I guess my upbringing just didn’t learn about the group-think that dominates your world-view.
I grew up south of Seattle WA in an areas of many East and SE Asians, Native Americans (we called them Indians back then), many Swedes, a few Mexicans and Blacks and a few of every other “group” you can name. But I didn’t learn to think of these as “groups” Until I came to Chicago at age 20.
To the extent we thought of “group” we saw Catholics, Main stream Protestants and Fundamentalists, Bhuddists, etc. Most East Asians were Protestant. Most Fillipinos were Catholic. As a child, I worked the farm fields where my bosses were Catholic Fillipinos and Japanese Bhuddists. So they were “more” due to proximity. Both the Japanese and Filipinos immigrated to the US in 1930s. But the Filipinos held it against the Japanese that they invaded the Fillipines after both types of immigrants had left the homeland.
All of us kids of all nationalities that worked the fields saw it as illogical and weird that people who rejected the old country were still blamed for what those in the old country did.
My Dad’s best friend was a WWII vet who lost an eye. He was a one-eyed Greyhound Bus mechanic and a very good Bus driver.
He was admired by many for that. He also happened to be a Nisqually Indian who bagged deer with both rifle and bow.
His individual achievements way overshadowed his ethnicity.
I came to Chicago at age 20 and was shocked. The Poles, Irish and Italians were in 3 distinct and separate groups. The street gangs were ethnic. The Poles clearly divided into 2 religious groups.. 1) PNA where the clergy were servants and 2) PNA where the clergy were masters.
I was active in an Alinsky neighborhood group NCO Northwest Community Organization. It was easier to bring together for common action the extreme left (YPSL, YSA and right John Birchers) than mainline Democrat Italians and Democrat Irish. The PNA Republicans (and me) were Goldwater libertarian Republicans. We were the glue that held the Democrat groups together.
I learned group-think as if Margaret Mead anthropoligist looking in from the outside. I never aceppted it. It was not only Democrat think...It was the worst kind of Democrat, the mindless obedient machine Democrat.
2013 I moved to GA. It is interesting to see the Democrats who switched parties but still have that group think and are now in the Republican Party, which also has a wing that lacks (for the most part) that group think.
Republican economic policies created many jobs in GA, as they did in other Red States. Democrat economic policies killed jobs in many northern states. So jobless Democrats who want to work and not go on welfare voted against Democrat economics and for Republican economics in moving to jobs in GA.
Enough of these Democrat immigrants are ripe for switching to the Republican party, especially and economics, but also on guns and maybe other social issues. But the GA Republicans who used to be Democrats and still have Democrat Group-think are extremely unfriendly toward these potential converts.
The result is that red GA is turning Blue. The Republican issues are on our side. But half the GA Republican party is not ready to accept them.
Two Trump backed high profile candidates Vernon Jones and Herschel Walker faced this. The Democrat media, of course, race baited the half of Republicans that retain the Group-think. So Republicans who would normally be expected to back a Trump driven candidate did not vote for the Trump candidate. They could not get over their group-think that they acquired as a kid.
I appreciate you sharing your life story, very interesting. But I have to say, I’m not sure I understand how it relates to what I said in my previous post regarding AVERAGE GENETIC differences between groups and the impact that can have on society and peaceful coexistence.
And regarding “group-think”, if you think my views and opinions come from whatever group I may identify with, you couldn’t be further from the truth. I march to the beat of my own drum. My world view is dictated by my lying eyes, life’s experience and facts. And I tend to be my own
toughest critic... I’m my own devil’s advocate. And I enjoy engaging people who have different opinions and world views, like you for example, because it tests my beliefs and whether I should change them in light of what the other person has to offer.
The only permanent groups I belong to are “humas” “caucasians” and “males’ and that’s because of genetics. I can’t change those.
Value based groups (cultures) that I identify with are conservatives, agnostics, rationalists, realists. But those groups don’t define me, in the sense that I’m a slave to them or that they dictate my beliefs. It’s the other way around - my beliefs came first, independent of those groups.
In other words my beliefs are formed by my lying eyes, life’s experience and facts and given those beliefs then an affinity for people who have the same beliefs is formed. That’s true of most people, although there are some cultures and religious traditions (islam for example) where a belief system is forced on people and they have a hard time escaping.
My particular belief that I stated at the end of my last post to you, that...
“Two groups of people who...
1. have a significant difference in AVERAGE IQ, and
2. whose members can be easily identified as belonging to one or the other group,
will never be able to live in peaceful coexistence.
(Both conditions have to exist for this to be true)’
That doesn’t come from any group that I know, it’s my observation and my formulation. I have never seen it expressed using those two conditions that must be met. If you’ve seen it anywhere else please let me know.
I came up with it a couple of years ago, and no one that I’ve told it to has been able to discredit it. I’m more convinced of its truth than ever, for all the reasons I outlined in my last post.
It’s a tragic reality, but it’s a reality, and I wish it weren’t so, but sweeping it under the rug as we’ve been doing for decades has gotten us to the racial dystopia that we find ourselves in. I have absolutely no animosity toward any race - I’m only stating realities and conclusions that derive from that.
You keep bringing example of individuals from whatever group that in your experience were great people. No one denies that there are fine and smart people as well as dumb and vicious people of any race or group, but as I pointed out it isn’t a few individuals here and there that have societal implications, but the AVERAGE, the shape of the bell curve. You’re using the exception to make the rule!
I asked you last time whether you agreed or disagreed with my specific analysis of the race problem. I didn’t see any answer.
So I invite you again to look at my previous analysis and conclusion and tell me where I’ve gone wrong. Please be specific and address each point.