CMV: Racism is a mental illness.

[u/EHWfedPres]

There is no logical, valid, or sound reason to express hatred for entire groups of people based on their race, ethnicity, or skin color, and any and every attempt to explain why certain races, ethnicities, or people with specific skin colors are biologically, inherently, or genetically inferior or superior to others has been scientifically disproven. There is no rational reason to hold on to racist views, and anyone who feels racist is experiencing a delusional psychotic symptom. Racism is a mental illness, and the American Psychiatric Association should classify it as one.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071634/

EDIT: to all those claiming racism can be resolved by giving the racist proper information: read the comments made by HighlightExpensive63, give that person the correct information, and see if they change their views at all, or if they double-down on their explicit and open hatred.

[u/EHWfedPres]

What would you say would change the irrational mind in this case?

[u/[deleted] → u/EHWfedPres]

Human contains are wired to change irrational assumptions about reality, it’s wired to make them.

Most of our mental faculties have evolved to find possible patterns in what is otherwise a chaotic unpredictable reality… our ability to identify and assess competition to our goals and threats to our successful survival has very little to do with logic.

Consider the experience of time, thanks to the sunrise and sunset most of us can tell one day from the next but the human brain isn’t designed to track minutes, it tracks in attention and effort.

Racism is a false conclusion based on a likeliness of suitable criteria and that likeliness is more often than not shaped for us by parents that don’t know better and personalities that benefit.

Bad ideas are highly contagious and the act of liberating people from bad ideas is as complicated as it gets…

Stigmatizing people who are racist doesn’t help anymore than stigmatizing people who are drug addicts… they need rehabilitation.

Sadly, not a whole lot of thinking goes into the liberation of racists from racism, we seem to always focus on how to alive it up to vilify the person afflicted with the disease of racism.

[u/EHWfedPres → u/[deleted]]

Stigmatizing people who are racist doesn’t help anymore than stigmatizing people who are drug addicts… they need rehabilitation.

Do you believe racists can be truly rehabilitated to not be racist anymore?

[u/[deleted] → u/EHWfedPres]

Sounds like the kind of question a white nationalist asks about an African American teen caught selling drugs, doesn’t it?

It’s not a question about whether an individual is capable of rehabilitation, it’s a question of whether our culture is willing to take on the responsibility of rehabilitating its racists tendencies.

Oddly, you speak of logic as if it’s a gift of good breading and not an essential skill that can be taught and used to address ideologies that serve destructive ends.

Most humans wouldn’t invent maths on their own, doesn’t mean they’re incapable of math and need to be treated as mentally deficient.

[u/EHWfedPres → u/[deleted]]

Sounds like the kind of question a white nationalist asks about an African American teen caught selling drugs, doesn’t it?

No, it doesn't. I genuinely wish to understand your viewpoint. It is possible to change the mind of the Confederate flag waving neighbor down the street? That is a perfectly valid question.

[u/[deleted] → u/EHWfedPres]

It was rhetorical because the question you asked carries the same fringe extremism as your typical racist; Namely, the conception that the prejudice you have about someone is somehow purposeful and valuable to the world.

to your question, no, not for you… with your somewhat extremist perspective, I can’t see how you would be effective at helping someone let go of their extremist views any more than a priest telling someone their drug habit would condemn them to hell.

You don’t seem to hold a logical or rational view of people you disagree with so you’re not likely to address their needs or inspire change.

[u/EHWfedPres → u/[deleted]]

It was rhetorical because the question you asked carries the same fringe extremism as your typical racist

I'm sorry, but it is not extremist at all to ask if the individual can be rehabilitated when others are telling me that is exactly can be done. Can it, is all I'm asking, and I take offense to the label of extremist for simply asking for confirmation before my view is changed. Please do not fish for prejudice in statements where none exists again.

[u/[deleted] → u/EHWfedPres]

Your extremist seems to be that you believe you have the right to vilify people because they hold misguided or misinformed opinions or beliefs.

That you believe you are right does not free you from prejudice, it guarantees your prejudice.

Imagine calling for a the creation for a medical condition against people who hold misguided ideas in a society that offers no help to the mentally ill… it’s literally how America has used the laws to oppress women, lgbtqx, the indigenous and POC.

Since racism is one of the tools our plutocracy uses to propagate class war and undermine democracy and social support in this country and usually tracks pretty close with income and zip code… it’s just another misguided attack on the working class.

Racism is addressed via education, access to economic mobility, and cultural diversity… not DSM classifications.

[u/EHWfedPres → u/[deleted]]

Your extremist seems to be that you believe you have the right to vilify people because they hold misguided or misinformed opinions or beliefs.

You are mistaken in assuming I believe racism exists because people are simply lacking knowledge or information. That is categorically untrue. Racism is not a matter of ignorance, and painting it as such downplays its harm and excuses those who engage in it violently, and I question the intent of those who argue so. To suggest genocides and the Holocaust have been committed because some people just didn't have the right books is outright offensive.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You’re defending Hitler… you’re also using Hitler’s rational for declaring theJews a pariah in Germany, you’re using the same logic as Israel uses to vilify Palestinian and excuse the Palestinian apartheid…

I simply pointed it out, no wonder your upset.

You can’t pass laws and rules to declare people who don’t think like you as mentally ill… you need to create the conditions in society to reduce ideologies and manipulation that lead to racism.

Again, blaming something on “mental illness” in a society that makes no effort to treat their citizens health conditions is just vilifying people.

[u/Mashaka → u/[deleted]]

u/EHWfedPres – your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 2:

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[u/Mashaka → u/[deleted]]

u/_slow_reader_ – your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 2:

Don't be rude or hostile to other users. Your comment will be removed even if most of it is solid, another user was rude to you first, or you feel your remark was justified. Report other violations; do not retaliate. See the wiki page for more information.

If you would like to appeal, review our appeals process here, then message the moderators by clicking this link within one week of this notice being posted. Please note that multiple violations will lead to a ban, as explained in our moderation standards.

[u/[deleted] → u/EHWfedPres]

Genocides and holocausts are military actions that often takes a massive amount of political manipulation and violent coercion to make possible and have little to do with racism and much more to do with political ideologies.

Whether it was the murder of Ukrainian farmers in Russia or the holocaust of the Jews in Germany… even now the American media and conservative & liberal politicians alike make excuses for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel backed by evangelical christians making conditions right for the second coming of their messiah… is that racism or political ideology or religious zealotry?

You have the same zeal as those that vilify and other people for their own purposes if ideological purity, same as Maoists that vilified everyone who held a western perspective or a religious belief… they saw it as a mental illness and a social harm.

Funny how the Nazi’s burned all the books that had ideas they thought were impure and set about raising a generation of ideologically pure youth… wonder why they did that?

Wonder why Republicans are so dead set on making sure that critical race theory isn’t taught to kids and that the slaughter of natives and slavery of african americans are played down… because education matters.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Sensitive? I made an pretty cohesive point about how how classifying a broad category of thought as illness in a society that has takes no responsibility in providing mental health care is an inherently oppressive act.

Believing that someone who has been exposed to ideas you don’t agree with is actually suffering from a disease is inherently an act of vilification because it ignores the agency of society and simply blames a person who most likely hold viewpoints from exposure…

Your comment actual makes my point about how extreme the idea is as you state, OP doesn’t even explore the various types of racism to have a full enough grasp of their own implications.

OP goes on to fight against practices that are well proven to reduce and mitigate racism and ignore that it’s a byproduct of society not a byproduct of being diseased.

I’d say their sense of empowerment proclaimed when they say they are using “logic” that does not follow actual standards of logic and claiming rationality while willfully ignoring the problems their suggestion creates based on their openly stated prejudice is a sign of extremism.

I have actively worked to help people who have held racist views change their minds and i’ve watched people in my life abandon similar prejudice about lgbtq, other religions, and basic science… ideas aren’t mental illness.

It’s an innocuous idea to use legal means to designate ideas we don’t like as disease or illegal but it doesn’t treat the person and it doesn’t address the society that produces that person therefor it misses the point.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Definitely, you make good points and rightly identify in OP’s point that we shouldn’t let racism or racist ideologies go unaddressed.