Throwback Bad Chart Thursday: The Skeptic’s Secret
Originally published on May 24, 2013.
We’ve had a lot of discussions of privilege lately, and I’ve noticed that whenever the topic comes up, whether the focus is on race, gender, sexuality, ability, or any other axis, someone comments along the lines of suggesting we should all focus on simply being human.
Usually, there’s a moral high ground implied in somehow being above all this prejudice nonsense by choosing to be color-blind and gender-blind, that any focus on the reality of race, gender, sexuality, and so forth is itself a form of prejudice.
I was thinking about this idea today while procrastinating on Twitter, that the best way to have equality is to act as if we are already have it. I was trying to put my finger on what this rationale reminded me of.
Then it hit me.
This isn’t rational thinking, despite how often it seems to arise in the community of skeptics, atheists, and freethinkers.
This is, in fact, The Secret.
If you not only wish hard enough but pretend as though your wish has already come true, it will come true.
So today’s Bad Chart illustrates how some of the common statements in support of this rationale float up from reality toward this inevitable delusion conclusion.
Featured image by Totally Severe.
It seems as though you’re deliberately mystifying a very logical progression. Indeed, if there were a universal, or near universal consensus of humanism over more shallow, less inclusive physical characteristics that people derive a sense of identity from, then it would work very well. Unfortunately, while rationality allows us to emotionally disentangle from deriving identity from physical characteristics, there are those who are conditioned to discriminate based upon them. This creates obvious problems from those who possess such characteristics and have an emotional component to the identity derived thereof.
It is no secret that we are all human. It is not a wish that you “wish hard enough”. It is a fact. So how is it illogical to approach human rights from our foundational genetic heritage?