Pentomino
User
Karma: 12
|
Re:02-05-08, 'Disagreeing Doesn't Make You Evil' discussion - 2008/02/07 13:31
If you try to shoot the President because he's black, you might be a redneck. [/obvious]
I think Penn's complaint is the result of a misunderstanding that he should be very familiar with by now as a skeptic: human language isn't well equipped to handle statistics, even in those rare cases where human thought itself can base a decision or prediction on it the right w3ay. And based on his second-hand report of the conversation, I can't really say whether any of them had the right idea.
To stereotype whites as racist is certainly wrong, but it's unlikely that the people backstage were saying that specifically. Rather, there are people in this country who are still viciously racist, perhaps even militantly so, and who would base their motivation on that racism alone. That's something none of the other candidates have to contend with.
But I doubt it will result in effective physical danger. Rather, we're most likely to see lots of protest signs and maybe some image macros on 4chan. If anything more serious happens, it'll be something more subtle or unexpected. Something political.
|
