learntoquestion ltq discussions

As children we have learned we need to choose. We choose what style we want, what hobbies we want to do, who we are. Most of all we chose what school we wanted to go to and that shaped our entire lives. Choosing has shaped who Americans are. If someone takes away that right to choose, Americans would riot. Society would be in disarray because we as citizens think it is our right to be able to control every aspect of our lives. We feel in control of our lives when we can choose what we want to do. It makes us happier because we choose what we want to do with our lives. In many ways, people wouldn’t feel as though they are individuals but just a person someone else chose for them. But choosing can be different among different cultures and countries. Like in Sheena Iyengar’s TED talk, she held a study and asked people what soda they want and she had seven options of soda, the Russian people said aren’t they all the same, but Americans did not think that at all they think of all the choices as different. Choosing really depends on how people lived. Like in Russia, people who grew up with communism don't really care for choices because they didn’t grow up with many. But in America we are overwhelmed with choices. A lot of older generations of Americans don’t feel choosing matters because they were suddenly introduced to an age of many choices and didn’t assimilate to it. So in many ways we must choose, but we also don’t have to. It feels we need to choose by the way we have been brought up and it really defines freedom and individuality, but I don’t think we need to choose on many things. Although choosing makes a society happy and free and without choosing a society would have no creativity and individuality.

There are definitely roles for choices in society. We choose our lives from the very beginning. One big thing we have to choose is what job we want to do and when or if we are going to start a family. Those things are very important to society because without us choosing to do those things society wouldn’t function.

Discrimination and judging is much different from choosing. But we are in a new age were discrimination and judgement has been normalized. These kinds of things are normalized by our leaders. In the “Us vs them: the sinister techniques of ‘Othering’ – and how to avoid them” article by John A. Powell says, “President Trump, however, has opened a space where people are emboldened to be more explicit. We now have not only our nation’s leadership but many of our information networks amplifying these explicit calls to exclude and dehumanise.” We have been guided the past four years by a man who thinks it is okay to separate this country. He has made people feel okay to voice their racist beliefs. That is exactly what “Othering” is. It is separating people, this discrimination is not needed or wanted in society. So I do not think we need to judge, we can judge on what clothes we want to wear and what food we want to eat, but we have no right to judge people. In my opinion, the point of judgement is to separate people. Humans brains think, ‘oh that person likes this, I don’t so I won’t talk to them’. It is unfair that this way of thinking has been instilled into our minds from an early age because we don’t need it. We don’t need to judge people for what they look like or how they act, we can just let them be them.

Choosing and judging are somewhere in between good and bad. Yes you can judge and choose things like if you want to go for a run today or whether or not you should do your homework, but in no way should we be able to judge people. In many ways choosing and judging are essential to society but I don’t think judging has to be. Going back to us judging peppers, we didn’t pick the ones that weren’t pretty because we didn’t like them. We were taught perfect and beautiful is always better but is it? I don’t think so in the slightest. If we didn’t have beauty and societal standards society would be so much happier. Depression would go down and individuality would increase because finally people can be themselves without being judged. Like in the podcast with Alicia Garza said, “But the reality is white supremacy can be carried out by black people, it can be carried out by women. It's not just identity in and of itself that changes the ways that politics happen.” We need to stop judging people on what they may seem to be and instead their identities.

I think a world without discrimination is definetly achievable. We need to start depromaging our brains to judge people and start just seeing people for who they really are. Obviously people are still going to judge but I think it is time we try to stop it.

What do you think about beauty and social standards and how do you think they affect people? Can they really be stopped and how can we stop them?

When it comes to judgement, discrimination, and choice-making, I think that a lot of grey area exists. As children in the US, we are taught to “spot the difference” a lot, as Sheena Iyenger’s TED talk said, and this definitely has been ingrained in our minds as we take on the world. In some cases, judgement and discrimination is necessary when making choices, such as whether or not you should run from a dangerous situation or person or if you should stick around people or environments that are toxic to your life. Other than survival choices that you need to make, choices for your individual wants are also necessary. Especially in the US, we grow up with the idea that our happiness is in our own hands and like @razzledazzle8 said, these choices make us happier since we are in control. This is not the same for other countries, especially a lot of countries in Asia, where individual thinking can often be perceived as selfishness and goes against the tight knit view of the importance of family. Judgement and discrimination also seem to be done as a protective instinct, like when the TED talk mentioned how the waiter was “looking out for” Sheena Iyenger by denying her of the option or choice to put sugar in her green tea.

However when it comes to people, I think that face value or surface level discrimination and judgement are not only unnecessary, but also hindrances. Before the 2016, I myself never really saw as much talk about discrimination in the media. Until after the election of Trump was when I saw the most of this “Othering” phenomenon. Much like what John A. Powell said in his article, fear has been the root of the rapid growth of exclusion and dehumanization. People didn’t come into this world feeling afraid of other groups and wanting to exclude them. The government instilling fear about these groups is what made people feel like they were being attacked or that there was a threat to their power.

But now that we have already come to this point in society of normalized othering, I think that it is very difficult to reverse many decades worth of damage, and that the only way to improve is to recognize these things. It is hard to just remove judgement all together since we need to acknowledge the difference in experience that everyone has had in this society. That is not to say that we should compare ourselves and our experiences in “oppression Olympics” like Alicia Garza puts it in the podcast. I think that in the most recent years competing about who has had it the worst or has been the most neglected is what drives people apart, making it harder to unify. When we get entangled in this, we miss the most important issue that isn’t being addressed and that is why we even have these differences in experience and oppression to begin with. In this way, I don’t think that discriminating and judging are essential to making a society function, but realizing and recognizing is.

To bring it full circle, doing the pepper experiment in class is an instance of us, as members of society, showing that we have been influenced heavily by the way that our world has raised us. Many people tended to choose the pepper that was “most aesthetically pleasing”, which in this case, meant the pepper that was closest to what we perceived to be the perfect pepper. The perfect shade of red, the perfect proportions, and the perfect stance. However, the other peppers were also chosen and I think that this answers the question of the post above me on what I think about beauty standards, how they affect people, and if they can really be stopped. The pepper experiment shows that beauty is a completely subjective matter. Even though most people chose the second pepper, indicating that they were most influenced by the beauty standard of complete perfection or closeness to that, there were others who chose the other peppers as well, meaning that they don’t value the same type of perfection as others. For me, the only way to stop these beauty and social standards is, again, recognition. If you can recognize that people will always have differing opinions on subjective topics, you can stop worrying about the standards altogether and these standards will end up not mattering at all.

Lingering question: Do all cultures have the responses to discrimination? If not, what are some examples where discrimination has different connotations?

I never thought I would say this, but after listening to Sheena Lyengar’s TedTalk I don’t believe that having more options is necessarily better. And I think this could be a response to your question, razzledazzle. Today the beauty industry is worth almost 50 billion dollars in the United States. This means there are a lot of options to change, and enhance your appearance, and physical look. All of these options are contributing to the unrealistic beauty standards that suffocate people today. As Sheena explains it is up to us to find the differences in product and make the decision but the constant bombardment of advertisements from big companies always seems to sway our decisions. So in conclusion to my answer for your question, beauty standards are enforced by the amount of product there is, and the bombardment from top companies. I think that until we dismantle the beauty industry, and take some of that money away beauty standards are still going to crush people.

The simple answer is yes. Everything we do is a choice, and in order to come to a conclusive decision we have to discriminate, and judge every option. This means examining each option and its characteristics. Then based on this we judge. We judge which characteristics we like better and least and then we come to a conclusive decision. As Sheena Lyengar pointed out here in America, we make our decisions a lot harder. We think it is better to have many options, make choices ourselves, and make choices that only benefit ourselves. Studies from other countries may suggest that this is not always the best case.

In a study conducted in San Francisco that included Asian and Anglo American kids, they were asked to complete a coloring sheet that was either chosen by their mom, teacher, or themselves. The Asian American students completed the sheet best when they were told their mom picked it out for them. They did so because they felt that they were working for something greater than just themselves. In France, doctors make the decision of when and when not to take kids off life support. When doctors made the decision for parents in France they proved to have less stress a year later than did the parents who made the decision themselves here in the U.S.

While I believe that we have to make decisions easier and more simplistic here in America we have to recognize that they are always going to be a fundamental part of our society. After all our nation was built on the choice to lead itself, and the ideal of democracy is built on the choice of the people. Where this discrimination and judging stops though is where the rights of other’s begins. People everywhere have a right to live happily, safely, and peacefully. And once your judgement infringes on those rights, it has gone too far. It is in our blood to want to be the best, to want to survive, and do to great lengths to do so. But once a judgement or choice you have made comes too close to someone else, you know you have gone too far. Today we are living in an age where these boundaries don’t seem to exist. As Powell stated in Us vs. Them “ President Trump has opened a new space where people are emboldened to be explicit. We now have not only our nation’s leaders but many of our information networks amplifying these explicit calls to exclude and dehumanize”. Within the past four years it seems as if the boundaries that protected everyone’s rights have been broken down, and we are now living where people are being publicly discriminated against, and judged.

All in all, choice is neither a good or a bad thing because you have the power to control it. Choice comes from within. As Alicia Garza put it “ White Supremacy can be carried out by black people, it can be carried out by women”. We have choices to make, and most times they are influenced by our beliefs, experiences, and ideals. I think until we let go out of our personal ideals and make choices for the betterment of our people then we are going to live in a world of discrimination. The choices we make have to be uninfluenced and for a common goal.

Do you think your political choices ( meaning who and what you advocate for) reflect who you are as a person?

As demonstrated in Sheena Iyenger’s TED talk, most choices have little to no effect on the world, or even on an individual. When you are given the choice between different types of soda, it doesn’t really matter which one you choose. In situations like these, the act of judgment is perfectly acceptable. However, judgment becomes problematic when judgment is made regarding a person rather than an object like a soda. While your choice to judge a certain soda doesn’t really hurt anyone, judging a person can and very often does, because a person can actually be impacted severely by a certain judgment. While it is a perfectly natural thing for people to judge others, it is important to remember that the things we say and do can really hurt others.

The conversation regarding othering is a very interesting one because it has always existed, but has recently become more prevalent and obvious due to the words of President Trump. In the article we read from The Guardian, it is made clear that other countries, such as Canada, have done well in getting rid of othering by far right politicians, who now don’t have a lot of power in the government. While it may be impossible to completely eliminate any othering in the US and the world, it is certainly possible to prevent it from taking over the social and political landscape, as well as to stop it from controlling people’s lives.

Although choice can certainly have negative effects, such as people being overwhelmed by the insane number of options in a supermarket, I do believe that it has a role in society. Its primary purpose, in my opinion, is to allow people to choose who they want their political leaders to be. Getting rid of the ability to choose would lead to a lot of people having their rights taken away from them. A society in which people are unable to choose anything for themselves is not a functioning society.

I think that discrimination on an institutional level could be destroyed by creating laws that prevent both purposeful and unintentional discrimination from happening. However, people will always discriminate against one another on a personal level, and I think that the only way to decrease instances of interpersonal racism is to make the legal punishment more severe. People need to be reminded that their actions have consequences, so that they will avoid discriminating in the future.

To answer Soleilmagic’s question, I think that society would be able to make far more positive changes if no aspects of discrimination existed, because people would be able to work together as equals to solve problems, rather than treating others differently because of things that are out of their control. Also, people would generally be happier because they wouldn’t have to worry so much about how others viewed them. However, as I said earlier, I don’t really think that it is possible for all aspects of discrimination to be removed entirely, because people unintentionally discriminate against each other every day.

My question is what would be some effective ways for the government to decrease the amount of institutional discrimination that exists in our society?

While I firmly believe in my right to choose, I do think that here in America, choice has not exactly become a good thing. As Sheena Lyengar mentioned in her TedTalk, when people are presented with too much choice, they often make a worse decision than those presented with little to no option. I think this sense of self righteousness in America has become so toxic for our society. With the right to choose everything in your life in order for them to cater to your needs has created a divide between American citizens. People feel entitled to their opinion, and tend to not respect others. In my opinion, this is the root of America’s issues. Americans have a much lower sense of doing things simply to help others, for the common greater good. We love being able to customize every part of our life, to stand out, to differentiate ourselves from others. We have this fear of becoming “normal” or “mainstream”. Why is sharing likings and opinions a bad thing? We Americans need to be in control- constantly.

However, as razzledazzle8 said, “Discrimination and judging is much different from choosing.” As we grow up, we are conditioned to judge. We judge what a celebrity wore to dinner, or our friends not getting enough likes on their Instagram pictures. We judge people constantly but are scared for others to judge us. If you judge those around yourself, isn't it okay for them to judge you? We judge as a way to differentiate things. Like in our pepper experiment, We had to determine the “best” one, and with no criteria on what “best” was, and no communication between parties, most of us ended up picking pepper 2 or 3. We make a subconscious decision of what's ”best” all the time, as we are the product of an environment where the only acceptable choice is the best one. As Sheena Lyengar noted, in other countries, such as Russia, where they are often provided with little to no choice, they take whatever is given to them. The best one is the one that works for everyone, and that much choice is not expected.

This explanation from Russians and other Europeans shows us that choosing might not always be necessary. We hate when our choice to choose is taken from us, even if they were going to make the same choice you would have. This is the self righteousness and entitlement I brought up. It makes us feel safe knowing that the decision is always in our hands. However, there is a thin line where judgement can become discrimination. Most of the time, we keep our judgements to ourselves, ut the moment we start acting on those judgements, such as making assumptions about them, belittling or profiling them, is when this becomes discrimination. This plays into what John A Powell calls “Othering.” He says “Othering is not about liking or disliking someone. It is based on the conscious or unconscious assumption that a certain identified group poses a threat to the favoured group.” America was founded on racism and slavery, the most terrible form of discrimination. People associate income and quality of life based on skin color and/or class. I do believe in a world without discrimination, because that is a consciously hateful decision someone has to take. We can change this in future generations by focusing on loving and accepting those around them for who they are, not what they own or look like.

However, I believe that judging can sometimes be vital. We judge what will be good for us, if it will help us or hurt us, and that can be a good thing. Having the choice between multiple items, and judging which is best for you and your needs is something I don't think America could function without. We are the “Land of the Free” right? We decided freedom meant choice, and I don't think it's all that bad - to an extent. While I think choosing and judging is a part of human nature, I think there are a lot of ways we could move our society to a less judgemental place. I think we could start by placing less emphasis on social media/ celebrities, and more focus on everyday people who others can relate to. We also need to teach children as they grow up the role of their choices in society. Small day to day things are perfectly normal, such as being able to choose what dress you wear or what snack you bring for lunch. But when you start to pick what friends you make, and what choices you make that affect others, you need to be careful how much your judgement is clouding your decision making. We need to accept those around us for who they are, whether we differ in opinion or not.

Judgement and choosing are indispensable in the U.S., and honestly I think people would freak out if their right to choose between 10 different types of soda is hindered. But the discriminatory systems our country was built on must change. We need to develop the sense of greater common good that countries like Japan and China display. We must sacrifice, whether we like it or not.

How do you think its okay to judge others, but still get upset when others judge you? If yes, why do you feel like they're different?

Although we don’t realize it we are almost always making judgements. For better or worse it is something that we do subconsciously driven by a multitude of different factors. You hear people say things like “don't be judgemental” all the time. However, is this even possible? I think making judgments is very important for humans, to an extent. As humans we are given many options in my aspects of our lives. We must think of many factors in order to make a decision. As brought up in the Ted Talk, Sheena Iyengar says that an assumption made is that more option equals better choices. I don’t think this is the truth though. The more options you are given, the less time you take to think about all of them. If we are talking about American politics, if we had more choices to choses from we would be even more divided because people have very different opinions across the country. The less choices you have, the more likely you are going to think a lot about what you are choosing. However, choice and freedom to choose is very important to American identity. We are of course, the “land of the free”. We can see how much American’s love their freedom of choice throughout history and now especially. People don’t like that masks are required because they believe that they should be able to have complete power to choose what's best for them. Once laws and regulations are placed people are fast to link them to tyranny and the failing of democracy. I do believe that choice is extremely important, however, I think that sometimes people need to listen to others for the best. All these choices we make are based on judgement. This is why judgement is so important. Americans have many choices and although we sometimes overthink our choices and make it harder than it should be, we need to judge objects and humans to make these decisions. Judging people is wrong but it can be really important to us. They protect us and keep us from making wrong decisions. Judgements can be wrong and most likely are most of the time but we still need to rely on them for our well being. In politics our judgements are affected a lot by the media and the people around us. This brings me to the idea of “Othering”, which is also driven by the media. By pushing people into groups and making them threats politicians can “divide and dehumanize” groups of people. Descrimination is driven by judgement. People can judge people based on their race, gender, looks and more. These judgements are affected a lot by our politicians or the media. This is emphasized recently with Donald Trump and many of the things he says about different groups of people. We are supposed to listen to our president, and many people do idolize him and therefore they will listen to him. There is not much we can do about descrimination and judgement, because although it is affected by people around us, we are the ones ultimately making the judgements. Maybe eventually we will be able to see people without judgement but as of now I think that as long as you have eyes, you are judging people. On the other hand I think that othering can be stopped if we just regulate what our politicians are saying and make it clear that these things are unacceptable.

The question that I’m still wondering is if humans really have the right to free choice or if we are affected so much by the media and those around us that we are never really making our own decisions.

Discrimination is all around us. We, as humans, experience it everyday and it has become our natural routine. When we wake up each day, we choose what kind of breakfast we want to eat, or what kind of shampoo to use that evening. The choices we make always impact us in some way and once I watched the TED talk, I realized how many choices that I make a day and what the effect of it has on my life. For example, when Sheena Iyenger mentioned the situation with the parents choosing to end the life of their infants, I was picturing myself in their shoes and realized how hard it must have been to know that you can be the one to determine whether or not they will live their last moment. As human beings, we want to make our own choices. We want to learn that we can succeed by ourselves. By making these choices, I believe that people will discriminate against others/things, purposefully and subconsciously. The model answer would be that discriminating against other people is always a negative thing because we should all learn to get along with each other. However, in reality, we know that it isn’t true and that discrimination must happen because of one’s own beliefs. Thinking back to the podcast with Alicia Garcia, she mentioned that many minority groups judge their own child for being part of the LGBTQ+ community because of their religion. This is a clear example of how discrimination happens in our society. I’m not saying that discrimination must happen, but I find it very hard to believe that a world where no judgement and no discrimination is possible. We all have thoughts and we all like likes/dislikes, therefore leading us to discriminate/judge against other things. Judgement, in my lens, is looking at something with background context and making a conclusion about that thing/person. Sometimes, as humans we are also too quick to judge, which I think we all need to learn to do better at. From what I learned in Iyenger’s TED talk, choices need to be made. We cannot process anything or be able to do anything without them. It is an integral part of our subconscious and makes advancements happen in our world. Undoubtedly, there are some good and bad choices/judgements made by others. For example, robbing a bank or running a red light would be a bad judgement call and a bad choice to make. However, helping out at the elderly homes and volunteering to save endangered animals is a great judgement call and a great choice to make in my opinion. In society, choices are made everyday. “Othering” is a term that John Powell used in his reading to describe the requirements needed to become a full fledged member of society and if you fail to do so, you are considered "an other". These requirements were made by other fellow citizens who have lived in that society for a long time and thought that they were appropriate to use in that setting. The citizens made these choices and made these judgement calls to determine whether or not someone can fit in their society. Their role in society is to make choices that can affect their population positively and to invite other good citizens to join their association. I personally think that a society wouldn’t be a society without people making choices for others. Following societal norms and forcing ourselves to conform to those standards is what makes a society what it is and if everyone is doing it, then someone would automatically think that they should as well. In response to alberic25’s question, I think that humans are not really free to make their own decisions because society has forced us to think this way. As I said before, I think that conformity has really taken a turn on our human psyche and has influenced all of our decisions because of the need to “fit in.” I believe that choosing a simple thing, like breakfast cereal, is complicated because of all the health factors one has to consider when ingesting it in their body. I hope that sooner or later, we will gradually start thinking freely without having any societal limits in our way.

Furthermore, I do not think that it is possible to have a world without discrimination/judgement because I believe that people should have their right to think whatever they want and to like whatever they want. I do not want a society where everybody thinks the same way because there would be no engaging conversations made or advancements ready to change the world. However, I do propose a question to my fellow classmates: what life would be like if everyone acted the same and thought the same things? How different would everyday life be?