Comments by "JLH" (@Kyarrix) on "Stupid Young Man Calls In To Argue About 'The Bell Curve' With Sam Seder" video.

  1. Then he should have educated him rather than mocked him. This is low-hanging fruit and it was a missed opportunity. Having the whole choir in the background laugh and chimed in just makes it ugly. There was absolutely no need to handle it this way. It's not like this kid is older or powerful, when you encounter someone who is young and ignorant you plant the seeds of knowledge and good will, you don't cause them to dig in more deeply.
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  2.  @wvu05  He mocked him is probably more correct. Why would you engage in this kind of wholesale mockery of somebody who is clearly ignorant? This isn't the powerful person, this is an ignorant angry kid. it was a missed opportunity to plant the seeds of knowledge. That would have been the right thing to do but instead they had to just go for the laugh and mock the kid and cause him to dig his heels in more deeply and solidify his ignorance and stupidity.
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  3.  @DragonMaiden77  I keep trying to respond to your comment and each time I get so irritated that my response becomes heated. The idea that someone would change their views because they've been humiliated is ridiculous. No one changes their mind because a group of people with whom they disagree mocks them and laughs at them. If you think anyone does, you are lacking basic understanding of human nature and psychology. I think the underlying issue is the second thing that you said, that you do not have patience or compassion because there are too many racists out there. Yes, there are. What is your plan then for changing their minds? The kid is racist, yes. What is your point? That because he is a racist, because this kid has absorbed stupidity from those around him, that he is therefore garbage and should be thrown out? That because of this he deserves whatever ugliness you want to throw at him? I'm trying very hard to be patient with you, and you carry around at least one viewpoint that is wrong and misguided. We don't crucify people who have absorbed erroneous viewpoints. We educate them. This isn't a seventy-five-year-old, this is a kid who will grow up, get married, have children and live in a community. If you want to change the world and make it a better place you have to educate people, not cause them to double down on their stupidity. I don't think it was in Sam's power to change this kid's mind in one conversation. But he could have planted the seeds. Instead we have half an hour of laughter and mockery that most of his audience enjoyed, but which has the effect of pushing the kid further to the right. And before you criticize me, I am not suggesting that we do not fight these people. We fight them in every way we can to make the world a better place. But where there are opportunities to change hearts and minds, we do that. We don't sit back smug in our superiority and mock them because all that does is turn people away from us with the net result of worsening the situation. The half an hour of laughter isn't worth it.
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  4. This is unkind. It's low-hanging fruit, there's no need to make a mockery of this kid. It's clear that he's very young and doesn't know what he's talking about, why not educate him instead of mocking him? By mocking him you assure that he'll double down and dig his heels in. He's so young, you can hear it in his voice, this is a missed opportunity to educate somebody and plant the seeds of a better view point. Poorly done and disappointing. The group in the back laughing and egging each other on, to make the kid feel even worse adds to it. If this were an adult who had power and knowledge and had these viewpoints that would be different, but mocking some ignorant kid rather than trying to turn him around is disappointing and sad. I know that my comment is late, this video was in my queue today. It just goes on and on though, why would you call him a dumb fuck and mock him incessantly and then put it up on YouTube? This was really a missed opportunity. The incessant laughing of the choir in the background is distasteful. Who is this video intended for? Is it intended to show everyone how Sam and company can take apart some uneducated kid? Why is that the goal?
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  5.  @AntiFaGoat  That isn't helpful or clever. The goal should be educating people and helping them to see what is really going on. Being punitive to somebody who is young and stupid only serves to make them dig their heels in. If that's your goal, then you've achieved it but I think it's a pretty stupid goal.
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  6.  @wvu05  I understand what you're saying but it's clear that it's a young kid. And having the whole group laugh and make fun of him is just going to solidify his views. You're not going to get someone to think if you mock them and humiliate them. What's the point of posting the video? Look at us look how funny we are look how we tear apart this young idiot. Why is that a good thing? It really is low-hanging fruit and I expect better from Sam, not necessarily the rest of them.
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  7.  @annamari7863  thank you, I felt like I was arguing into the void.
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  8.  @18skeltor  This was 3 years ago, I had to scroll through the entirety of the comments to remember what it was in regard to! I like Sam, I think he is a decent person and well intentioned. I found this video frustrating because you don't change anyone by mocking them. I'm not perfect, I've mocked people and I have been unkind. Probably too often. It just struck me that someone like that kid, who is still so young is the person you want to try to persuade, someone you won't persuade immediately but who might benefit from the seeds of thought being planted. That's the person you want to treat with a degree of decency and kindness so that they don't double down on their mistaken beliefs. I understand that it would be a stress reducer to have a fun time laughing but this video struck me as ugly. A crew of people sitting back laughing and mocking someone who absorbed erroneous beliefs from their environment. If we want a decent society, if we want even a chance at persuading people this is not the way to go about it. As for your comment about following them? This was years ago. Obviously I didn't do that nor would I. Moreover, you have absolutely no clue as to whether their mind can be changed. The fact that you are so certain that it's not possible puts you in the same camp as they are. One of ignorance and harm. There are plenty of people whose minds are changed over time. Of course it doesn't happen from one conversation, no one thinks it would. The point I was making that apparently eluded you was that rather than plant the seeds, and I hope you understand what that means, they chose to mock him. You don't persuade someone from one conversation but you can create room for questioning. If you think a reasonably intelligent person has no chance whatsoever of ever questioning the things they believe, why are you here? What's the point in anything? That is patently untrue and stupidly nihilistic. It's work to meet someone where they are and to try to offer them information that would allow them to question the things they believe. It's hard work and it can be both thankless and frustrating. It's work that I'm not doing right now because I'm not being particularly patient with you. I get irritated when people on our side, loosely defined, don't understand that we do harm when we cause people to double down.
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