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You can add to that a large part of why circumcision was promoted in the US originally was to control men's sexuality (see: Dr. Kellogg[1] - incidentally he also promoted using acid to circumcise girls). You can bet that the idea of desexualizing African men appeals to a certain subset of fearful white Americans.

That may be an inflammatory statement but if one looks at some of the more extreme corners of internet opinion it's not hard to believe. That said I wouldn't expect most people who the idea appeals to to admit it, but given that science is obviously not on the side of those promoting circumcision one has to look for possible motivation elsewhere.

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moral-landscapes/201...




You are attributing to malice what could easily be attributed to stupidity.


It's entirely fair to consider the possibility of malice as a subconscious motivation among some people. The very frequent blind application of Hanlon's razor seems to me to be almost worse than ignoring it entirely.


Yes, but what motivates those people isn't relevant unless they're the ones making the decisions.




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