Rejecting the worst idea humanity ever had.
Think about yourself. Are you ordinary, just a decent albeit flawed person? You are generally kind to people, but also lost in your own worries. You aren’t a saint, but you aren’t a Bond villain either.
Well, most people are generally kind. In that respect, you are quite ordinary. Certainly you have your unique qualities, skills, habits and inclinations. But overall, you are more good than bad. So is just about everyone. You aren’t an “other “— you are just a person.
Slicing, Dicing and Adding Warning Labels
But we slice people up into groups, don’t we? We divide them, and simplify them, and label them. Some of those groups come with warnings. Oh, those illegal aliens! Or black people. Or white people. People of varying kinds of sexuality. People from other countries.
There are people like you, and then there are others. Except, those others are very much like you.
After performing this operation, this separation of people from our common humanity, we confirm our own diagnosis — that THOSE people aren’t like us. They are “other.”
That’s where stereotypes come in. That’s where confirmation bias comes in. We look for examples…
