User blog comment:Hippogriff12/The Scarcity of Racists in Skyrim/@comment-4588723-20120726191144

@DarthOrc: I apologize if I came off haughty, your perspective probably balances mine for the better, but the above indictment is not made in ignorance, and I think your premise is mildly inaccurate, for two reasons. First, I don't see evidence that the US should be particularly credited with alleviating racism; historically speaking, it was the last Western nation to wake up and abolish its part in the African slave trade, and in the century and a half since, the track record of race relations is far from exemplary. Aside from overseas military operations whose cultural impact has been mixed at best, the largest contribution made by America to the "possibility of ending racism" is, in fact, is a heavy dose of multiculturalism in the West. I say this based on a strictly textbook definition of the term.

Multiculturalism: the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, as a state or nation. (Collins English Dictionary)

In those terms American society is very multicultural, not that this fact prevents conflict between diverse cultures and the reigning majority. This brings me to the second issue: “Multiculturalism is bogus.” I’m sure you understand why this appears a little self-contradictory prima facie. But given your comment as a whole I have to assume you meant that extrapolating that concept into a glorifying of all cultures as equally infallible is bogus. There I totally agree with you, all cultures are not of equal social or moral value, which I was actually trying to point out also. Some cultures are more just and equitable than others, or have a richer heritage, though each is primitive or sophisticated only by contrast with others. My point was that we, a privileged spectator crowd, are not qualified to condemn any of the broad spectrum of cultures or people groups, real or fictional, on Earth or in the admirably complex world of TES. Many of the opinionated bloggers in this audience, with a cultural plank in their own eye, pass judgment on the speck in a character’s, whose worldview is grounded in a society to which we as gamers are only visitors.

Put simply, just because all cultures aren’t equal doesn’t mean mine is superior – it’s just mine. Some Nords or Imperials or Elves may be wrong in their causes, but they’re not wrong just because they don’t gel with the popular meaning of “equality” in modern Western culture (easily the largest demographic on the wiki). Some actions – torturing non-combatants for information, or imprisonment solely for one’s beliefs – simply violate basic rights to life and liberty, and are thus wrong regardless of cultural setting. That’s why I have no problem unleashing wrath on the Thalmor, they’re guilty on both counts. But in greyer areas – like profiling an individual because their culture is known to value stealth, cunning and vengeance – we’re in no place to say to the profiler, “I think that makes you a bigot so I’m going to kill you and everyone who agrees with you!” Who’s acting ignorantly there? That’s the hypocrisy I’m trying to address, and I think we’re essentially on the same side of that discussion.