You can remove one kind of prejudice from the human psyche, what one do you annihilate?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Inspired by the recent anti gay marriage march in France, where the Catholics, Muslims and the extreme right “Front National” walked shoulder too shoulder.

Say you could remove one but only one prejudice from the human psyche, but that by removing it the others would become stronger…

For instance by removing sexism suddenly laws get passed outlawing mixed race marriages, inter religious violence increases and gay sex becoming illegal….etc

does your background affect your choice?
I’m a white athiest hetrosexual male in a non religious country…so I come up on top in most options…

2

I chose racism, since I guessed that this would cover a larger number of individuals than the other choices.

3

None of them are good, or deserve to get any stronger, so I think I have to dip out.

4

If you took out xenophobia, that would probably have some effect on racism, religious bigotry, and other -isms. We fear and hate that which we perceive as foreign to us. It is the root of many prejudices.

5

Based on the title of the thread, I was going to vote for sexism. I figured that if femininity wasn’t seen as inherently shameful and gender roles weren’t so strictly defined, that would wipe out a lot of homophobia as well - two for one! Plus, I’m currently reading a book about gender inequality in the modern world and it’s making me stabby.

But then I read the OP, and now my vote is a firm “I’m not meddling”. I’m a religious queer woman in an interracial relationship, so choosing to remove any of the prejudices listed at the cost of increasing the others would make my life a whole lot worse.

6

Sexism wins it for me since it would hopefully make things better for everyone, since we all have to interact with the other sex on a regular basis.

My answer would change depending on how bad the others got. I would take current sexism on steroids (men go back to the mines, women back to the kitchen) over lynchings and Inquisitions.

Actually, on second thought, I wish I had voted for not meddle since unintended consequences are too big of a risk.

7

I was going to go religious intolerance, because it’s the one that doesn’t seem to be getting any better after thousands of years, until I saw your caveat that it makes the others stronger. In that case, don’t meddle and get rid of them the old fashioned, slow way.

8

The “remove one and others get worse” makes it almost too silly to consider. For me my first choice was religious intolerance because my immediate thought was that the most and worst suffering worldwide could be removed with religious tolerance. But on a second thought, I’d say sexism would actually rank higher because a lot of the worst and most egregious religious intolerance is really just a type of sexism and probably wouldn’t go away with religious tolerance.

9

This – My vote is for “Other: Xenophobia, AKA ‘all of the above’”

10

I wouldn’t do it if all the others get stronger. If I could pick one to get stronger, I’d do it in a second.

11

Sexism. Women have been abused, exploited, oppressed, debased, and subjugated since the beginning of human history. Gender discrimination and segregation is not only completely legal, but also completely completely acceptable in every society.

12

Anger. That covers a lot.

13

Gender would be my choice from the not listed. I think that a lot of nations would be in much better shape if the considered women to be equals.

ETA - I am an idiot or blind. I didn’t see sexism.

d’oh!

14

I chose homophobia for the same reason.

15

I would say gender, I admit to having some homophobe issues internalized that I realize are wrong and would never act on. I also have some built in predjudices regarding men and women. Race issues are overblown and not as prevalent as many would like us to believe. Many cultural or even geographic issues are confused with racism.