Misanthrope or racist – Make your choice!

[Beorn]

Okay, so this will be fun, or ignored, or not fun.

Two people:

Person X: The Misanthrope

Jerry Terry dislikes people - a lot. He doesn’t really have friends, and treats his acquaintances with barely concealed contempt. He is very much an equal opportunity despiser – he dislikes men, women, straights, gays, blacks, whites and one-legged people all with an equal intensity. He is aware that his misanthropy is a problem, so he keeps himself to himself as much as possible. Nevertheless, he is certainly a negative force in the world, subtracting rather than adding to the sum total of human happiness.

Person Y: The Racist

Oswald likes (most) people – a lot. He has many friends, and treats almost everybody he meets with respect and kindness. However, he’s a racist – he just doesn’t like black people. He is aware that his racism is a problem, so he tries to avoid black people as much as possible. Nevertheless, in his dealings with black people, he is certainly a negative force in the world, subtracting rather than adding to the sum total of human happiness.

Further facts about Terry and Oswald

1. Terry treats black people worse than Oswald even though he’s not a racist (he dislikes them (a lot) not for being black, but for being people);
2. Oswald treats everybody better than Terry treats them;
3. Terry does not discriminate, whereas Oswald does (so, for example, Terry would be upset if a family moved into the empty house next to him because he’d rather it were empty; Oswald would be pleased if a family moved into an empty house next to him - unless they were black, in which case he would be upset, but less upset than Terry, simply because they were black).
4. Yes, I’m aware that you might find the characterisation of Terry and Oswald psychologically implausible. My advice is that you assume there has been some very peculiar conjunction of events in their childhood, plus star sign alignment, plus periodic exposure to death metal, which explains how they’ve ended up this way.

So what is worse, Terry’s misanthrope or Oswald’s racism? Who is morally more suspect and why?

My suspicion is that we tend to think racism is worse than misanthrope – I think this will remain my suspicion, even if it is denied here – so the question is why?
Source (http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=983)


I'm a practising Misanthropist, but I often have lapses ... usually through the process of imbibing copious amounts of whiskey. Or, if my infant-to-adulthood clinical depression decides to ascend from around my head for undisclosed periods of time.

I'd have to say I am somewhere in between the two, sometimes going from one to the other as and when my mood allows.


My suspicion is that we tend to think racism is worse than misanthrope

True. One is considered to be just the ramblings and lashings out of a hurt and unloved individual, whilst the other is in existence through a lack of decent education/bad upbringing/insert social science excuse here.

[Liffrea]

Interesting thread.

I would say I have a strong streak of misanthropy but if that’s based on people being people then I’m not sure, I expect people to act like people, which means often unpleasant a lot of the time, I’m probably more a loner/less interested in social interaction. I don’t personally consider myself “superior” I just have little interest in the things most people are interested in, hence I tend to keep my interaction with them at a minimum or at a superficial level. I generally have to be engaged by them to be interested. Of course there is no real reason other people need to go out of their way to make the effort to do so; as a result most of my true relationships sort of come about by accident.

Racist……hmmm, I would lie if I said I didn’t generally have negative thoughts regarding blacks, that’s pretty much experience based, I dislike most blacks because of how they behave, though I have got on well with a few in the past so I don’t have a I hate blacks attitude but I’m usually on my guard around them. I don’t have the same attitude to Asians (Indians anyway, most of whom I get on well with).

[nisse]

True. One is considered to be just the ramblings and lashings out of a hurt and unloved individual, whilst the other is in existence through a lack of decent education/bad upbringing/insert social science excuse here.
But that's not necessarily true - what if Oswald was kidnapped by a black man when he was little and was emotionally scarred for life developing a phobia of black people?

I think Oswald is the better of the two, since, as the problem statement says, he treats everyone better than Terry. Whatever his intentions might be, at the end of the day he's the nicer guy.

Morally, they are equal IMO, because they try to avoid people they know they'll be mean to, so neither one wants to make the world a worse place to live.

[Peasant]

Can I be both?