If this blog were to make it a point to cater to conservative pov’s it would draw very narrow boundaries around the conversation, silencing the voices of those who are already silenced in the mainstream conversation, keeping the conversation from building and growing where it should, in the name of justice, go, in favor of conforming to the pre-determined shape dictated by that mainstream.

Thank God this place exists and puts a concerted effort into building an unapologetically progressive space, giving voice to people and ideas that are only ever brought into the mainstream as butts of a joke. I wouldn’t be here if it were any other way.

I think much of the original article makes an annoying mistake of conflating democracy and capitalism and them opposing them to authoritarian communism (and socialism). Democracy is not inherently individualist, or is it necessarily capitalist. As as queendom noted, all of these things are historically intermingled–here in the U.S. we have “socialist” policies like Medicare! Minimum Wage! Environmental protection laws! There’s all sorts of interrelationships between the ideas that motivate different political and economic systems, and between the systems themselves.

But in this case I definitely think all sorts of complexities were glossed over with stereotypes about the Chinese being projected in the Parker piece, and ones that have been reiterated a lot in the past few months.

The idea that the Chinese are presented as homogenous is not surprising, it’s an unfortunate but expected effect of stereotyping known as the “outgroup homogeneity effect”, whereby perceivers assume that there is a greater similarity among members of outgroups than among members of one’s own group. In other words, there may be fine and subtle differences among “us” but “they” are all alike. Outgroup homogeneity effects are common and evident around the world. (This does not, of course, justify their use.)

Of course, motivational factors can affect this homogenous perception, such as when one’s own group is under threat (or a perceived threat) one would become more likely to see their ingroup as relatively homogenous – particularly when they see that their group’s *status* is under threat.

I’m no social analyst (in fact, I’m quoting from a textbook that I got from the dump, LOL) but I see that effect occurring here in this discussion, no?

Since I’m plagiarising, might as well carry on, – there are two reasons (and finding the reasons is the critical factor here to me as Jazzy said, it is bizarre that this homogenous idea is formulated.)

First, we often do not notice subtle differences among outgroups because we have little personal contact with them. (hence, the gunpowder and fireworks comments which was true for me too, BTW)

Secondly, is that people often do not encounter a representative sample of outgroup members.

Now I can’t remember what conclusion I was going to draw…perhaps it’s self-evident or I will remember once I post, argh. Anyway, the knowledge of these effects often helps me deactivate my own misconceptions and probe that little bit further. (is that blowing wind up my own arse? I don’t mean it that way but I don’t know how to say it with a little more humility.)

Which becomes even more ridiculous when you remember that China contains one-sixth of the population of the entire world. Collectivism or not, there is no way one billion people are going to think the same way about anything. And there’s the fact that not everyone in China even speaks the same language. The idea that the Chinese are all the same is bizarrely mind-boggling and you wonder if the people who think this way have spent even five minutes learning anything about China that didn’t involve gunpowder and fireworks. (Which was pretty much the only thing my public school education covered, so it would not surprise me if they didn’t.)

All this balderdash about Oppressive Regimes re: the little girls singing at the opening ceremony did not even come close to occurring to me. I think the entirety of my thought process was “Oh my god, that’s so sad! When they both grow up and realize…” And one of my friends said she’d rather be the pretty one than the one who could sing, and I thought about sexism and shook my head. Seriously, you have to work hard to come up with “analysis” like that.

I guess the takeaway point for me is that no matter how valid your point is, it is never acceptable to make it on the backs of or at the expense of others. Also, I never say “it couldn’t happen here.” Because that’s what I would have said about torture, too. Sigh.