Trayvon's killer said to make self-incriminating statements

[kristopher]

49. Let me start by saying I agree with condemnation of this attitude and belief

I'm not sure that attacks like you launched are the best approach, however.

It's difficult to put into words, but maybe this will work - your reaction is ultimately based on deeply felt compassion yet your response lacked compassion for the person making the remark you disapprove of.

I don't mean to single you out since the point I'm offering applies very widely. It was your use of the word sickening that caught my attention - I agree with the feeling completely.

There is something inherently brutal about the culture in the US. There is a willingness and mental ability to dehumanize our fellows that, in my experience, far exceeds what is found the other cultures I have experience with.

My personal belief places the roots of the problem in the way economics drove the development of our peculiar brand of slavery and how the philosophy justifying that dehumanization permeated attitudes in a major religious movement (Southern Baptist). Since the institution developed mechanisms that prevented cognitive dissonance when thinking about things that would normally violate ethics based on the Golden Rule, and since those mechanisms became an integral part of the philosophical tradition of the institution, it left a fertile ground for cultivating minds with wiring that 'works around' our instinctive affinity for the Golden Rule.

All IMHO.