Anti-Racism: A Murderous Ideology; AAR = R?; Racism = Racialism?; Laugh at Differences; Lockdown Unwinding in Wuxi; Nice to Know Debates Can Take Place in Other Parts of the World

• Because of behavior of anti-racists during the virus crisis, I think that Anti-Racism should be classified a murderous ideology and its practitioners as enemies of humanity. With thoughtful and reasonable people, it should be thought of as being akin to other destructive ideologies like Communism, Nazism and Feminism. What started out as well-intentioned desire for people to judge other individuals by the content of their character and to be blind to superficialities like skin color has instead become a fanatical urge that certain people of certain skin colors and ethnicities be blind to the moral failings of others because they possess certain skin colors or come from certain ethnicities; and that we as well be blind to the frictions that cultural differences cause people in their everyday lives. I know that I am not the only one who thinks this and I pray that that better writers and thinkers than me would write a Anti-Anti-Racism Manifesto and a Black Book of Anti-Racism.

• Does being Anti-Anti-Racism mean I am for Racism? Depends on what your mean by Racism. Anti-Anti-Racism and Racism, whatever that actually is, are different things. AAR is strictly a protest against the murderous excesses of AR. AAR's view of R is complicated to explain. For one thing, R is difficult to define. There doesn't seem to be an agreed definition of what it is. Growing up, I thought R purely was a feeling of ill will towards people because they came from other races. But in fact, no "racist" actually hates people because of their skin color or ethnicity. They feel ill will towards people of other races because of the contents of their characters or their different cultural practices. Most "racists" would also despise bad behavior if it was done by members or their own "race." I also grew up thinking that R was an unalloyed bad irredeemable thing, and that there could never be a "good" racism or a "bad" racism. But since having turned more Catholic in my thinking, I became very aware of the fallen nature of man. Most men are not angels and even the saints among them had their flaws. For R to be strictly a bad thing, it would mean that all men are angels and saints and beyond reproach. That is not true for a moment. It is a logical impossibility. Men, bastards and fallen creatures that they are, all deserve to be subject to some sort of bigotry. Bigotry, even in its vilest form, is a form of criticism that should prompt us to examine ourselves truthfully. Is what they say about me true? What can I do to improve myself (ourselves)? Bad R is based on a lie. Good R is criticism that should be taken to heart. If R is strictly bad, that of course AAR will be against it.

• There is another definition of Racism which is that it is the belief that humans can be classified into races. I have heard that there are very sophisticated arguments to be made, using genetics, that could leave one convinced that there is no hard and fast race lines between humans. But then I have heard arguments that say there are. So it is a question of whether Race is a category of the mind or a category of nature. All I know is that living in China for sixteen years, the Chinese might as well be different animals from me. Their thoughts and ways of behavior are so different, as to be alien, from mine. The Chinese and I are certainly of different categories of the mind. Whether these differences can be overcome by each of us learning to change our manner of thinking or are just so much part of our natures so as not to be overcome is the question. My experience suggests they can't be overcome. This definition of Racism is not the one I grew up with. It seems that if this the current definition of Racism then a sleigh of hand has been played. Growing up thinking that Racism was an unalloyed bad, I had accepted the bad connotations of the word Racist unthinkingly. Of course, there was a word "Racialist" that had been used to cover that way of thinking. But now racialists are racist, it would seem.

• Anyway, as I think Chesterton said, differences are be laughed at. But what can be laughed at, can only be tolerated for a short duration and then it becomes problem.

• Slowly the state of lockdown is withering away. I have seen more and more locals walking around without masks. The local shopping mall has stopped doing the virus entrance procedures, and now all entrances to the mall are open and shoppers can freely enter.

• I am glad to read that there is a debate over whether the lockdowns taking place in other parts of the world are necessary.