Why is Misanthropy ok but racism taboo?

[ToMegaTherion]

Misanthropy is the general hatred a person has for humanity in general. That person is, more or less, human. Therefore, the hatred they feel is in some way a form of self-loathing.

The instinctive reaction for such a person tends more towards pity rather than reactionary scorn.

As a misanthrope myself I concur.

 

[Haratu]

Misanthropes are generally permitted becasue all the major religions believe humans are imperfect and need to strive for better. Basically religions say humans are cursed and pathetic. How they get out of this pathetic existence and make the world better is up to the religion.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

As a misanthrope, I find this thread quite racist against my people. Not that I give a fuck about other misanthopes of course.

What'cha gona do now eh?

 

[Samuel Goodall]

Alright nothing that hasn't been said at least twelve times but eloquence is always the issue. Racists are picking on a specific group which is a bigger no-no then being a general mongrel. All proper misanthropes aren't as likely to do some drastic like murder someone because we place others on the same level as us and don't want to sink down to the level of the humanity we hate.

Misanthropy can be hipster and fake at times. Proper misanthropy is not caused by self failure, but by seeing people everywhere make the same stupid mistakes again and again. People on the whole are idiots, rarely showing forethought or thinking the entire thing through in 99% of situations if that. When the first thing I see every morning is war, destruction and pop culture I have at least some reason to despise the species that creates it.

Pop culture bores me for reasons that it gets stuck ahead of new such as 1000 killed in an earthquake because some celebrities baby looks like it has put on a kilo.

 

[AT God]

As a misanthrope, I think about this a lot, and my conclusion is that misanthropy is not as irrational. Racism is more irrational because despite having a different culture or appearance, any differences between races is so negligible that it is absurd to hate one race and not all of them. Misanthropy is more logical in that it is a hate/disdain for humans in general, which can be considered rational from a human psychological standpoint.

 

[zombieshark6666]

Everybody knows that humans are disgusting crass, it's just that the misanthropes suffer more from it because they care more. Might just be general empathy towards them.

Racists are lazy, hating just one group and all. They're just bums.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Misanthropes don't discriminate. Also, it's usually a psychological condition arising from not getting laid.

 

[RobCoxxy]

Because hating everyone/everything isn't racist.

 

[RagTagBand]

Misanthropy is an equal opportunities system of loathing.

Also, Sarcastic-tard high 5 for everyone in this thread confusing "Misanthropes" for "Socio/psychopaths" and thinking any true misanthrope must either be suicidal or a murderer. Hats off, seriously, it takes effort to be that stupid.

 

[chadachada123]

Because people are more concerned about equality than they are with... well most anything else, actually. At least that's the way it is in America.

na, we Americans just pretend that "we don't see color", I think America is probably just secretly racist now.

It's not really that secret, it's just that everyone's distracted by the rampant islamophobia and heterosexism.

Well the Islam reaction comes with war, just like anti-German/Japanese feelings back in the 1940's. Heterosexism? wtf? Last I checked, most people tell me I'm not supposed to say, "that's so gay".

Bullshit. We're not "at war" with Islam or the majority of Islamic culture. We're not even in a state of war with a tiny fraction of Muslims, as opposed to being at war with the entire country of Germany, that is, most of German culture, and Japan, or all of Japanese culture.

False equivalency is false.

(I do believe that that poster was referring to the pro-hetereosexual/anti-homosexual attitude in much of the US today, regarding the second part. Not everywhere in the US is as civilized as, say, a college campus; there's still tons of people that think that gay people should have fewer rights than straights by virtue of having an uncontrollable personality trait alone).

ok I'm going to take the bait and state that homosexuality is not a "personality trait". Its either a choice or a genetic trait.

I would say that it is most certainly not a choice, and can be shown as such with a simple "could you choose to be attracted to someone?" Among other arguments, it's not something that someone decides, like not deciding that you're interested in redheads or shy girls or what-have-you.

Regarding the second, though, I must also disagree. [link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_birth_order_and_male_sexual_orientation[/link] There is a correlation between a person's sexuality and how many older brothers they have. Genetics *alone* could not explain this, though the mother's hormones could. The thought being that, from a evolutionary standpoint, having many straight sons has diminishing returns, whereas having some gay sons increases the survivability of the daughters' children [link]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691850/[/link]. That is, women with gay brothers are more likely to have children and for those children to be better-raised, etc. So, while we have a biological reason for homosexual inclination in terms of genetics, it simply cannot be genes alone, but a combination of genetic predisposition (presumably to a varying degree in ALL humans) AND both early upbringing and hormonal changes from the mother during pregnancy. A good way to look at it is a set of twin, with one twin liking shy girls but the other outgoing girls, despite having the same genes, or, really, a set of twins with one being gay but the other straight.

Were it purely genetic, we'd see the children of lesbian/gay couples (with at least one biological parent being gay) statistically far more likely to be gay, when that isn't the case. This kind of explanation also excludes bisexual people (for the sake of simplicity, I'll leave out gender identity, a very separate issue).

 

[ramboondiea]

pretty much everyone goes through a stage or two of misanthropy. where as people dont generally slip in and out of racism. atleast thats my reasoning

 

[Substitute Troll]

Because we don't like stupid people, and anyone who is a racist is stupid. No matter their IQ level or how well they did in math.

Misanthropes on the other hand, don't have to be stupid to hate everyone.

 

[Chefodeath]

(...) Even at his worst, the general misanthrope is received better than a racist.

Why is this? Shouldn't it logically follow that misanthropes are worse people than racists if they do the racist's job and then some?

I've been delivering my fair share of loathing and hatred and racism wrapped in misanthropy for at least twenty years and counting now. It works like a charm. If you find yourself being openly racist, it's just no fun most of the time. Due to media attention and the doctored spin of post-WWII Stalin good, Hitler bad (even though they were both genocidal maniacs and then some), people are quite unreasonable and randomly selective in their perceptions.

If, however, you go full misanthrope, people are much less likely to feel offended, maybe because they've been conditioned by cartoons and comedians. If I openly vomit my misanthropy out in very clear words, I don't get sued or threatened or beaten up, people cheer and want to help me by calming me down with free sex and wine-infused discussions on Nietzsche.

Become a misanthrope, it makes life amongst humans so much more rewarding. Plus, you can call them sheep and ride them, too. If you meet a wolf, call him wolf and maybe you can ride him, too.

Why is that, you ask? Well, the misanthrope does not discriminate. The concept of misanthropy is easy to grasp and hard to master. Of course, it should only serve as a front because open philantropy will get you mugged and raped in the eye-socket in no time.

Great if you're willing to be a living self-contradiction.

 

[Hoplon]

I think this has been answered about 50 times already but: it's all about prejudice and discrimination.

A racist is saying that, based on arbitrary surface features, some humans are superior to others, and others are by implication sub-human.

A misanthrope should dislike all humans equally, and usually comes across as a curmudgeonly grump. This is because in practice a misanthrope is either a serial-killer, or they're putting it on and being hyperbolic.

That's right, because if you hate something you immediately murder it...

your meds need adjusting. Misanthropy is "generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature" at what point does that make you a serial killer? Suicidal maybe.

And you wonder why some people are misanthropes.

Great if you're willing to be a living self-contradiction.

You know a lot of people that aren't? "don't hurt a dog" "mmm steak" is a common example.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Because people are more concerned about equality than they are with... well most anything else, actually. At least that's the way it is in America.

na, we Americans just pretend that "we don't see color", I think America is probably just secretly racist now.

It's not really that secret, it's just that everyone's distracted by the rampant islamophobia and heterosexism.

Well the Islam reaction comes with war, just like anti-German/Japanese feelings back in the 1940's. Heterosexism? wtf? Last I checked, most people tell me I'm not supposed to say, "that's so gay".

Bullshit. We're not "at war" with Islam or the majority of Islamic culture. We're not even in a state of war with a tiny fraction of Muslims, as opposed to being at war with the entire country of Germany, that is, most of German culture, and Japan, or all of Japanese culture.

False equivalency is false.

(I do believe that that poster was referring to the pro-hetereosexual/anti-homosexual attitude in much of the US today, regarding the second part. Not everywhere in the US is as civilized as, say, a college campus; there's still tons of people that think that gay people should have fewer rights than straights by virtue of having an uncontrollable personality trait alone).

ok I'm going to take the bait and state that homosexuality is not a "personality trait". Its either a choice or a genetic trait.

I would say that it is most certainly not a choice, and can be shown as such with a simple "could you choose to be attracted to someone?" Among other arguments, it's not something that someone decides, like not deciding that you're interested in redheads or shy girls or what-have-you.

Regarding the second, though, I must also disagree. [link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraternal_birth_order_and_male_sexual_orientation[/link] There is a correlation between a person's sexuality and how many older brothers they have. Genetics *alone* could not explain this, though the mother's hormones could. The thought being that, from a evolutionary standpoint, having many straight sons has diminishing returns, whereas having some gay sons increases the survivability of the daughters' children [link]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691850/[/link]. That is, women with gay brothers are more likely to have children and for those children to be better-raised, etc. So, while we have a biological reason for homosexual inclination in terms of genetics, it simply cannot be genes alone, but a combination of genetic predisposition (presumably to a varying degree in ALL humans) AND both early upbringing and hormonal changes from the mother during pregnancy. A good way to look at it is a set of twin, with one twin liking shy girls but the other outgoing girls, despite having the same genes, or, really, a set of twins with one being gay but the other straight.

Were it purely genetic, we'd see the children of lesbian/gay couples (with at least one biological parent being gay) statistically far more likely to be gay, when that isn't the case. This kind of explanation also excludes bisexual people (for the sake of simplicity, I'll leave out gender identity, a very separate issue).

and from what I take from what you said makes it sound like its a combination of genetics AND environment. However, it is NOT a "personality trait".

 

[CrazyGirl17]

...I'm somewhat of a misanthrope who hates racists, so what does that make me?

 

[chadachada123]

snip

and from what I take from what you said makes it sound like its a combination of genetics AND environment. However, it is NOT a "personality trait".

I don't really draw a distinction between a characteristic that you have based on genetics/environment and a personality trait (let's say shyness).

I feel like this will just devolve into arguing semantics on definitions...

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

snip

and from what I take from what you said makes it sound like its a combination of genetics AND environment. However, it is NOT a "personality trait".

I don't really draw a distinction between a characteristic that you have based on genetics/environment and a personality trait (let's say shyness).

I feel like this will just devolve into arguing semantics on definitions...

it will, so agree to disagree

 

[GraveeKing]

-Ultimate snip of ultimate furry justice!-
I'm a Brit and this place seems to have a really good attitude towards homosexuality for the most-part :3 It's more of an issue in America though where religion has a say in the law.

I agree that's it's wrong for certain prejudices to be one-sided, that's another issue that needs to be tackled. These days female>male and black>white prejudice is more common than male>female and white>black, almost like we're trying too hard to appease people who were discriminated against in the past.

That's exactly right, we're too short sighted to look at the present where REAL discrimination is happening, I mean hell a man can't even sit next to a child that isn't his on a plane anymore - because OBVIOUSLY every man would be a pedophile and every women wouldn't be!

It's insane, and I don't think it's to do with religion - it's to do with IDIOTS having a say in the law, being fair it does prove political freedom is going it's job, if the laws were all intelligent who would speak for the idiots? No one! Then natural selection would kill them all off and the world would be a better place... we can't have that though can we?

Aaaaaaaanyways, point is - I think everyone has lost faith in something to do with humanity, that feeling of 'I don't want to live on this planet anymore' that just make you think everyone else is stupid but you (and very few selected others), henceforth why Misanthropy is OK! It's simply accepting that most of the people in the world are dumb-asses.
Hey, I got back on topic eventually didn't I?

 

[AD-Stu]

It's because misanthropy isn't discriminatory - if you hate everyone then nobody gets left out. Plus the average misanthrope's justification for his/her position is typically a lot more logical than the average racist's.

so by that logic, if a person was racist (or hateful to a particular ethnic group) because of a logic reason, it would be ok? How about old Chinese people who lived in Nanjing their whole life and had the Rape of Nanjing inflicted upon that persons sister, mother and grandmother? Would it be ok for them to hate Japanese people because of the traumatic experience that happened?

Obviously not, because it's simply not logical to hate all Japanese people based on the actions of a few Japanese people.

IMO there is no logical justification for racism. Misanthropy is at least a grey area in that regard.