I perceive a double standard. If one says that members of a particular racial group, such as blacks, are stupid, vicious attacks ensue. But if one says, as Bernard DeVoto did, that all people are stupid, the result is widespread agreement and praise. This seems to hold true both in the wider world and in particular microcosms such as the Straight Dope Message Board.
This makes no sense at all. Blacks are a subset of people, so saying that everyone is stupid includes saying that all blacks are stupid. Why should saying that blacks are stupid suddenly become acceptable when you lump in other people as well?
The same double standard seems to apply in many other cases. You can’t say that Jews are greedy, but you could say that humans are greedy.
Why does racism become acceptable when the race being attacked is the entire human race?
I think racism would imply a preferential treatment to those who are of the race of the racist, and ill-treatment of those who aren’t - which is just flat out unfair, when you get right down to it.
If someone hates all people, at least he hates all people equally and doesn’t hate one group of people less, completely arbitrarily, based on their race.
If it’s directed at the entire human race I think it would be described as xenism(?) whereas racism is directed at a specific subset. The issue is one of singling out a particular group based on prejudicial criteria. But you knew that you’re just pulling our leg.
The reason is that when you say that blacks are stupid, the implication is that they’re stupid, *compared with everyone else. *It’s not at all the same as saying all people are stupid, blacks are people, therefore blacks are stupid.
Yes, precisely. It’s like, when I was in high school, I came up with what I thought would be a hilarious comedy bit to open a routine with. You’d say, “black people are descended from apes!” and then a few moments later, when the murmur of the crowd dies down, say, “and so are white people! We’re ALL descended from apes!” I never actually tried this routine on anyone, but I always thought it would be funny, in a sophomoric (literally) way.
Because racism is not saying something bad about a particular race. Racism is saying something bad about a particular race specifically. Or treating someone differently based on their race (in a non-race-effected point). People aren’t offended by “All people are stupid, ergo black people are stupid” because black people *are * stupid. But no more stupid than anyone else. That’s the point you’re missing - and it’s a pretty damn impressive mistake. Well done, sir.
Bill Maher’s based a whole routine on precisely that, to some success.
Personally, I think anyone who says humanity is stupid is himself stupid and I immediately expect a torrent of ignorance clumsily disguised as comedy or commentary to follow.
In my experience, whenever somebody says that people are stupid, they make an implicit exception for themselves. And they almost always are actually implying that most people are stupid, but that there’s some elite who’s outside the stupid category. That was certainly the case for Machiavelli, who was (as far as I know) the first and most famous critic to accuse the human race of mass stupidity. Hence in most instances a general “people are stupid” argument is aimed at achieving preferential treatment for certain people and inferior treatment for others.
Of course the numbers may be different, but I don’t see why that matters. Why is saying that 1,000,000,000 people are inferior to the other 6,000,000,000 so much worse than saying that 6,999,000,000 are inferior to the other 1,000,000, or even that 6,999,999,990 are inferior to the other 10?
Because if you say ALL humans are stupid, there is no inferiority. We’re all stupid. If you say blacks are stupid, you are saying that they are particularly stupid and therefore inferior to everyone else.
Intelligence is relative. If we’re all stupid, then none of us is stupid. If you single out a race, you are making a relative judgement in comparison to everyone else.
