Rep.Steve Cohen wins the Internet with devastating tweet '3/5' on Giuliani’s racism. Stands by tweet

[tblue37]

57. It is human nature to define in groups (us) and out groups (them),

so although some people are able to expand their perception of who belongs in the in group, some cannot (or will not). For some, expanding the circle is almost automatic. For some it happens only when one of "them" becomes one of "us" in an inescapable way (as when an "outsider" becomes a family member).

But some absolutely will not accept one of "them," even when that person was part of the in group in the first place. Those intransigent types reject and some even viciously attack their own children or other family members if, for example, they come out as gay, or if they in any way associate with someone from the excluded group. Thus parents disown children who date outside their race or religion, or reject grandchildren of mixed race, or refuse to allow their kids' gay friends or friends from other races or religions into their home, even in the cases where they don't completely reject their own child.

In group/out group is a deep strain in our evolved behavior, so it takes a lot of effort and education for a well-meaning society to counter it and to teach people to treat *all* human beings as fully human and therefore not outsiders whom one can abuse and oppress.

Many of us have expanded our perception of in group to include sentient animals, as well, so that we want to see them treated as deserving of protection from abuse and exploitation. But many, probably most, humans not only view animals as "things" that can be treated in any terrible way, but also view huge parts of the human race in the same way. Actually, many are even worse in their perception of humans they view as out group, because they see them not merely as exploitable "things," as they see animals, but as enemies--or probable enemies--so they actually *hate* them and want to destroy them, the way the Nazis sought to exterminate people from despised groups.