos, etc. etc.

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However, what often seems to happen is that hatreds and fears transfer mostly by hearsay and cultural bigotry, rather than lived experience.

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I have an "irrational" loathing of Romani people after I was attacked by a bunch of youths and pickpocketed separately in 1 year in Prague-

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- plus several other beliggerent or malevolent encounters in the same city. I know the problems these communities suffer, and yet...

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I would never justify applying these aversions on an individual basis, or to repress or otherwise attack communities, but it's not idiotic.

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applying these aversions on individual basis is exactly what i'm calling idiotic tho. i got mugged by group of black dudes in amsterdam but

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if i then hated every black person i encountered in life knowing nothing about them except their skin color, i think that would be idiotic

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i agree this human tendency made evolutionary sense in earlier tribal days but in current world it's smart/decent to quell/override it

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Still makes sense today, if people use the correct filters. "These other-skinned guys" works if there are only two tribes around, but...

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... makes no sense in a world as culturally integrated as most of the West, for example. It sometimes makes sense in remote places, though.

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E.g. popular Western loathing of Arabs makes 0 sense. 100s of cultures and ethnic groups, including "native East Londoner" fit that label.

6:14 PM · Aug 5, 2017Twitter Web Client

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OTOH, I'd steer well clear of an Al-Nusra fighter, for obvious reasons, regardless of ethnicity.

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yea overall it doesn't seem like you disagree w my initial statements, but you're right that more nuance on this topic is helpful