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ZorbaTHut  2yr ago (text post)   35553 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 19, 2022

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But these memes, like the "human rights are not politics, so therefore if you disagree on what I think are human rights than you're human garbage," are pervasive

It's annoying, but I have yet to encounter any good counter-argument to this.

You can check out Scott's argument against deontology: http://web.archive.org/web/20170315153732/http://squid314.livejournal.com/323694.html

The very concept of human rights is a not-so-old, totally-political invention (which is not a judgment on their usefulness/validity). It's just that saying "X rights are human rights" as an assertion is supposed to corner the other side into admitting to reject some human rights which makes one a monster.

I wouldn't say it's perfect, but "thinking people are human garbage is itself a human rights violation" is usually the train of thought I go with.

It's a secular declaration of sacred values. Attempting to formulate a counterargument is about as effective as trying to formulate a counterargument to an evangelical's religious beliefs.

Human rights are a political football, that's how. 'Should we respect human rights or not' is a political question.

The counter argument I like:

Politics is the coordinated use of power to overcome human opposition.

With an explanation:

Building a dam is not politics, because it is collective power against natural forces. Deciding to build the dam is politics, because no dam is in everyone’s interest—implying some human opposition that the pro-dam collective must overcome.

So, applying that idea, my private support for (as an example) animal rights isn't political. Private support is just a feeling.

Donating to a cat shelter isn’t politics because there's no human opposition.

Joining an argument in hopes that other people will be shamed into supporting animal rights is a political act because I'm hoping to overcome the apathy or antipathy of the opposition.

I wouldn’t link an progressive to the original source for that idea, but I'll include it for completeness.

https://graymirror.substack.com/p/rise-of-the-neutral-company-1ba

You make up a bunch of rights too. Right to immigrate wherever you want? Right to not compete for your job with the whole globe.

I just want to know how it makes any sense for me to get rebuffed when complain about progressive writers putting their politics in my nerdy hobbies, with "everything is political", but somehow human rights is supposed to be "not politics".

Or forget about the argument from hypocrisy, since they don't work these days anyway. How in Jesus' name, of all the things one could pick, is the concept of "human rights" not political?

It's not supposed to make sense. When does any ideology care about making sense? They aren't optimized for truth-seeking.

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