Mr. Premise said:
...People can take the IAT test here https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
I took the sexual orientation test. No surprise, my data suggest a strong automatic preference for gay men. That's definitely automatic, as consciously I worry about being seen with obviously gay men in case I get 'outed'. What did surprise me is that only 3% of respondents had that result. I'm in a minority! Being a white male in the UK, I don't normally think of myself as part of a minority.
Next I took the skin tone test. My data suggest a slight automatic preference for light skin compared to dark skin. That result is interesting although really I knew it already. A large number of black people have moved into my neighbourhood in the past 10 years or so and to be honest I sometimes feel like an outsider now. I sometimes find myself thinking: what are you doing in my town/country? But then I consider how the Indians or the Africans must have felt in the days of the British Empire with the arrogant whites taking over and lording it over them.
H-KQGE said:
I do not like using the word "race" to describe other members of THE HUMAN RACE. I was taught in school that there is a race called humans - which is species-specific instead of calling ourselves "the human species" (except for maybe science literature) so separating us from animals in the description colloquially. So why the heck are different tribes or groups called race? (and i'm not asking a rhetorical question either)
I think you have a good point here. Normal humans are part of the human race. If I fill in the statistics part of a questionnaire I always put 'human being' when asked for my race. However there is also the 'other race'. Only 6% of the population of the planet are members of the 'other race' yet they control just about everything. I'm referring of course to psychopaths. And they have been practicing 'divide and conquer' on normal humans for so long that Mr & Mrs Average take the world we live in as normal for human beings, with its endless wars and violence and reality TV. It is a normal world for psychopaths, but remove them from the equation and the world could be a very different place indeed. I think that one should make the distinction between members of the human race and our intra-species predator - the psychopath - that looks human only on the outside and often wears a suit and tie.
H-KQGE said:
I remember in school the pseudo-homophobia . . .
Can you put yourself in the shoes of the boy you helped chase out of the school? Feel his fear as he was chased by a mob? Did you all even know if he was actually gay? Whether its pseudo-homophobia or real homophobia, the end result is the same. I note that you were not on the receiving end of it, but were part of the 'delivery system'. I put that in quotes because I do agree with your statement that mob mentality applies to groups of young males in school.
It's worth remembering that there is a wide variation in levels of sensitivity in the human nervous system resulting in different arousal thresholds. Meaning that what one person can brush off without a care can be traumatising for another. I got the impression that maybe you had not taken that into account when writing your post. My impression is that the subtext of your words about pseudo-homophobia was: OK it happened so get over it and move on, it was only pseudo. I may have completely misread your intention though.
H-KQGE said:
(as i don't believe that they were all scared of someone allegedly homosexual
I don't think it's necessarily
fear of homosexuality that drives homophobia and mob violence against gay males by straight males in schools, although there probably are cases where the fear of their own sexuality drives them to want to destroy the external exemplar. Governments use the tactic of the 'enemy', over 'there' somewhere - any group or person that is different from Mr & Mrs Average will do. Kids grow up in the pathological environment that passes for 'society' and internalise messages like this. And the message they are acting out is: having a common enemy makes us feel strong together and part of something bigger.
H-KQGE said:
Boy's schools are awful . . .
Couldn't agree more. If there was an institution designed to foster stupidity, violence and immaturity, it's our schools. Places of education they ain't.
H-KQGE said:
though these days they'll just fornicate & get pregnant at 13
I think that's a rather stereotyped view. There are some pregnancies at 13, but are not so common as far as I understand at present. They are the sort of thing the Daily Mail loves to pounce on as proof of the moral decline of civilization. However here in the UK the
Office for National Statistics reports that teenage pregnancies (those where the mother is under 18) have been declining since 1969, although they don't take into account mothers under 15:
UK Office for National Statistics said:
Teenage pregnancies at lowest level since records began
Part of Conception Statistics, England and Wales, 2011 Release
Released: 02 April 2013
Estimated number of conceptions to women of all ages is the second highest since records began
The estimated number of conceptions to women aged under 18 in England and Wales in 2011 is the lowest since records began in 1969. In comparison, the estimated number of conceptions to women of all ages is the second highest since records began. Conception statistics include pregnancies that result in either one or more live births or stillbirths or a legal abortion.
The estimated number of conceptions to women aged under 18 in 2011 was 31,051. This compares with 45,495 conceptions in 1969, a decrease of 32%. In contrast, the estimated number of conceptions to all women in 2011 was 909,109 in comparison to 832,700 in 1969, an increase of 9.2%.
The under 18 conception rate for 2011 is also the lowest since records began with 30.9 conceptions per 1,000 women aged 15-17 compared with 47.1 in 1969 (a decrease of 34%).
[ . . . ]
H-KQGE said:
more an atmosphere where any show of platonic affection would get the "urgh, he's gay! He tried to touch my.." treatment.
Yeah, it's a weird thing that platonic affection amongst girls and women is tolerated, even expected and encouraged while the same amongst boys after a certain age and men is a cue for what you describe. Here's an interesting
article on SOTT about intense friendships between teenage boys.