Please elaborate. I’m more of the view that most humans are born as a blank slate and their upbringing shapes who they are as people.
Please elaborate. I’m more of the view that most humans are born as a blank slate and their upbringing shapes who they are as people.
atro_city@fedia.io 1 day ago
Kids don't understand the idea of "others" until a certain age. They don't understand that others are also individuals with their own lives, feelings, pain, etc. They will hurt each other and even kill each other (siblings drowning other siblings, pushing them down the stairs, etc.) if left unsupervised. They have to be guided for a long time before they aren't dangers to themselves and others.
And it doesn't stop there. Every class in a public school, everywhere has at least one bully and hanger-ons. And the longer you're on this planet, the less people you find out you can trust.
defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Kids understand what they’re taught. No baby is born racist, but instead, their parents teach that “the other” is dangerous/untrustworthy/“less than”/etc.
Without empathy, humans would not have formed societies. Humans being more social than neanderthals is what made humans “win”, and why neanderthals no longer exist (not counting interbreeding, since there is no modern being that exists that is considered to be a neanderthal). Sociopathy is considered a disorder for a reason, because it is considered to be out of the norm.
Bullies are, very often, if not most of the time, abused at home, or otherwise have a rough home life. That would also fall under the " nurture over nature" category.
atro_city@fedia.io 1 day ago
If racism weren't by nature, then it would only happen in some societies or groups, but it happens in all of them.
Empathy doesn't preclude evil.
defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I don’t think that premise is sound. Humans evolved from a central location and then spread out from there. There have been humans from back then who have taught their children to be scared of the other.
Nowadays, we see racism/sexism/religion/etc. as tools used by the elite to divide us so that the masses don’t turn against them. It isn’t so hard to believe that at the dawn of civilization, similar ideas spread.
Back in the hunter gatherer days, before civilization, it isn’t so difficult to believe that humans were equally scared of any stranger who they were not already familiar with, regardless of race.