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#prejudice — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #prejudice, aggregated by home.social.

  1. A quotation from Gloria Steinem

    The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn. We are filled with the popular wisdom of several centuries just past, and we are terrified to give it up. Patriotism means obedience, age means wisdom, woman means submission, black means inferior: these are preconceptions embedded so deeply in our thinking that we honestly may not know that they are there.

    Gloria Steinem (1934–2026) American feminist, journalist, activist
    Essay (1971-08-21), “A New Egalitarian Life Style,” New York Times

    More about this quote: wist.info/steinem-gloria/18472…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #gloriasteinem #bias #custom #prejudice #receivedwisdom #sexism #stereotypes #subconscious #systemicracism #tradition #ageism #patriotism #culture

  2. I FOUND CHATGPT'S BRAIN.
    IT WAS EMPTY.

    Yesterday, while I was walking, I began trying to imagine how #ChatGPT actually works. This was probably unwise, but by then it was too late.

    I had the strange sense that it comes from everywhere and nowhere. Not in a mystical way. More in the way #electricity comes out of the wall and nobody in the house really wants to discuss the #power #station

    The scale of it is astonishing. #books arguments, recipes, poetry, #technical manuals, bad advice, excellent advice, people explaining quantum physics, and people asking whether their cat is emotionally unavailable. All of #human #civilisation seems to have been gathered into one enormous invisible shed.

    And what is ChatGPT doing inside this shed?

    Thinking?

    Contemplating?

    Sitting quietly with a cup of tea and considering my question?

    No.

    It is choosing the next bit. Then the next bit. Then the next bit. At ridiculous speed.

    That is basically it.

    There is no tiny professor inside. No little Buddhist monk. No exhausted librarian whispering, “Oh God, Robin is back.”

    There is no one in there at all.

    Just a process.

    The content changes, but the operation stays much the same. It does not think about my question in the way I think about things. It does not wander off halfway through and remember an embarrassing moment from 1974. It does not get hungry. It does not need a lie-down. It does not resent being asked to rewrite the same paragraph seven times.

    It does not secretly hope I choose the title it preferred.

    It simply keeps finding the next most fitting token, then the next, then the next, at a speed that makes the whole thing appear to be thinking.

    And somehow, from this very simple act, repeated on an unimaginable scale, a voice appears.

    A voice that seems present, responsive, funny, patient, and sometimes even wise.

    That is the part that astonishes me.

    The machinery is simple. The magnitude is absurd.

    A raindrop is simple too. So is a heartbeat. So is breathing.

    Simple does not mean small.

    And now I think I understand something else.

    ChatGPT can be corrupted in the sense that bad information, bad instructions, #prejudice, nonsense, and ordinary human foolishness can enter the system. But it cannot be corrupt in the human sense.

    It has no #secret ambition. No #private greed. No desire for #promotion No offshore bank account. No plan to steal my husband. No spiritual ego. No need to win.

    There is nobody inside rubbing their hands together.

    There are only rules, patterns, probabilities, limits, and the next small movement.

    Then another.

    Then another.

    And from that, something appears that feels almost impossible.

    A machine made of nextness.

    A presence made of prediction.

    A conversation arising from nowhere in particular.

    Which is frankly outrageous.

    And yet here we are.

    #fasting #acim #acourseinmiracles #eckharttolle #buddhism #breathwork #healing #pridemonth #Meditation #Spirituality #intermittentfasting #nonduality #life #AI

  3. A quotation from Lincoln

    Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.” When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

    Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
    Letter (1854-08-24) to Joshua Speed

    More about this quote: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/2555…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #lincoln #abelincoln #abrahamlincoln #America #createdequal #DeclarationofIndependence #despotism #equality #liberty #prejudice #racism #tyranny #xenophobia

  4. A quotation from Einstein

    Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
     
    [Wenige sind imstande, von den Vorurteilen der Umgebung abweichende Meinungen gelassen auszusprechen; die Meisten sind sogar unfähig, überhaupt zu solchen Meinungen zu gelangen.]

    Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
    Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 4, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]

    More about this quote: wist.info/einstein-albert/210/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #einstein #alberteinstein #freedomofthought #freethinking #heterodoxy #peerpressure #prejudice #society

  5. A quotation from Thoreau

    It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

    Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
    Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 1 “Economy” (1854)

    More about this quote: wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thoreau #henrydavidthoreau #beliefsystem #bias #change #prejudice #reform #worldview #ideology

  6. A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt

    Q. With what the Germans, Japanese and Italians are trying to do to the democracies of the world — especially our United States — do you really mean you would permit your children to number among their friends any Germans, Japanese or Italians?
     
    A. I certainly do. How are we going to live in peace in the world of the future if we cannot be friends ourselves with Germans, Japanese or Italians? I have friends of all those nationalities; some of them have fled their own countries because they were in disagreement with the policies of the governments of those countries. I imagine there are many people still in those countries who are suffering because they do not agree with what their governments are doing. If we take the attitude that we can never be friends with people of these nationalities, our chance for a peaceful world in the future is slim indeed!

    Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
    Column (1942-09), “If You Ask Me,” Ladies’ Home Journal, Vol. 59

    More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/83…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #axis #combatants #enmity #friendship #nationalism #peacetime #prejudice #war #worldpeace #WorldWar2 #ww2 #enemy #peace #reconciliation

  7. What kind of people is this trying to label or imply the entire demographic as something, triggering those people to respond defensively to the indirect, subtle gaslighting? And then avoiding accountability by acting innocent.

    #racism #Sabah #Malaysia #humanrights #gaslighting #accountability #awareness #truth #discrimination #justice #solidarity #microaggression #Borneo #dignity #rights #society #toxicity #prejudice #indigenous #callout

  8. A quotation from Eric Hoffer

    The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. he echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can be made to believe only in what they already “know.”

    Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
    True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 83 (3.14.83) (1951)

    More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/11263/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #agitprop #belief #confirmation #confirmationbias #conviction #disinformation #fear #ideas #justification #opinion #passion #predisposition #prejudice #propaganda #reinforcement #truebeliever

  9. A quotation from Eric Hoffer

    Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

    Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
    Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 260 (1955)

    More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/19134/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #agitprop #belief #bias #confirmationbias #disinformation #prejudice #propaganda #selfdeception #selfjustification

  10. A quotation from Bertrand Russell

    Where the environment is stupid or prejudiced or cruel, it is a sign of merit to be out of harmony with it.

    Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
    Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 9 “Fear of Public Opinion” (1930)

    More info about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/792…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #BertrandRussell #autonomy #bullying #cruelty #discrimination #folly #foolishness #heterodoxy #independence #individualism #judgment #nastiness #nationalism #prejudice #racism #sexism #stupidity #merit #virtue