I am starting to think of it like nationalism, but without the war bonds and the without the AWESOME production benefits when you research it in ‘civilization’.
Social groups seem to almost always be defined by their extremes. It is not because these nut-jobs are reflective of the true nature of the culture or make up a significant majority, they are just the easiest for parody and ridicule. Because their behavior is the most ‘out there’ it sticks out in people’s minds as aberrant, and starts to form a mental image in the mind of an outsider of this person typifying everyone in that group. We are all guilty of it, seeing a stranger and pigeon-holing them in a cultural stereotype. It is an involuntary response.
This can never be changed. People will always come into a social situation with a pre-conceived notion of who this person is based on how they present themselves and the person’s past experiences with similar individuals. I think it’s an evolutionary response. If that orange, stripy cat thing mauled me last time I tried to pet it, I am going to assume that all stripy orange cat things don’t like belly rubs.
What people need to do to change this is not scold people for having assumptions, but keep people from acting on those prejudices and helping change them from a positive example. To use an example I relate to, when I hear about people referring to all nerds as basement dwelling mouth breathers with no social life, I feel a responsibility to my nerd-kin to step up and correct this. Hopefully, by showing people an example of someone who DOESN’T fit the negative stereotype, that is one more mind changed about it.
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