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Racist abuse: report or not?

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    #32
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,122 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Denerick wrote: »
    That is a classic case of reductio ad absurdium. You don't intervene on behalf of someone without their consent. If someone is getting raped, mugged or assaulted and you are in a position to help them (Without risking your own life of course - there isn't much point being a hero and ending up in the 7th page of the metro herald on a wet tuesday morning for your troubles) then it would be immoral not to do so. However if someone suffers racial abuse then what right does anybody have to drag that person through a court minefield? The person who scrolled down the window and used the 'N' word was an abomination of the human species and should suffer the full weight of social opprobrium for his behaviour... but unless the victim asks and wants justice, you really have no business butting in. Its quite paternalistic and inversely racist to assume you have a right to do so in the first place.

    Hm, pity you got in first with the Latin, because I would say that is a perfect description of what you have just written yourself! And how is anyone going to impose social opprobrium if the only person aware of what he did is the recipient (and the OP)?


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    #33
    slowburner
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭slowburner


    Permabear wrote: »
    This post had been deleted.
    A refreshing if controversial point of view.
    Avoiding Godwin's law is going to be a challenge.
    As children, we were taught that 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.'
    - Is this true? Probably not.
    Of course physical crimes against the person are more serious than verbal ones such as libel, slander, racial abuse or incitement.
    But in a pluralist society it is essential to isolate and deal with the causes of crimes against minorities.

    I don't believe that anyone can distinguish between racial abuse and incitement to action. One follows the other.

    If you want to isolate a group, the first thing you do is dehumanize them.
    The first step in the process of dehumanization is to give that group a name which renders that tribe separate from your tribe.
    This is the same phenomenon observed in states of war where the enemy is given a dehumanized name (hun, gook, raghead etc.) so that killing them absolves the killer of responsibility.
    The enemy is named as an object rather than a person.
    If the pejorative naming of a group or minority is tolerated - online or anywhere else - the first step in the process of dehumanization has occurred.
    If tolerance for dehumanization is published, there is no difference between that and incitement to action.


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