4 ms·

Pretty ballsy to proclaim western society and economic coercion as not "legitimate oppression".

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
The USSR. East Germany. Syria. The Sudan. Pretty sure you haven't lived in any of them. If you've ever been in real oppression, you wouldn't say that western society is legitimate oppression.
- doesnt_know 7y ago
  If you look around and see poverty and oppression in your own culture/country and your answer is "you should be grateful you're not in [worse country]", then you are part of the problem.
- throwaway2048 7y ago
  Its not a competition between who is the most oppressive. Just because its worse somewhere else dosen't make those concerns invalid.
- drugme 7y ago
  Right-wing seem to like playing this card -- "If you haven't lived in [whatever country we feel to be fundamentally opposed to 'Western' values at the moment] then you have nothing to say on the matter" -- yet I have many, many close contacts from those countries (including quite a few who have had serious run-ins with the authorities in those places), and I can't imagine of them saying that Western societies do not have "legitimate oppression". If anything what keeps coming up is that it seems strange to them that we think we're all that different from those countries (as if we're on a higher plane, basically).
  - drugme 7y ago
    Right-wing => Right-wingers
reallydude 7y ago
> Pretty ballsy to proclaim western society and economic coercion as not "legitimate oppression". Those are 2 claims, in which neither makes sense to me, probably due to a lack of detail. Did they make sense to you when you wrote it? If it's 'legitimate', are you referencing the oppression of the majority as a proxy for western society? Economic coercion - The threat or act by a sender government or governments to disrupt economic exchange with the target state, unless the target acquiesces to an articulated demand. It's possible that 'economic coercion' is now a misnomer, having been used to mean something else specific, initially. I have referenced a definition, for simplicity. Feel free to audit. As it stands, it is not oppression, unless any given demand is supposed to equate to the status of oppression? You can survive without participating in the economics, it just benefits you more to participate, where lifespan and pleasure is concerned. That isn't coercion any more than checking the material you put in your mouth is biological oppression, it's a linear optimization you're free not to make.

The USSR. East Germany. Syria. The Sudan. Pretty sure you haven't lived in any of them. If you've ever been in real oppression, you wouldn't say that western society is legitimate oppression.

doesnt_know 7y ago
If you look around and see poverty and oppression in your own culture/country and your answer is "you should be grateful you're not in [worse country]", then you are part of the problem.
throwaway2048 7y ago
Its not a competition between who is the most oppressive. Just because its worse somewhere else dosen't make those concerns invalid.
drugme 7y ago
Right-wing seem to like playing this card -- "If you haven't lived in [whatever country we feel to be fundamentally opposed to 'Western' values at the moment] then you have nothing to say on the matter" -- yet I have many, many close contacts from those countries (including quite a few who have had serious run-ins with the authorities in those places), and I can't imagine of them saying that Western societies do not have "legitimate oppression". If anything what keeps coming up is that it seems strange to them that we think we're all that different from those countries (as if we're on a higher plane, basically).
- drugme 7y ago
  Right-wing => Right-wingers

reallydude 7y ago

> Pretty ballsy to proclaim western society and economic coercion as not "legitimate oppression". Those are 2 claims, in which neither makes sense to me, probably due to a lack of detail. Did they make sense to you when you wrote it? If it's 'legitimate', are you referencing the oppression of the majority as a proxy for western society? Economic coercion - The threat or act by a sender government or governments to disrupt economic exchange with the target state, unless the target acquiesces to an articulated demand. It's possible that 'economic coercion' is now a misnomer, having been used to mean something else specific, initially. I have referenced a definition, for simplicity. Feel free to audit. As it stands, it is not oppression, unless any given demand is supposed to equate to the status of oppression? You can survive without participating in the economics, it just benefits you more to participate, where lifespan and pleasure is concerned. That isn't coercion any more than checking the material you put in your mouth is biological oppression, it's a linear optimization you're free not to make.