3 ms·

My point wasn't about the punishment, it was about what people find horribly distasteful and offensive -- and why your pet standard might not necessarily be the

My point wasn't about the punishment, it was about what people find horribly distasteful and offensive -- and why your pet standard might not necessarily be the one accepted by 50 million Burmese. Reducing it to "Ha ha, a picture of Buddha wearing headphones on Facebook gets you jail time!" is a bit simplistic to be honest. How do you know that a Buddha with headphones isn't offensive enough to the people of Myanmar for them to legislate against it? Anyway, in case you are genuinely concerned with the difference in magnitude of punishment, see the reply to my comment in which someone has pointed out how owning a manga can get you prosecuted in the US. As a side note, I should clarify (if some people were in doubt) that I don't agree with the Burmese decision. Throwing people in jail for two years for an offensive picture is, in my opinion, ridiculous. And so is the manga example, or how Matt Taylor was pilloried on social media. If, in your opinion, makes me a "professional man-child", so be it.

pjlegato 12y ago
The magnitude of the difference in punishment is not relevant, nor is whatever may or may not happen in the west. We can say that sending someone to jail for putting Buddha on a flyer is objectively bad, without regard to frame of reference or our own background. Doing so does not carry an implicit hidden second meaning of "... and our culture is by implication better." What our culture (or any other) does is not relevant. (again, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque) Your position seems to amount to "hey, I personally think it's bad, but I wouldn't impose my views on them; if they think it's so terrible as to jail someone, who am I to say they shouldn't?" This is cultural relativism, which suffers from the problems I outlined in my previous post.
- parennoob 12y ago
  > We can say that sending someone to jail for putting Buddha on a flyer is objectively bad I don't think this is 'tu quoque'. I have not heard a lot of people (on HN or otherwise) saying that castigating Matt Taylor for wearing a racy shirt is objectively horrible. This would make me think that it is a cultural thing -- i.e. I am alone in thinking it is objectively bad; and therefore probably culturally un-attuned. Therefore, my belief in its objective badness must be wrong. Hence, I believe that putting people in jail for showing a Buddha with headphones, might also be a culturally okay thing to do for the Burmese (just as shaming Matt Taylor for wearing a racy shirt till he cries on TV is culturally okay in the US).

pjlegato 12y ago

The magnitude of the difference in punishment is not relevant, nor is whatever may or may not happen in the west. We can say that sending someone to jail for putting Buddha on a flyer is objectively bad, without regard to frame of reference or our own background. Doing so does not carry an implicit hidden second meaning of "... and our culture is by implication better." What our culture (or any other) does is not relevant. (again, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque) Your position seems to amount to "hey, I personally think it's bad, but I wouldn't impose my views on them; if they think it's so terrible as to jail someone, who am I to say they shouldn't?" This is cultural relativism, which suffers from the problems I outlined in my previous post.

parennoob 12y ago
> We can say that sending someone to jail for putting Buddha on a flyer is objectively bad I don't think this is 'tu quoque'. I have not heard a lot of people (on HN or otherwise) saying that castigating Matt Taylor for wearing a racy shirt is objectively horrible. This would make me think that it is a cultural thing -- i.e. I am alone in thinking it is objectively bad; and therefore probably culturally un-attuned. Therefore, my belief in its objective badness must be wrong. Hence, I believe that putting people in jail for showing a Buddha with headphones, might also be a culturally okay thing to do for the Burmese (just as shaming Matt Taylor for wearing a racy shirt till he cries on TV is culturally okay in the US).