And ‘assholes’ just appear at random? Nothing in these groups increases or decreases the asshole frequency?
Imagine if we thought of all culture that way. Forget about progressive politics changing people’s minds and thereby their behavior. “Some people are just ‘assholes’, what are you gonna do?”
Assuming the probability of assholiness based on culture is how you treat cultures unequally. You fight assholiness in the individual level. You can’t change a culture like that. You can only educate people and they will change their own culture.
Not all beliefs are equal. If you hold by a holy text that says that women can (and should) be bought and sold or are otherwise ‘lesser’ than men, or you revere an imbecilic demagogue who claims that all immigrants are rapists, murderers and gang members, then yes, the “culture” of your group will have a higher probability of any given person being an asshole than a group of randomly-selected Humanists, for example. To equivocate that all belief systems are equal from a moral perspective is deeply naive.
ETA: I am not a humanist, because I believe that there is a point at which violence is necessary and justified to protect other lives and the rights thereof.
Assuming the probability of assholiness based on culture is how you treat cultures unequally.
If you agree that bad ideas can be part of cultures (large or small) to a higher or lesser degree, it follows that some cultures have a higher frequency of people with the need for the individual ‘education’ you’re suggesting.
And ‘assholes’ just appear at random? Nothing in these groups increases or decreases the asshole frequency? Imagine if we thought of all culture that way. Forget about progressive politics changing people’s minds and thereby their behavior. “Some people are just ‘assholes’, what are you gonna do?”
Assuming the probability of assholiness based on culture is how you treat cultures unequally. You fight assholiness in the individual level. You can’t change a culture like that. You can only educate people and they will change their own culture.
Not all beliefs are equal. If you hold by a holy text that says that women can (and should) be bought and sold or are otherwise ‘lesser’ than men, or you revere an imbecilic demagogue who claims that all immigrants are rapists, murderers and gang members, then yes, the “culture” of your group will have a higher probability of any given person being an asshole than a group of randomly-selected Humanists, for example. To equivocate that all belief systems are equal from a moral perspective is deeply naive.
ETA: I am not a humanist, because I believe that there is a point at which violence is necessary and justified to protect other lives and the rights thereof.
If you agree that bad ideas can be part of cultures (large or small) to a higher or lesser degree, it follows that some cultures have a higher frequency of people with the need for the individual ‘education’ you’re suggesting.