The Glade 4.0

The thumbnail pic of that video makes him look like Al Gore who's letting himself go.

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The Dude abides.

This actually highlights a point I've tried to make several times (though not nearly so eloquently)
The presenters physical appearance aside (and his figity sway) it's actually a pretty good summation

So his argument is people make value judgements about unknown critera based on known critera, and that's normal and logical. um duh?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

That's the first 2 minutes of the talk yes. Hardly the final point.
Summarizing for what, were for me, the key or at least most interesting points:
a) Our brains are hardwired to favor our own group, regardless of whether those groups are based on anything real or not. These instincts are natural and sometimes ethical but not always
b) As long as we are aware of that bias, we can put into place measures to try to compensate for that bias. We use intellect and self-limitation to counter and protect against a baser instinct.

That's BS! You're just making excuses for bigotry!
Prejudice is learned. Babies don't have prejudices.

These are the sort of responses I hear when I make similar arguments.

There's a stark difference between the fundamental tribalistic tendencies of our minds and not employing an intellectual strategy to compensate for it.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

I realize this is a reconstruction of arguments you've seen, rather than your own thoughts, but let's deconstruct them anyway.

What is actually being learned - "favoring our own group?" Or group segregation? Prejudice is impossible if you cannot differentiate between "us" and "them." Is it not possible that prejudice comes naturally from the moment this distinction is made?

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Yes, prejudice comes naturally from the moment a child learns: "This is my mother, this is my father; this is my family."

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Riov's point is probably over-simplifying. The whole thing about left/right brain is mostly bullcrap. There is, however, some evidence in current neuroscience that suggests one side of the brain is more dominant in being critical of the world presented to it while the other is more dominant in interpreting the world according to one's value system. I don't remember which side was which. In any case, when people choose to not be critical of the environment, their brain is building fewer synapses on one region of the brain while the other side continues to build more. So in a sense, said brain becomes hard-wired, or at least more predisposed to continue thinking a certain way despite any evidence that may contradict. I would imagine bigotry falls into this pseudo-positive feedback mechanism.

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The Dude abides.

there were several telling statements in there that were almost throw-away lines.

The babies favored puppets that punished the puppets with the opposite taste.

That means absent any criteria for why to like a neutral third party other than the fact they didn't like someone different from the baby (in food taste) the babies were inclined to prefer someone with negative behavior if it was directed at another group.

The students in the Keen/Kinsley division were willing to hurt themselves as long as it hurt the other group more.


This indicates to me that our natural instinct seeks to harm outside groups. While possibly adaptive evolutionarily, our intellect must overrule our passions in this matter.