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Categorism is "prejudice, bigotry and discrimination, based on a categorization of human beings".
Note that categorization itself is not categorism. Categorization is necessary, and usually benign. It becomes categorism only when it stops being a tool for understanding, instead turning into a mental prison, a social prison or a dirty weapon. For example, it is simply a reasonable categorization to claim that some people can be considered "men" while others can be considered "women". It stops being reasonable when the claim expands to insinuating that women are inferior to men, that women are dirty, that men are evil or that everyone who is of a certain gender think and feel in a certain way.
Categorism has three aspects and six levels. The three aspects are the facets (how the categorism is done), the foci (what categorization the particular case of categorism focuses on) and the abstractions (fallacies where categorization itself becomes a case of categorism). Thus, beside being a concept in its own right, categorism is also a conceptual framework that contain many concepts of these three kinds. Of the six levels, the two most famous ones are the individual level (how a person believes, feels and acts) and the structural level (social, economic and cultural structures).
Any comprehensive struggle for universal human rights is a struggle against all categorism. Not merely against some specific facet or focus of it. Any valid struggle against categorism is a struggle for universal human rights. Never to use a person's rights/dignity/freedom/needs as an excuse to deny that person, or someone else, their rights/dignity/freedom/needs. Or to shut down one struggle in favor of another. To derail discussions to drown out important issues is not a good thing either. The goal must be to liberate people and minds, not to move them from one cage to another.
This wiki explores...
- Various facets of categorism, ranging from the three archetypical facets of prejudice, bigotry and discrimination to more specific facets such as marginalization, stigmatization and monolithization.
- Various foci of categorism, ranging from widely know ones such as racism, sexism and homophobia to more obscure ones like gingerism and witchparanoia.
- Various abstractions of categorism, such as "no true scotsman fallacy" and "guilt by association".
...as well as various examples, related concepts and recommended reading. The wiki is primarily based on the Human Rights Studies Master Thesis "Categorization of Human Beings versus the Universality of Human Rights" by Xzenu Cronström Beskow. The thesis is available for download from the university's server.
