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>Every country has things the culture is sensitive of. That might be child pornography for the USA, or drugs for Malaysia, or comments about the king for Thaila
by EpicEng 8y ago
>Every country has things the culture is sensitive of. That might be child pornography for the USA, or drugs for Malaysia, or comments about the king for Thailand.
That doesn't make them morally equivalent. You can't defend 30 years in prison for being mean.
- bicubic 8y agoMorally equivalent? Who is the arbiter of moral valence? This sense of moral superiority or having a better judgement than others, is exactly the property that blinds individuals and entire cultures to the absurdity of their own morals.
- minkzilla 8y agoClaiming moral superiority is different from judging morality. As humans we judge morality through our reason. It is reasonable, irrespective of culture, to conclude that child pornography is worse than saying something mean about a king.
- bicubic 8y agoHave a peruse through Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish". It's impossible to take these moral absolutism claims seriously after spending any time studying the history of crime and morality. Almost every culture at almost every point in history prevalently believes they have morals figured out and anything that came before them or from elsewhere is absurd.
- EpicEng 8y agoI don't believe in strict moral relativism. Some things are self evident, e.g., child abuse is an objectively worse crime than is speaking out against one's government (the latter of which shouldn't be a crime at all.) If we can't agree on that then I don't think we'll ever agree on anything.
- digianarchist 8y agoInsulting the royal family in the UAE or Saudi Arabia will also get you jailed. In Thailand a lot of people jailed for Lèse-majesté get pardoned by the king. This king is new though so that might not continue.