• Zozano@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    This has always bugged me. It's strange how labeling someone as "racist" actually works in the racists favour; you're partially validating their point by implying there's a greater biological gap than actually exists.

    Bigot works well as a replacement if this bugs you, and it's probably more accurate, people with "racist" views are more likely to be homophobic too.

    • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean, idk about other cultures/langages but it does feel weird as fuck to french speakers that English even has a concept of "race" for humans in the first place. In french we only use the word "race" for animals. If you want to refer to someone's ethnicity, well, that's the word you use ("ethnie"). Although iirc the distinction is quite recent (from the enlightenment period or something).

      And we also have the word "raciste" which refers to one's belief that there are human races, it doesn't validate that belief.

      • Zozano@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        I'm considering this from the perspective of taxonomy. Race is basically a synonym for "subspecies" which is pretty fucked up.

        • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah iirc that's also why human races aren't really a thing in french.
          Although we do use that word for animals' breeds (which are just subspecies iirc) but I guess that's just because it wouldn't really be french if there were no weird exceptions

          • Zozano@aussie.zone
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            1 year ago

            At least the French got that going for them.

            Hurry up and overthrow your government already, everyone is waiting for one of your classic revolutions.

            • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              yea yea yea we're waiting till the very last moment so it can look all theatrical and fabulous

            • Sylvartas@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Yeah unfortunately our government has been pretty much continuously giving absurd levels of power to the police and they're paving the way for the fascists to win the next elections so it's not looking too good

    • AreaSIX @lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Nah, racist is a descriptor of a viewpoint, not something that's inherently built into people because of their ethnicity. So it makes about as much sense to say that calling someone a racist is "validating their point" as saying calling someone a flat earhter somehow validates their ideas about flat earth theory. It's just a silly line of reasoning.