I Think There's A Connection Between Gambling And Prejudice

[Gizmo j]

Gambling is all about believing you can tell the future.

I know which sports teams would win, I know what cards this guy is holding, I know what the lucky numbers are, and such.

I think when people become so accustomed with this kind of thinking it leads them to try to predict the future about the ability and personality of REAL people, such as this is how black people are, this is how women are, this is how atheist are, and so on.

Would you agree?

 

[Charmonium]

I think you might be onto something, but I have a different theory.

Folks who believe in luck (or absence of same) are essentially denying what they know to be reality. That "ability" makes it easier for them to have other views of "reality" that may not be all that realistic.

At the same tho, it should be mentioned that it's possible to have compartmentalized views of reality that the person realizes are contradictory but which serve some other purpose.

For example, I don't really believe in astrology, but it provides a useful framework for trying to understand people. That may sound self-contradictory and it is, but that doesn't necessarily negate its usefulness.

 

[mv2devnull]

Is it prejudice or gambling to expect certain type of threads from the OP?

What do sports teams have to do with gambling anyway? If you do know, then you have facts.

 

[sandorski]

I wouldn't bet on that.

 

[Torn Mind]

This would only apply to people doing "gambling".

Gambling is in part trying to assign probability to an event. The prejudice is attempting to assign attributes to a population. But there is not much of a connection of thinking about random events like "I think he has X in his hand" to "I maliciously think, or the someone would interpret I maliciously think, a group has a particular property" or other senses of the word prejudiced, which could form a book in itself).

Generalizations usually come about because a subset do display particular attributes with a certain degree of frequency. There are certain cultural tendencies that do get ingrained and manage to manifest itself in the conduct of certain ethnicity, races, etc. Not enough to justify thinking everyone has that mindset or conduct but enough to get people to assign a probability.

It wouldn't be right or fair to say every Italian is musically gifted. But one can't simply say none exist or that some of the most prominent musicians of the world did not have Italian heritage.

 

[IronWing]

<goes to casino>
“YOU RACIST SHITBAGS!”
“Shut up, I’m winning.”
<shrug>