'Political racism' must be ended before it's too late
When it comes to the ongoing political rift, what Thai society is facing is nothing less than mutual political racism.
By political racism I mean total discrimination against those with differing political views who - once categorised as belonging to the opposite political camp - induce a sense of hatred and discrimination.
Three key issues appear to be deployed to help identify whether one in Thailand belongs to the opposite political camp or not. These are one's attitude towards the monarchy and lese majeste law, towards Thaksin Shinawatra, and towards the 2006 military coup.
If you oppose the lese majeste law you are automatically branded as red shirt and anti-monarchist. You are also almost without exception branded as red shirt too if you were against the 2006 military coup which ousted Thaksin - while if you had supported it, then you are branded as yellow shirt, multi-colour shirt or a supporter of the Democrat Party.
For people infected with political racism, it is as if there exist only two political camps in Thailand. These people want to reassure themselves that the current political struggle is between good versus evil and under such a crude dichotomy, there is not room for diversity beyond the two camps.
When one is conveniently categorised as being "the enemy", the sense of political racism ensures that the classified person is not to be trusted or treated equally. This makes it easier for such people to react to their opponents. It makes their world easy to comprehend. It is rather difficult for these people to live with irony, ambivalence and the absence of a clear-cut notion of good versus evil - of us versus them. These people who succumb to political racism also tend to believe there exists only one correct political way - their way.
Deep down, political racism and the accompanying labelling of someone as a political friend or foe, enables these people to suspend their ability to listen to the reasoning of their opponents. Since they have branded their opponents as enemy and evil, there is no need to listen to those who think differently, period.
When that occurs, the hope that there could be any meaningful dialogue or debate ceases to be possible. Learning about different points of view is thus replaced by the reinforcement of hatred and discriminatory views. Reasonable exchange is almost impossible when you do not trust the person speaking to you.
This writer still thinks however that there are many Thais in various political camps who have not totally succumbed to political racism. These people will have to do more to constructively engage and exchange with people who think differently, be it within their group or outside.
They must resist attempts by those totally influenced by political racism to stereotype others as either saint or evil, and make more room for the understanding that virtually all camps have made mistakes or committed errors over the past six years - that learning to peacefully and democratically compete and co-exist with those who think differently is a major challenge in today's Thailand.
Political racism must be resisted at all costs if Thailand is to avoid heading toward political annihilation. More open-minded members of all political camps must seek to build bridges and dialogue instead of repeating the dominant discourse of political hatred.
If you cannot bear to listen to the extremists among the red, yellow or multi-colour shirts, try to seek an exchange and forge acquaintance with the more open-minded members of those political groupings instead.
Extremists with political racism and hatred have a way of making their noises heard louder than others - but it's time people tried to rein them in with more measured political voices before the only political space left in Thailand is that of hatred and distrust.
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Funny this came out. See the
Funny this came out.
See the last paragraph of my editorial http://www.thekoratpost.com/editorial.html
The racist nature of much of Thai culture, however, sadly extends beyond the political to the racial per se, and other semi-racial aspects that "differentiate them from us." So much for what a Buddhist society is not.
Deep down, political racism
This is a wonderful insight. People, and its very easy for any group of people to define themselves as a 'true elite' - a base from which to discriminate 'us' from 'them', have fallen 'naturally' into the use of this tool... forever. 'Racism' evolved as its name because 'racial' characteristics - skin color, hair color, eye-shape, hirsuteness or its lack - were initially easily identifiable and so convenient discriminators.
Nowadays the discriminator I most often run into is 'intelligence'... 'educated' and 'uneducate' are the Thai plays on this form of 'racism'.
Pravit enumerates
To which I would add
and assert that it is ground zero of the attempt to dichotomize society.
Perhaps a way forward might be to explicitly split the discriminators ...
... in order to allow political disputation to 'mix and match'.
On a purely binary discriminatory basis there are 32 ways to discriminate among 5 choices, and so 32 rather than 2 races... right off the bat, as we used to say in the USA.
Add to the list... five more choices will literally let a thousand flowers bloom! As they used to say elsewhere.
"Nowadays the discriminator I
"Nowadays the discriminator I most often run into is 'intelligence'"
There is a very special kind of person who is so obsessed with sex that they see the penis and the vulva everywhere, or symbols representing them. Its a kind of obsessiveness and frequently indicates psychological illness.
Compulsive complainers about racism are often in the same dysfunctional boat. Racism is such a useful device to use when wishing not to acknowledge facts that you wish were not facts or facts which you believe ought not to be facts. It neatly turns the focus of attention away from one's own psychological imbalance by suggesting that imbalance is actually another person's. This is characteristic of the not-very-well-educated but highly empathetic and tedious do-gooder who might otherwise turn to religious proselytism or obsessive charitable working. But you know this of course, and are more aware of that particular inner foible than I could ever be.
Is it racist to point out that East Asians have an average IQ of 105, South-east Asians of 87 and Europeans of 100? Of course it isn't, these are widely accepted facts, and although facts can be used to make a racist point, merely stating them is not racist any more than saying that the average temperature in Bangkok is higher than in London. Except to fools and charlatans like you who have their own boat to paddle.
As Shakespeare wrote "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Except in the eyes of those rare and scurrilous frauds who constantly bleat that there should be no difference between any one persion and any other, because they wish their own self-perceived inadequacies could thus be washed away or simply ignored.
2 out of 10 for intellectual content Mr Lee. Must try harder. Perhaps you should start by asking why you choose to project your own racist sensitivities on others. I note you never challenge comments you disagree with directly, you only make snide asides for fear of being discredited - which is entirely typical of the moral coward.
Here's an unkind link for you to beat your breast about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_Bell_Curve
and another - have a good cry: http://www.v-weiss.de/calibration.html
Inconvenient facts have a habit of being consistent while the erstwhile racists wail and gnash their teeth because nobody believes their (often inverse) prejudices are even remotely intelligent.
Gee,
Gee, anonymous-richard-postman, you're such a sweet and charming guy I'd love to review the wild, inverted assertions of Volkmar Weiss, Thilo Sarrazin, and the Bell Curvers with you, but ... Sorry my friend, I no longer engage in futile and circular conversations with trolls.
The mismeasure of man (pdf).
Gee,
Gee, anonymous-richard-postman, you're such a sweet and charming guy
I am. I get on just fine with me. I only seem to annoy pseudo-intellectuals whose scrota are empty.
I'd love to review the wild, inverted assertions of Volkmar Weiss, Thilo Sarrazin, and the Bell Curvers with you,
No you wouldn't, you only say that so that people reading this will infer you have the wherewithall. But you don't. Just another pseudo-intellectual with half an education trying to play with in the big playground and thinking you won't get called out on your false pretences.
Its sad really to see kids hiding in roadside bushes so they can throw stones at passing cars without having to risk consequences of their stupidity. So here you are, taking snide potshots but claiming not to engage. You silly boy.
but ... Sorry my friend, I no longer engage in futile and circular conversations with trolls.
By which you again mean that you'd like to be able to respond intelligently but can't, thus you make an insipid attempt to infer that you could but won't. So naturally you make running away from evidence that you're a fantasist into some kind of virtue. Now that is really weird. So how come you ran away to Chiang Rai then John? Kids normally run away to the circus or something less extreme. Couldn't stand the awareness of failure at home huh?
And I'm not your friend, I only establish friendship relationships with intelligent and stable people, not essentially thick, unstable people with a habit of whining.
You're embarrassing John Francis Lee, how many people have to produce reputable research that shows you have little knowledge and no understanding before you accept that you're feeble - and just plain wrong. Don Quixote, tilting at the racist windmills and impressing only yourself.
Sad really.
there is no point in
there is no point in imagining the existence of a "middle-ground" when it was annihilated by the destruction of the democratic process (--imperfect as it was) post-September 2006, and in the elite sanctioned murder of protestors in 2010. so Pravit- get real! wishy-washy nonsense about a world that can never be the same again because now the masses have "eyes open" even if they lack a definitive vernacular framework for engaging in social and political action!
If the masses eyes are open
If the masses eyes are open they'll institute their own party and ride the Shinawatra mob out of town on a rail.
It's a question of how much betrayal is 'enough', I guess.
Thaksin & his nominees are
Thaksin & his nominees are only ever jockey's, not the stable owners.
Indeed, though surprisingly,
Indeed, though surprisingly, Prayuth says today (http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/289472/prayuth-leave-the-army-alone) that the army belongs 'to the people' Now there's a very frightened man.
Same d;ay as a Democrat MP admits looking at porn on his smartphone while on work time, paid for by the same people. Not his fault of course, never is.
How one can 'accidentally' look at porn or Facebook when you should be working is beyond me, this guy wants his ass kicking out of parliament so he can get a proper job.
Accidentally, like
Accidentally, like accidentally falling into a lifeboat while captain of a sinking ship. The pitiful lack of even infantile shame by people these days in either making excuses or outright lying is an obvious sign of reverse evolution.