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You're just being pedantic about what the word right should mean; it's silly. Rights are whatever society agrees them to be, that's it. It's an ever changing m
by gnaritas 9y ago
You're just being pedantic about what the word right should mean; it's silly. Rights are whatever society agrees them to be, that's it. It's an ever changing mutable list of what people agree to respect, nothing more and nothing less.
- djschnei 9y agoDon't say that like it's some long running historical understanding of what the word "right" means. If that is now the definition, it's a new definition much more ambiguous than the old. A right used to mean something that was passed to you by 'your creator' because of your humanity. A right wasn't something someone else could provide, it was only something we could all defend. Life, liberty, property. Not the work output of another man; that used to be called slavery.
- gnaritas 9y agoIt's not remotely new. > A right used to mean something that was passed to you by 'your creator' because of your humanity. No, words don't work that way. The word has always meant both of those things, some people like to use the word that way, and others have always used it in other ways because get this... words have multiple meanings and always have. There was never a time where what you said is true, you're romanticizing and simplify the past as if back then everyone just agree. Guess what, they didn't.
- icebraining 9y agoJeremy Bentham was a defender of legal rights while calling natural rights "nonsense upon stilts". This was in the 1700s.
- RivieraKid 9y agoOne of the few comments that gets it, gets downvoted... go figure.
- jwilk 9y agoFrom the HN guidelines: Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.