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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
Im Grunde gut: Eine neue Geschichte der Menschheit by Rutger Bregman
9 reviews
littki's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, War, Colonisation, Homophobia, Violence, Genocide, Murder, Slavery, Grief, Sexism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Antisemitism, and Misogyny
Minor: Cannibalism
pupsi's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.5
Can really recommend everyone read this. The book is not perfect and actually has some problematic passages (e.g. full mention of the n-word and other racisms).
The main message of the book is still spot on and I'd love it if more people believed in humanity.
A less problematic alternative to this book could be found in Mikaela Loach's "It's Not That Radical" - probably my favourite book I've read this year. So hopeful and encouraging to become active!
The main message of the book is still spot on and I'd love it if more people believed in humanity.
A less problematic alternative to this book could be found in Mikaela Loach's "It's Not That Radical" - probably my favourite book I've read this year. So hopeful and encouraging to become active!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Moderate: Racism
ajcham01's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
One of my favorite books of all time. An inspiring read from start to finish that encourages us to take on the brave and difficult task of trusting one another and choosing peace, kindness, and collaboration within systems that assume we will do the opposite.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, War, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Genocide, and Police brutality
toffishay's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.75
A really moving read! It makes me sad to think about how far we have falling, how society has taken away so much of our humanity, but I feel hopeful from the historical examples and inspired by the modern ones of the ways that people have and will continue to love and fight for each other. I want to take this energy and go out into my community! Be a realistic; make the world a better place :) What stops this from being a full 5 star read for me, is only that I would have appreciated more intersectionality in the applications of these ideas and I think that further reading could provide that.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Xenophobia, Death, Genocide, Classism, Antisemitism, War, Hate crime, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, Grief, Blood, Gun violence, and Colonisation
Minor: Mental illness, Suicide, Alcoholism, Slavery, Islamophobia, Addiction, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, and Religious bigotry
franzi_'s review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide, Racism, Violence, Colonisation, Police brutality, and War
piaura's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Violence, Genocide, Death, Antisemitism, and Gun violence
Minor: Colonisation, Racism, Islamophobia, and Hate crime
littlecat's review against another edition
informative
2.0
I wish I liked it more, I heard a lot of good things about it so maybe my expecations where just to high, I admit I skipped some parts mostly in the middle cause the structure felt a bit disjointed and repetive.
I actually agree with the core ideas of this book, that its more helpful to see people as "Good" that humans are social but that we are social in a way that means we care for our people first and the trick is to make us realize every human is a human like us and with that "our people",
but maybe this general agreement made the parts that irked me stand out much more then they maybe should.
-its like one sentence but the one is like:
-"ADHS is just an excuse to pump kids full of drugs" I think the social model of disablities has a lot of use, I think a lot of time when a person becomes "a problem" we should look how society is a problem for them, and see if we can fix it that way, but medication is not a scam in its enternity, I dont take Ritalin or something a like but I heard from so many first hand how freeing it is to find the playing field a bit more equal and to be able to modulate their stimuli and with that their tasks better
-simelar short but very personal to me relativly in the beginning something wondering about the curious case that is humans white eyeball showing: "without eye contact like this, seeing where peoples eyes look, how could we trus eachother=be human?" and "Neanderthaler didnt have as strong of a subtle eyebrow game as homo sapiens sapiens thats why they died out" here is a thing, I dont do eye contact, its like actual hurting me when I try, and I have heard about all this micro expression and shit but I have bad eyesight anyway, and also what about blind people arent they human? and the author backpedals right at the end with "compassion is much more helpful then emphaty" and I strongly agree with that, but there is this too in the book, like just one way of showing stuff is legit
-1) "savety regulations are bad actually" just nope. old car wrecks and fires are nice for kids to play that doesnt mean you shouldnt check if stuff is actually dangerous.
and more in general when talking about structural problems in child educatio, I just had to think of a bit from Socialism seriously? that i really liked when the author described a bad day under their utopia idea, vs this focus on kids who still excelled in a measureable way in this schools, what about people who are just medicore? or not even that? it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth
I actually agree with the core ideas of this book, that its more helpful to see people as "Good" that humans are social but that we are social in a way that means we care for our people first and the trick is to make us realize every human is a human like us and with that "our people",
but maybe this general agreement made the parts that irked me stand out much more then they maybe should.
-"ADHS is just an excuse to pump kids full of drugs" I think the social model of disablities has a lot of use, I think a lot of time when a person becomes "a problem" we should look how society is a problem for them, and see if we can fix it that way, but medication is not a scam in its enternity, I dont take Ritalin or something a like but I heard from so many first hand how freeing it is to find the playing field a bit more equal and to be able to modulate their stimuli and with that their tasks better
-simelar short but very personal to me relativly in the beginning something wondering about the curious case that is humans white eyeball showing: "without eye contact like this, seeing where peoples eyes look, how could we trus eachother=be human?" and "Neanderthaler didnt have as strong of a subtle eyebrow game as homo sapiens sapiens thats why they died out" here is a thing, I dont do eye contact, its like actual hurting me when I try, and I have heard about all this micro expression and shit but I have bad eyesight anyway, and also what about blind people arent they human? and the author backpedals right at the end with "compassion is much more helpful then emphaty" and I strongly agree with that, but there is this too in the book, like just one way of showing stuff is legit
-1) "savety regulations are bad actually" just nope. old car wrecks and fires are nice for kids to play that doesnt mean you shouldnt check if stuff is actually dangerous.
and more in general
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Confinement, Murder, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Genocide, Violence, Bullying, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, and Child abuse
Minor: Rape and Suicide
ghost_rider's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Genocide, Xenophobia, Violence, Slavery, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, Bullying, and Antisemitism
rosenaughtin's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
I reached for this book after reading an excerpt from it in The Guardian, "The Real Lord of the Flies." That story in itself was captivating and I was intrigued by Rutger Bregman's thesis: that humans are, in large part, communal, helpful, and decent. The book was super dense, informative, meticulously researched, and full of interesting and hopeful anecdotes about humankind. Bregman takes many examples from history that show our alleged intrinsic brutishness -- such as the Stanford Prison Experiment, Milgram's shock experiment, and the death of Kitty Genovese -- and explains how these scenarios were largely misinterpreted by the media and the general public.
Bregman also shows how empathy can lead us to a greater affiliation with our "in-group," unintentionally putting us at odds with outsiders, and how this can be utilized by despots and dictators to encourage war, hoarding of resources, and racism. He argues that compassion is more effective than empathy in connecting with other humans - I would argue that his definition of compassion is very similar to "radical empathy," though he never uses the term.
Best of all, he offers solutions through examples, from corporations to prisons to governments. He argues that if we accept within ourselves that humans are mostly good, then we can utilize communication, confrontation, compassion, and resistance to challenge our current institutions.
Favorite quote: "If you believe that people are essentially good, you have to question why evil exists at all. It implies that engagement and resistance are worthwhile, and it imposes an obligation to act."
Bregman also shows how empathy can lead us to a greater affiliation with our "in-group," unintentionally putting us at odds with outsiders, and how this can be utilized by despots and dictators to encourage war, hoarding of resources, and racism. He argues that compassion is more effective than empathy in connecting with other humans - I would argue that his definition of compassion is very similar to "radical empathy," though he never uses the term.
Best of all, he offers solutions through examples, from corporations to prisons to governments. He argues that if we accept within ourselves that humans are mostly good, then we can utilize communication, confrontation, compassion, and resistance to challenge our current institutions.
Favorite quote: "If you believe that people are essentially good, you have to question why evil exists at all. It implies that engagement and resistance are worthwhile, and it imposes an obligation to act."
Content Warnings
Minor: Genocide, Racism, and Forced institutionalization
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