Misogyny, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. and unconscious internalization.

[sibelian]

3. No. I'm afraid that's not true.

It's certainly convenient to pretend it is, but you'll notice that the benefit from sustaining that position is that you don't need to be able to demonstrate it because it's "unconscious".

It's an avoidance strategy. The structure it proposes only appears (originally somewhat mysteriously) in cases where there are alternative explanations for the percieved "sexism" and the position is adopted only because the alternative explanations need to be managed out of the way to avoid painful criticisms which are "unfair". Typically the perception of unfairness is actually totally illogical and amounts to little more than "why should X minority have to feel even more bad", which is baby-thinking.

Sexism, racism, homophobia, these are all conscious processes, the unconscious does not habitally discriminate along the grounds of gender, race or sexual orientation, it isn't sufficently complex. Also, it isn't anywhere near as programmable as the conscious mind. It doesn't pick up signals from external sources and internalise them. It generates cognitive structures and manipulates them. It's only people who don't fully undertsand the nature of the unconscious that project their fears onto it and pretend it is a secret laboratory of prejudice. It's the conscious mind that does the thinking, not the unconscious.

Your postulate enables you to imagine you understand what someone else thinks better than they do, that's all. It's driven by a nebulous, unfocussed desire to get the better of people.

Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I used to do exactly the same thing myself.