You’re hitting the mark on there being issues with referring to any social problems as “rational”. What would be best for everyone in the long run would be the abolition of all bigotry: even the most privileged people in the world would likely live happier lives if society was truly rationally-structured. So it is not rational for anyone, in the long run, to act bigoted.
I do think though that there’s an incentive to defend one’s social and economic position which manifests itself in an irrational emotion that serves a “rational” purpose: keeping yourself, at least temporarily, ahead of others. While it may be insulting to say that X bigotry is rational, I think it’s just plainly true that most, e.g. racists, are racist because they benefit from racism, rather than because racist ideas have been maliciously imposed onto their psyche. Even those with a nebulous material connection to racism can benefit psychologically from indulging the feeling that they’re better than those other people.
I think when people say that people who uphold oppressions are rational, they’re using shorthand for “oppressions are often perpetuated by people who benefit from their existence.” They don’t meant to say that they’re good.
Similarly, the broader values we inherit from capitalist society serve in a sense to justify our economic system and our hegemony. We think of our country as uniquely “free,” full of “independent” people, because that lubricates our existence within a society based on fierce competition. It justifies the individualizing nature of capitalist competition and hierarchical relations, and it also invents a criteria on which we can decide other nations aren’t worthy of our cooperation.
As much as we’re repetitively advertised to to accept capitalist values, I think a greater amount of our acceptance of them comes from our (“rational”) desire to fit in with our societal structure; our desire to not feel guilt when we benefit from the oppressions enabled by a society built on competition at all levels.
To respond to your extra thoughts -
You’re hitting the mark on there being issues with referring to any social problems as “rational”. What would be best for everyone in the long run would be the abolition of all bigotry: even the most privileged people in the world would likely live happier lives if society was truly rationally-structured. So it is not rational for anyone, in the long run, to act bigoted.
I do think though that there’s an incentive to defend one’s social and economic position which manifests itself in an irrational emotion that serves a “rational” purpose: keeping yourself, at least temporarily, ahead of others. While it may be insulting to say that X bigotry is rational, I think it’s just plainly true that most, e.g. racists, are racist because they benefit from racism, rather than because racist ideas have been maliciously imposed onto their psyche. Even those with a nebulous material connection to racism can benefit psychologically from indulging the feeling that they’re better than those other people.
I think when people say that people who uphold oppressions are rational, they’re using shorthand for “oppressions are often perpetuated by people who benefit from their existence.” They don’t meant to say that they’re good.
Similarly, the broader values we inherit from capitalist society serve in a sense to justify our economic system and our hegemony. We think of our country as uniquely “free,” full of “independent” people, because that lubricates our existence within a society based on fierce competition. It justifies the individualizing nature of capitalist competition and hierarchical relations, and it also invents a criteria on which we can decide other nations aren’t worthy of our cooperation.
As much as we’re repetitively advertised to to accept capitalist values, I think a greater amount of our acceptance of them comes from our (“rational”) desire to fit in with our societal structure; our desire to not feel guilt when we benefit from the oppressions enabled by a society built on competition at all levels.