It’s indelicate to point out, but I’d like to reiterate that our racism is based far more on physical appearance than on cultural background. When I’ve traveled in eastern Europe, only language, dress, and grooming preferences reveal that the locals are from there rather than from the US.
If anxiety about English fluency is a sticking point for getting people out of there, is this a place where the community could step up? Would support like calls with and proofreading by fluent English speakers in this community help get people out who might have been unwilling to take that risk without it? If so, I would be interested in helping out in this way, because selfishly I like feeling like I’m doing something to help. Would others feel similarly?
I appreciate your offer to help. I believe your comment helps corroborate the gist of what I am trying to communicate here.
English fluency has been a non-issue with any of the Russians I have communicated with. It’s not actually a problem. I just include it for the sake of completeness. The Russians in our community tend to have very high English proficiency.
It’s indelicate to point out, but I’d like to reiterate that our racism is based far more on physical appearance than on cultural background.
The Russians in our community tend to have very high English proficiency.
I think it may be a selection bias. Probably you have communicated with Russians with good English because Russians with bad English have a little chance to communicate with you.
In Russia there are many people who interested in ideas of rationality. HPMoR is very popular in Russia. But in the Russian rationalist community there are many people who cannot even read in English.
Why do you assume that I insist? I reused the same convenient shorthand for a deeply complex and nuanced phenomenon that occurred in the original post, where it said “The United States has problems with racism, prejudice and xenophobia.”.
What do you hope will change as a result of having made your comment? Genuinely curious; would you like me to edit in some scare quotes around it or switch to a shorthand for the complicated phenomenon which you find more palatable? I’m not particularly attached to nor fond of the word, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it entirely meaningless—I grew up speaking a language in which “racism” refers to treating some people more negatively than others on the basis of some aspect of their ancestry, and most dictionaries seem to loosely agree.
It’s indelicate to point out, but I’d like to reiterate that our racism is based far more on physical appearance than on cultural background. When I’ve traveled in eastern Europe, only language, dress, and grooming preferences reveal that the locals are from there rather than from the US.
If anxiety about English fluency is a sticking point for getting people out of there, is this a place where the community could step up? Would support like calls with and proofreading by fluent English speakers in this community help get people out who might have been unwilling to take that risk without it? If so, I would be interested in helping out in this way, because selfishly I like feeling like I’m doing something to help. Would others feel similarly?
I appreciate your offer to help. I believe your comment helps corroborate the gist of what I am trying to communicate here.
English fluency has been a non-issue with any of the Russians I have communicated with. It’s not actually a problem. I just include it for the sake of completeness. The Russians in our community tend to have very high English proficiency.
Yup.
I think it may be a selection bias. Probably you have communicated with Russians with good English because Russians with bad English have a little chance to communicate with you.
In Russia there are many people who interested in ideas of rationality. HPMoR is very popular in Russia. But in the Russian rationalist community there are many people who cannot even read in English.
I didn’t know that. It is definitely sampling bias.
Why do you insist on using on a loaded and truly meaningless word like “racism’?
Why do you assume that I insist? I reused the same convenient shorthand for a deeply complex and nuanced phenomenon that occurred in the original post, where it said “The United States has problems with racism, prejudice and xenophobia.”.
What do you hope will change as a result of having made your comment? Genuinely curious; would you like me to edit in some scare quotes around it or switch to a shorthand for the complicated phenomenon which you find more palatable? I’m not particularly attached to nor fond of the word, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it entirely meaningless—I grew up speaking a language in which “racism” refers to treating some people more negatively than others on the basis of some aspect of their ancestry, and most dictionaries seem to loosely agree.