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Karim Diané from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is doing an AMA on Lemmy today (thelemmy.club)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/bestoflemmy@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/35769143

Hi StarTrek.website, I'm Karim Diané aka Jay-Den Kraag from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, AMA! (Responding to questions Thursday @4pm!)

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[–] 3 points 6 months ago (1 child)

This is interesting. I feel like people are allowed to say “I don’t think women should lead”. They just don’t like the consequences of having that opinion. They want to say something cruel or afactual without anyone uninviting them from parties.

I agree, but would add that in some cases it's a little more subtle than that. A fair number of people are fundamentally sexist but feel uncomfortable within themselves about their beliefs, so:

  • see something that goes against a belief
  • feel revulsion
  • subconsciously realize their belief contradicts other (more charitable) beliefs that they themselves hold
  • seek another reason for feeling that revulsion
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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Right. Cognitive dissonance. We all suffer it sometimes. I guess it takes uncommon courage and clarity to work through it. Most people would rather do the least effort to preserve their sense of being a good person.

    Being sexist is bad

    They are good

    They don't like this show because it has a woman lead

    That's sexist

    But they're good

    Can't change "sexism is bad". Can't change "they are good". Only thing left to change is the reason they don't like the show. Easy-peasy.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Most people would rather do the least effort to preserve their sense of being a good person.

    Well, it's like that Occam's Razor, right? It's simpler to believe: "I don't like it because of (excuse)" instead of "Some of my fundamental beliefs are completely wrong and I need to re-examine them." Such a person may feel that this is not quite the full story, but are all our thoughts completely examined? It's not necessarily malicious to say: I've figured this out 'well enough' for now, and I can move on to something else.

    This is an important distinction because then to tell such a person that they're "bad" or that they "hate" is completely meaningless to them. They don't consciously hate, they just adopt oppressive philosophies and they've never needed to examine them.

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago

    The Oatmeal did a comic worth reading about this: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe

    Some people are really loathe to do any self reflection or assessment. I gather their sense of self and worth is very fragile, and looking too hard might make it collapse.

    Like, some people you could say "Eating meat is bad for these reasons" and they'll just lash out. Not enough emotional HP to tank the hit.

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