Is there a way for bigotry to be declared a mental illness?

[Pushed To The Left]

I think that bigotry against ANY group is a character flaw and not a valid political opinion. I think that kids need to be taught the evils of prejudice and bigotry as early as possible, before they are exposed to or brainwashed by bigoted people. I remember watching films about the evils of racism when I was in elementary school. Imagine how effective it might be if children watched films about the evils of all prejudice and bigotry! What troubles me is that some prejudice and bigotry is seen as a legitimate political viewpoint rather than the character flaw that it is. If the right wing wants to write bigotry into the Constitution, why not write kleptomania into the Constitution as well? Maybe they could make shoplifting legal. I know it's kind of a strange example, but my point is that I'm tired of seeing character flaws like bigotry treated as though it is a valid opinion.

[Selatius]

1. This is not a good idea.

Bigotry exists in all forms, not just the kind of bigotry against other human beings. I know of one person who hates Dodges because he had several bad problems with them several years ago. Now, he looks at nothing but Fords for trucks as he necessarily prejudges everything from Dodge as not good.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Gosh I hope not.

Politicizing mental illness reminds me of the soviet union in the post stalin era. Not a good idea.

[stillcool]

3. Mental Illness gets a bad enough rap already...

and bigotry, racism...all the social ills of society are a result of that society. Cause and Effect.

[Dumak]

4. human psychology education

We rarely see the important subject of human psychology being taught in public schools. I suspect the reason is that it often portrays right-wingers as sociopaths. You will notice that right-wingers often ridicule any attempt to examine the human mind.

[hijinx87]

5. wouldn't that imply that there is a cure?

well, besides a funeral.

[Pushed To The Left]

6. I believe that it can be cured. Have you seen the movie "American History X"?

It's a very good movie. It shows how racism is learned and how it can be unlearned. It shows how a violent skinhead becomes a racist and how he ends up renouncing racism.

[Colobo]

7. It took him

To get the "special treatment" in jail to get "cured"...

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. No.

It's not a character flaw so much as it is the default position of the ignorant; people fear that which is different and strange to them. In terms of society, people fear those who are different (whether that difference is in language, skin colour, religion, or sexuality), because they perceive that difference as, in some sense, a threat. This is the root of most prejudices held by humans, and it's inextricably linked to our nature as group-oriented social primates.

[Colobo]

9. I do believe

There are people that have a real "phobia" against people that look different to them... some racists are truly mentally ill.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. Punish the ignorant? That's a really big job.

Job security is a good thing, however.

The ignorant need to be educated.

[Pushed To The Left]

11. That's what I was trying to say

I think a lot of people are misunderstanding my original post. Instead of treating bigotry as an acceptable opinion, it should be treated as a mental illness or character flaw that can be cured through education!

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. I "got" your point... What to do about those wondering what to do about us???

http://www.amazon.com/Liberalism-Mental-Disorder-Savage-Solutions/dp/1595550062

[Pushed To The Left]

13. Big difference. Savage is declaring a political philosophy a mental illness

As much as I disagree with conservatism, I would never want it to be declared a mental illness. However, bigotry is not a valid political philosophy, even though some try to treat it as such.

[ngant17]

14. anthropology: basal imprinting and mental templates, and Florida


From my friend, Dr. Jason Smith, PhD. Anthropology:

"There is a universal basal imprinting of all people, regardless of class, in a given sociocultural "epoch" in the ideological template of that Epoch or Period."

"People are not born with a blank slate for long. Imprinting begins with birth and proceeds rapidly apace so that by the time a child is a few years old it is well set in."

"This mental template or imprinting 'colors' the way people behave in the most profound underlying causal way."

"The mode of production (the relationship between technology and social organization) of any society will determine the type of ideology that can occur (the kind of idea system that is possible.) Within Servitude Epoch societies, the primary mental template will always have two poles as opposite sides on a broad-spectrum in sociocultural evolution, we have a primary mental template also existing as a spectrum with two opposite poles: one (left) side is simple selfishness/self-centeredness, and on the other (right side, outright sadism."

--------------------------------------

Racism can appear within the mental template of selfishness. Racism or bigotry is a small part of the bigger picture.

I am concentrating on these theories as it might apply to the social or cultural conditions in the state of Florida. Here, in Florida, I believe the strong template of selfishness and sadism and also racism has been entrenched since at least the days Confederacy and the Civil War. It was perhaps attenuated or amplified from the slavery days of the South. I say this because, before the Civil War, the territory of Florida was the scene of a serious of violent and bloody conflicts known as the Seminole Wars. Where sadism and racism was the norm of the day rather than the exception. Note that the Seminole Wars were also conducted against escaped slaves. Because slaves who could reach Spanish Florida were essentially free. Some intermarried with the Indians and formed tribes of Black Seminoles.

The First Seminole War was from 1817 to 1818; the Second Seminole War from 1835 to 1842; and the Third Seminole War from 1855 to 1858. The Second Seminole War was the most expensive Indian war fought by the United States, and lasted longer than any war involving the United States between the American Revolution and the Vietnam War. The Seminole Wars lasted a cumulative of 11 years, which is comparable with the Viet Nam conflict (1964-1975). Also, the word “search and destroy” was applied here in these wars long before it became a popular military slogan in Viet Nam.

The whole point is that I can note a culture of racism, sadism and violence becoming ingrained into the Southern state of Florida. Many years before the Civil War and the KKK terror became rooted here! And this "mental template" is largely still in existence today. In the redneck police, in the small-town, good old boy ‘cracker mafia’ networks, the corrupted local governments. This is the historical Florida that the tourist brochures never advertise. It hides behind the signs of Disney World!

But to specifically address your point, I don't believe that in this context you can or should classify racism as a 'mental sickness' per se. I believe the best way to understand it is thru anthropology and studying the evolution of human societies, which BTW Karl Marx and Fredrerick Engels did very well over a century ago.