Ought=/=is. I am not talking about what these people should be doing or why: these tend to be useless statements anyways. I'm talking about the rationale behind what they are doing now.
Why? Because you say so?
And yet, in the past decade it's a question anthropologists were willing to talk about to the point where it became a bestseller (Guns, Germs, and Steel). It turns out it has more to do with geography, food supply, and availability of surface metals than with simple first-order genetics.
I find that this is because phrasing things like "X culture is better than Y culture" tends to lead to pretty repulsive things pretty quickly when the obvious question (well, what do we do about Y culture then?) arises. So quickly, in fact, that it leads one to suspect that the end goal wasn't to determine what culture is objectively "better" by whatever yardstick, but to justify doing reprehensible things to group Y.
If pulling stupid decisions from college administration (who rarely make these decisions by consulting with an actual academic, by the by) is all you need to prove a point, I could use Evergreen College to prove that picking up a book will instantly turn you into a rabid SJW.
Did you really just reply to a single sentence and ask say "Why? because you say so?" when I say why in the next sentence.
The book you cited came out 20 years ago. Not in the past decade. I'd assume things have changed quite a bit in the past decade, which is my point. Sam Harris and the guy being interviewed were speaking to a trope in anthropolgy, of the 'angry anthropoligist', implying that their anger was fueled by social justice and finding things problematic.
You seem to agree with the things I'm arguing against.
I find that this is because phrasing things like "X culture is better than Y culture" tends to lead to pretty repulsive things pretty quickly when the obvious question (well, what do we do about Y culture then?) arises. So quickly, in fact, that it leads one to suspect that the end goal wasn't to determine what culture is objectively "better" by whatever yardstick, but to justify doing reprehensible things to group Y
That is a fucking leap if I've ever seen one. Overall, American culture is better than African cultures. Are you denying this?
Maybe the goal should be to try and consciously improve our culture. I'd say that is a great goal. But we can't really get there because there are people like you that are too afraid to say African culture is shit.
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Also, you seem unable to remove your modern lens when looking at the past.
White people didn't see a bunch of dark skinned people and think 'gee, I want to oppress them. How can I find an excuse to do so?'
They saw a certain type of people living like savages and said 'Looks like they're savages. I guess I'll treat them like that then'
Do farms have to make up reasons to morally justify their use of cattle?
Turns out, humans are different from animals in that we can actually separate culture and race. It took us a while to realize that, but the mistake was understandable.