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Originally Posted by Blitzgal
There is a difference between not agreeing with a point and not understanding it. And the bottom quote from you is essentially what I've been saying. It's innate and ingrained, and related to evolutionary survival. You've now reversed yourself when you earlier claimed that it is not innate.
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You're messing with the context. You were saying that it is done
in particular in regards to other people to a degree that something is conjured from nothing (uses of the word "arbitrary" corroborate that that was your meaning, and it is that I disagreed with). It's quite clear from my post that I think differences are found not because we are desperate to find them but because they are quite easily found.
I never said the behavior isn't something people do naturally; they do, because it is done, and has always been done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blitzgal
You don't think the actual qualities that we end up focusing on are arbitrary, and I do. For instance, skin color seems to be an obvious choice, but when you consider that even with different skin colors we are still far more alike than we are different, the choice to focus on skin color appears arbitrary. And cultural differences evolve over time as we hold ourselves separate from other groups and those groups go in different directions than we do. It's a give and take.
But, that's a difference of opinion that really isn't going to get resolved.
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Well yes, it's quite easy to get along if you just say anything anyone can care about is arbitrary. Is coalescing into different groups based on political opinions arbitrary? Religion and culture are, so that seems like equally arbitrary. I have a hard time seeing what exactly there is to agree about once you discount any possible foundation of personal perspective.
People see and experience the world differently and do not want the same things from it. Explain to me how me and someone who has completely opposite religious, political, and cultural views are more similar than not. Should I be holding hands with a Westboro Baptist Church nutter and singing "kumbaya" because we possess similar biological structures and functions?