One of the fascinating aspects of the denial of privilege is the pirouettes one must turn in order to square the denial with observed fact.
“Black people have just as many opportunities as white people!”
“Well, here’s an assload of evidence that suggests that’s not true”
“…culture of poverty! Single moms! Phrenology!”
This is the reason why I think race is a perfect subject for the skeptical movement, because we can point to the evidence and say “here’s a whole bunch of problems, and the excuses offered for them are based on stereotypes rather than facts”. This is what we do when it comes to homeopathy, UFOs, gods, whatever you like. We find ways to take human inference out of the equation, and then figure out what the truth looks like regardless of what beliefs you had before you asked the questions.
The hubris of those who discover that Obama didn’t raise their taxes, or that FOX News isn’t “fair and balanced”, or that outlawing contraception causes more abortions, is always highly amusing to watch. Well, sometimes amusing, other times depressing as they manage to find smaller and smaller loopholes of post hoc reasoning to justify the rapidly-disappearing credibility of their arguments (“he’s a secret socialist! You just wait!” “Scientists and media observers are all liberals!” “the devil lives in the uterus!”). At any rate, it’s never boring.
What’s even more amusing is when the myths of the obsessed are punctured at their own hands: … Continue Reading
