Setting something straight

[bellatrys]

If you believe that Members of group X are innately bad - that is to say, intrinsically worse than all other humans, whether the claim be that each individual is flawed, or that a higher percentage is flawed - by virtue of the subgroup into which they are born - then yes, you are a bigot

Comments

Would you say this was an example?

[davidbyron]

Would you say this is an example of assuming that a birth group is innately bad?
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Flash back oh, fifteen-odd years ago, when I was still living at home, to the dinner table, when one of my younger sisters was griping about her experiences of sexism at high school or work, and being told by our father to shut up and be grateful because after all, women needed men to be soldiers to protect us - a declaration which penetrated my depressive haze and assumed manner of bovine, nonconfrontational demureness enough to make me ask,

"Protect from whom?"

This was taken as a stunning put-down by my father, who was left speechless and red-faced, in a surprise twist to me, because he honestly didn't know how to answer it, since the only and obvious answer was, Other men. It was one of the few times I actually won an argument, and didn't instantly get put down in some other way, so I cherish it, while at the same time feeling a little bemused and as if I'd cheated, since I hadn't even been trying to contest any more at that point in my life.