What makes this statement cut deeper than a simple plea for tolerance is its insistence that the problem isn't *which* collective judgment we're making—it's the act of judging collectively itself. Wiesel, who survived Auschwitz, understood that the machinery of hatred doesn't require elaborate theories; it requires only the habit of sorting people into categories and assigning them worth. Notice he doesn't say "some judgments are wrong"—he says *all* collective judgments are, which means even seemingly generous ones ("this group is naturally kinder" or "this culture is more artistic") carry the same poisoned logic. A hiring manager might hire someone specifically *because* they belong to an underrepresented group, believing they're correcting injustice, but Wiesel's warning suggests that belief itself—however well-intentioned—still treats individuals as representatives of a group rather than as themselves.