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Sure, but thinking privilege is equatable to guilt is missing the point.
by hhmc 5y ago
Sure, but thinking privilege is equatable to guilt is missing the point.
- marcellus23 5y agoI don’t think anyone said that. Lots of people _do_ think you should feel guilt for privilege. Pretending those people don’t exist isn’t helping the progressive movement. It’s important for progressives to acknowledge and counter the people who wave the progressive flag but espouse the opposite of progressive ideals.
- whimsicalism 5y agoI disagree. I see vastly more people claiming that privilege acknowledgement is tied in with guilt who oppose the notion of "privilege" than I see "lots of people" espousing the notion of privilege guilt who actually think we should talk about privilege. I don't personally believe in reparations as commonly framed, but saying that reparations ought to be paid is also not the same thing as saying people should feel guilty for actions they didn't take. > It’s important for progressives to acknowledge and counter the people who wave the progressive flag but espouse the opposite of progressive ideals. I think this can be taken too far. Disavowal can be important at times, but I find there is often a trend among the Right to highlight random views held by an extremely small minority of people (ie. a single tweeting American among 315 million Americans) and demand a disavowal of that rhetoric. I think this is in bad faith. This comment thread, in my view, is emblematic of this in that simply by using the word "privilege" we are now being asked to disavow something that some nebulous "lots of people" attach to that word, even though the word was clearly not being used in that context here.
- marcellus23 5y agoFrankly, it’s not a strawman. Look on twitter and you’ll find plenty of evidence of that kind of thinking. > but I find there is often a trend among the Right to highlight random views held by an extremely small minority of people (ie. a single tweeting American among 315 million Americans) and demand a disavowal of that rhetoric. I think this is in bad faith. Agreed. Where I disagree is that the left doesn’t do this exact same thing, or that these views are held by “a single tweet” and not, say, entire online communities. For the record, I generally agree with you, but to the same extent that avowal can go too far, it is very easy to go too far in assuming all ridiculous positions on our side are strawmen. A lot of people do think that way. Nothing wrong with acknowledging privilege — but you don’t need to feel personally guilty over things out of your control like your inherited wealth or your skin color. I think we can all agree on that.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hhmc 5y ago> Lots of people _do_ think you should feel guilt for privilege. Except I don't see anyone in this comment thread actully expousing that belief. I _do_ however see a lot of people strawmanning it.
- marcellus23 5y agoThis thread does not contain the entirety of discourse about privilege.
- hhmc 5y agoSure, but that's a thought-terminating argument.
- marcellus23 5y agoNo it’s not. We’re debating about the ways people think about privilege. There’s no requirement that those ways are all expressed in this particular thread. It doesn’t terminate anything — the discussion can continue, but “I don’t see an example of that right here” is not a counter argument.
- joshuamorton 5y agoThat's literally what the first two comments on this thread say.