It's almost as if people from the 60's needed an absolutely ridiculous metaphor to drive home how illogical racism is. Reminds me of the Hutu vs Tutsi scene from Hotel Rwanda.
I mean not really. If you think about it from an evolutionary standpoint it's perfectly logical.
Outside groups are dangerous. That's true even within racial groups. Now add that not only are they outsiders they don't look anything like your group. That's another layer of outsiders being dangerous. Not only are they outsiders but they don't look like you.
It's a leftover piece of evolution that helped humans survive. Protect your own and everyone else can get fucked. Especially if they're different.
If you think about it from an evolutionary standpoint it’s perfectly logical.
This hasn't actually been borne out in science. As a general rule, less complex human societies tended to be more willing to cooperate with outsiders. They shared hunting grounds, traded clan members, came together for more complex endeavors, and so on. It isn't until the advent of agriculture, when people became attached to plots of land and felt the need to defend them from others, that we see these default attitudes start to shift - and racism as we understand it today is a thoroughly modern phenomenon, with no antecedent prior to the 17th century.
You're giving "race" as an arbitrary social construct special status above other characteristics. Height, hair color, etc.
You're presupposing that race is more significant than these.
Furthermore, the flexibility of racial terms like "white" to include or exclude people like Italians and Irish over the decades also goes to show that it's arbitrary and malleable.
Like religion, it's just been a tool for political control. Conservatives love in groups and out groups, this is just the common one of the day.
IDK, it's been a long time since I watched the episode but isn't that literally the point? That any amount of critical thinking makes their views make no sense?
Maybe I'm explaining myself badly. I agree with you, it's literally the point. But the characters aren't supposed to lampshade it. The viewer is meant to get it on their own.
Upon further reflection, the Cheronians became the only species known to the federation to commit self-genocide by mass suicide as a result of irreconcilable cognitive dissonance.
It's like in the Rick and Morty show. Civil war because of different nipples. And it's not far from reality (e.g. pigmentation or small cultural differences).
Maybe the discomfort of looking at the person on the other side of the mirror, with their hate, sadness, and confusion, is part of what fuels their hatred.
Message not clear; some man in the mirror is now telling me to change my ways, and now they're angry and crying and it's making me uncomfortable and feel alone. The man in the mirror said the world would be a better place if I changed, but why can't they change? After all, they sure don't seem like a good person, you can see it in their face. Disgusting.
Once upon a time they had mirrors. But with the rise of political extremism and divisiveness, they replaced all mirrors with camera-based digital displays so they could flip the image and see their true selves represented, not some distorted atrocity.