2 ms·

This comment is just both a personal attack and straw man and doesn't address anything in the original comment or the topic at hand.

Enginerrrd 4y ago
I disagree. My comment is about the phrase: >"In a larger sense, academia and a big chunk of contemporary western "culture" is all about coming up with stories, narratives, explanations, mindsets (frameworks) to ignore the exploitation of humans as a resource for the sake of ill-defined (by design) notions of "the group" or "us all" when in fact the end result is a big hierarchical pyramid with little room at the top which requires lots and lots of desperate people at the bottom" This notion that capitalism and gainful employment is all some fundamental exploitation of people is really common on Reddit. I encounter it all the time. This idea, and those which cluster around it, really could be quoted in just a slightly rephrased version out of the works of Marx and Engels. I noticed this sentiment started really picking up around 2016, and I consider it a public duty to temper it with the reality check that it is absolutely communist in nature. So... since I'm discussing a general trend on Reddit, I'm not sure how you considered it a personal attack. Other than perhaps the preconceived notion that "communism=bad" and therefore labeling it as such is an "attack"? I also fail to understand how this is a straw man? The comment above me and above that one were both already discussing this. Noting that the sentiment is deeply connected to communist ideology is I think quite relevant. Is it that you consider communism to be an easily defeatable and unrelated idea to the one I was discussing? Since I think they are in fact VERY related, I don't think the straw man applies. And since communism has captured the minds of many, many people over last century, I don't see how it's easily defeated either.

Enginerrrd 4y ago

I disagree. My comment is about the phrase: >"In a larger sense, academia and a big chunk of contemporary western "culture" is all about coming up with stories, narratives, explanations, mindsets (frameworks) to ignore the exploitation of humans as a resource for the sake of ill-defined (by design) notions of "the group" or "us all" when in fact the end result is a big hierarchical pyramid with little room at the top which requires lots and lots of desperate people at the bottom" This notion that capitalism and gainful employment is all some fundamental exploitation of people is really common on Reddit. I encounter it all the time. This idea, and those which cluster around it, really could be quoted in just a slightly rephrased version out of the works of Marx and Engels. I noticed this sentiment started really picking up around 2016, and I consider it a public duty to temper it with the reality check that it is absolutely communist in nature. So... since I'm discussing a general trend on Reddit, I'm not sure how you considered it a personal attack. Other than perhaps the preconceived notion that "communism=bad" and therefore labeling it as such is an "attack"? I also fail to understand how this is a straw man? The comment above me and above that one were both already discussing this. Noting that the sentiment is deeply connected to communist ideology is I think quite relevant. Is it that you consider communism to be an easily defeatable and unrelated idea to the one I was discussing? Since I think they are in fact VERY related, I don't think the straw man applies. And since communism has captured the minds of many, many people over last century, I don't see how it's easily defeated either.