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Comment by gd1 | Hacker News Reader

How do I explain this... it is quite odd talking to someone who thinks your way. I know you exist but I struggle even to wrap my head around it.

Racism/sexism/whatever... a wrong is a wrong. Fight it wherever you find it. My example was an interaction between two people, two individuals, and now you're talking about "discussing social groups". Racism and sexism is caused by considering people as "groups" and not individuals, and your solution is to... do more of the same. Recursively. All I have seen the left do in the last 40 years is carve up society into ever smaller and more specific groups with associated victim-hood points and it doesn't get us anywhere. All you are doing is entrenching division.

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> Racism/sexism/whatever... a wrong is a wrong.

Sure. Sexual discrimination is bad, no matter who is being discriminated against.

It's about false equivalencies. You might want to see the last part of my comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5178799

> My example was an interaction between two people, two individuals, and now you're talking about "discussing social groups".

Two people aren't a group?

> Racism and sexism is caused by considering people as "groups" and not individuals, and your solution is to... do more of the same.

You might actually really like Latour, who's a sociologist who argues that his entire field is wrong because of too much abstraction. I've been reading 'Reassembling the Social' lately, and it's fascinating.

That said, I actually disagree that the cause is 'thinking of people as groups,' but you of course are entitled to your opinion.

> All you are doing is entrenching division.

I'm not sure how advocating that we have more women in computer science is 'entrenching division.'

Talking about experiences and pointing out issues that are driven by more than just individual encounters is very important for groups of people. to gain control over their lives and to break free from the kinds of violence and oppression they face. By definition, racism and sexism is discriminatory to whole groups of people, talking about the collective experience of that doesn't make those oppressions stronger.

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