Discrimination (illegal, drugs, racism, solution)

[Phil P]

Here is my view on the issue of discrimination:

1. anti-discrimination is discrimination
2. people are perfectly OK discriminating on some things but not others
3. since anti-discrimination is discrimination, anti-discrimination is a slippery slope towards the rights of some getting placed above others

Because of this, I propose a free cultural marketplace. What's that? It is the idea that every trait and behavior of a person that does not harm another should be legal, yet each person should be able to discriminate for themselves as to what they believe is right.

All drugs, gay marriage, being of a different race, being fat..... should be legal. The government should not discriminate against or prevent a person from doing what they want to do to themselves. HOWEVER, people and businesses and social groups (since they are made up of people) should make it their own decision to discern which behavior they will allow for themselves and which ones they will not.

So, for example, lets look at meth heads. Meth should be legal and people should be free to do it if they please. HOWEVER, employers, churches, landlords, and people in general should be free to discriminate against them as they please. A employer should have full right to say "I will not hire this person simply because they are a meth addict." Same with the landlord and and social institutions... Agreed? Or do meth heads have the fundamental rights to be employed and housed and liked? Which makes more sense?

Now, the same goes for homosexuals. Employers should have the right to deny them jobs, landlords should have the right to deny them lodging, churches have the right to preach that they are going to hell... and so on, simply because of the fact that they are homosexual.

And the same goes for people with curly hair, fat people, black people, white people, men, women, old people, and young people.

Let the individuals decide for themselves what they believe is acceptable behaviors or traits, and what is not. The government should not do this for them, which is what "anti-discrimination" and disallowing drugs and so forth is.

So what if everybody in a certain society or region refuses to accept meth heads? Well, they either have to move, or find a way to sustain by their own means. And the same with all other groups.

It is a greater crime to infringe upon the rights of the society and make them accept and employ and shelter a person or group of people who have a trait or behavior which that society deems unacceptable, than it is for the rights for this person or group of people to have their opportunities infringed upon by this society.

The only way to end ,or at least diminish racism, sexism, and the rest is education and having an enlightened population which realizes that they themselves will not participate in these activities. The government cannot do it for them.
What do you think?

[Werone]

There is no such thing as reverse discrimination. Discrimination is the prejudicial or distinguishing treatment of an individual based on their actual or perceived "membership" in a divisive meme.

Be part of the solution. We must stop thinking errors that lead us to divisive memes.

Note: Divisive memes include Race, Gender and nouns used to describe and group individuals without regards to individual capacity or capability. Those same words can be used to decribe someone mutually exclusive of a devisive meme. In other words without associating any preconception of capability or capacity.

That's what I think.

[purehuman]

Discrimination only happens when people are not afforded the same rights and considerations as the next. .You can excuse it all you want..It is not discrimination when you refuse to hire a meth addict covered in sores that can't put in an honest days work (it's protecting yourself, and what you have)...how that even compares to not hiring an honest hard working, just and fair, man or woman (who happens also to be gay) is beyond me...and I don't believe at all that society deems that unacceptable...maybe you do though.....I think that when you become a major meth addict it is [you] who has given up your rights to equality, and fairness, (not societies doing)...and I would not want to live in a society that would condone discrimination based solely on race, sex and size.

[lycos679]

Wow, okay.

So if you are against discrimination you are actually in favor of discrimination and to remedy this we should allow employers, landlords, and the government to freely discriminate against any one they wish to exclude. I'm pretty sure we had to fight against discrimination because it was so widespread. Could just be me though.

[purehuman]

No, that's not right at all, I am against discrimination...I really don't understand how that make me "in favor of discrimination", unless you mean that by being against discrimination, I am discriminating against people who feel they have the right to discriminate...did I get that right?

[Yeledaf]

The only way to make people equal is to treat them as if they were equal. The rest is just words.

[Phil P]

What I am saying is that if we desire to end all the isms, then people must decide for themselves to do it; the government cannot do it for them.

And whose to say which behaviors are OK and right for society and which are not? I say lets let the individual determine for themselves rather than have the government do that job. When the government says that so and so a group of people shall be discriminated against, it makes that behavior illegal. When a government says so and so a group shall not be discriminated against, then it makes it illegal to deny them the same opportunities as everyone else, which in effect discriminates against everyone not in that group.

[Retroit]

The reason the government enacts anti-discrimination is because the government enacted the discrimination in the first place. The government allowed blacks to be discriminated against, so they had to enact anti-discriminating measures. Gay people were/are discriminated against (as are all single people), so now some feel the government should enact measures that will allow unmarriable people to have the same rights as marriable people. Alcohol drinkers were discriminated against (Prohibition), so the government had to reverse that.

"Government is not the solution to our problems, government is our problem."

[Back to NE]

What a country this would be. Freedom to discrimminate across the board. So Google might be happy to hire an Indian immigrant to write code, but that Indian could then be told by a condo association that he is not welcome to buy in. Then a small Indian-owned startup could refuse to hire whites, preferring to import workers from Delhi. On my job, I coiuld refuse to serve gun-owners and the obese (just because). My boss couldn't do anything about it cuz discrimmination laws are gone.

WTF, you might as well legalize murder, it makes about as much sense. BTW, are you 17?

[AV8n]

Not hiring a meth-head would be discrimination - it just (fortunately) wouldn't be illegal discrimination. The government has determined certain "protected classes" (race, gender, etc.) where you are not allowed to discriminate based on someone being a part of that classification. So it is perfectly acceptable in a legal sense to refuse to hire someone who smokes - because smokers are not a protected class.

People discriminate every day. It's how you decide where to eat, where to shop or even with whom to spend time. Yes, you discriminate in picking your friends. That doesn't mean you're a racist or homophobe (unless those are the bases for your discrimination). Maybe you'd rather hang out with beer drinkers than wine drinkers. Or people who like the same sports teams you like.