I gave the rest of my cash to a homeless person today.
I run into a lot of those, although they don't usually approach me. Once in a while though. A few months ago a woman sitting by the side of the road was begging from me, but when I gave her some money she asked me to go to an ATM and get her more.
I hated that very much and I stopped giving money away after that. That was so ungrateful.
A man just walked by in a bunny suit. It had a tale. And a hood and ears. He has a beautiful singing voice.
Anyway. I'm sitting at the train station waiting on a very very late train, and a woman was walking around begging. A boy near me gave her change, and she thanked him and moved on. So when she approached me and I knew she wouldn't be that way, I gave her the rest of my cash.
I felt good about it too. I genuinely do get a feeling that is nice after giving something to someone. I know it's right, and I know it will benefit them, and it's not like I need four ones. I get paid in the morning.
Conservatives actually give a lot more to charity, despite being the ones who are against socialized platforms and the welfare state. This is because while we believe in the duty of mankind to help those less fortunate, we don't believe that this should be forced on anyone else's way of life (for the most part), or that it should be up to anyone besides us how large or small our charities are.
Nothing is free. If you receive benefits from the government, then you're spending money that was taken forcibly from other people around you. Because of this, even after the one time I was fired when I was younger and still married, I never filed for unemployment. There were other factors, but I never believed that taking money that was taken from anyone else was a good thing. So I didn't. I made it work and found another job asap.
So once in a while I take out my wallet and I give away my cash to someone who needs it. I know you can't really tell these days if someone needs it, but I try not to be too suspicious.
But that woman who asked me if I had more money, and when I said I didn't asked me if I'd go to an ATM and get her some – she was either touched in the head or the most worthless POS I've ever met. I truly despised that that happened. It ruined a lot of interactions with me.
So I wanted to talk about noticing patterns some more. Stereotypes.
So, stereotypes exist for a reason. They are a low resolution representation of many data points. They are an abstraction of many people. They will be the most striking characteristics that most of a group of people have, all combined into one character.
They are not intended to indicate that you believe all people who have a certain skin color, or a certain combination of chromosomes, act a certain way. They are a way for us to communicate about large groups of people. Especially if we disapprove of one of the main characteristics that they show.
For example; a steroptype about women is that we are shallow. This is a logical conclusion from the perspective of men, considering that we tend to be preoccupied with our looks and many of us gossip about each other.
A stereotype about men is that they are avoidant of commitment. This is a logical conclusion for women to come to as men typically have more sexual partners and have an easier time with casual sex.
A stereotype about black people is that they are criminals. Considering that even though they are only 15% of the population they commit about 50% of the crimes, this isn't surprising. But another stereotype is that they can cook well, and that's just because it seems they pass along that sort of knowledge better than white people. I'm obsessed with southern food and even though I can't have much spice, I would much rather have dinner over a black family's house than a white one, all else being equal.
A stereotype about white people is that they're racist. Considering our history with owning black people, it doesn't surprise me. I wish that since this isn't true anymore and no white person owns slaves, this would have started to die out. I also wish people would remember that before we owned slaves, everyone in Africa owned everyone else in Africa. I vaguely remember some story about Egyptians owning a lot of slaves, I think I read about it somewhere.
A stereotype about Asians is that they are very intelligent, especially in things like mathematics. Considering that as a group they tend ot score higher in school in the sciences, and that most of our favorite technology comes out of Asia, this isnt surprising.
Ok, so fine, but stereotypes are harmful.
So, I can imagine that a hiring manager who stereotypes people can influence them in a harmful way by not seeing them and making judgements about their skin color or gender. This is called racism and sexism, and fortunately it doesn't happen as often as it used to.
Here's my problem. People should be allowed to make stereotypes, and believe things about groups of people. People should be allowed to believe what they believe. Besides, you can't tell people what to believe. You can only make it illegal for them to act in accordance with their beliefs. It's not a good idea to force people to act in a way they don't believe, except in cases where their beliefs take away other people's rights.
In cases like child marriage, that's great. You're taking away this person's right to liberty, and so you should not be able to exercise this belief.
In cases of who you want to rent your house to, though, I have to say no. They have no right to your service or your land, and you should make judgements based on what you like. It's your land.
I wouldn't advocate for making judgements about someone based on their physical characteristics, but you should be allowed to.
Just like I wouldn't advocate for keeping all of your money and never giving anything away, but you should be allowed to.
And people will find out that you discriminate, and then no one will rent from you, and then you'll have to stop discriminating.
The market doesn't discriminate.