Do you agree with this statement?

[otherlander]

"Attitudes in society that view people as being divided into two groups, and define/restrict people based on these groups, are often harmful to both groups involved. When this type of thinking results in one group having more power than the other, people in the more privileged group, harmed by the restrictions on their group, are deserving of sympathy if and only if they are willing to take action against their own more-privileged status."

[Adsos Letter]

1. Looking for help with a term paper?

[otherlander]

2. No.

We're not learning about anything nearly this interesting. Just calculus, Nazis, and a guy who wants us to call him Ishmael.

[HereSince1628]

3. Go Robin Hood! Thou robbeth from the rich...

til some yeoman with a bigger stick doth come and taketh it off ye dead arse.

Nature herself doth abhor the concentration of capital. Wealth was meant to be distributed so saith Lorde Entropeee.

[otherlander]

6. ?

Okay, I guess you're taking this to be about class. That's one thing it could be applied to, although it could just as easily be applied to gender, race, sexual orientation, etc.

Your post seems kind of off-topic, but while we're on the subject, how do you feel about people who talk about redistributing wealth while wearing Rolex watches?

[gateley]

4. What do YOU think, otherlander? nt

[otherlander]

7. I think it's mostly true

But it wouldn't apply to young children. For example, gender roles in our society unjustly make males more privileged than females. But if bullies were punished for beating up a girl, but allowed to get away with beating up a boy, that would be a negative and unjust effect of gender roles on the boy (males expected to look out for themselves, be "macho", etc.) And I wouldn't expect the boy to know anything about feminism or male privilege, because he's just a kid.

[TahitiNut]

5. ...

[otherlander]

8. ...

:shrug:

[otherlander]

9. I thought maybe it could be a starting point

When someone starts a thread about sexism, racism, or homophobia, or any other kind of bias, it usually turns into a fight, and obviously the thread is dominated by discussion about that one issue. But I thought that maybe this statement could be a starting point for discussions about all of those. I know there are some people who feel that they're being labeled as villains every time a thread gets started about a bias which places them in the more privileged group, and I really don't feel that that's what those threads are about. I think that they just address very real things that are wrong in the world. But as someone else said on here, there are so many of these... what to call them? Vectors of power?... so many of them that most of us wind up being favored in some and discriminated against in others.

So I thought that this could be a starting point, for no matter what groups you fall into, because it acknowledges the bad effects these restrictive roles have on everyone, and welcomes people who are willing to stand against biases in their favor. When I started this thread I worried that it might turn into a flamewar so I'm kind of surprised that so few people answered... Was the wording too formal-sounding to hold your attention? Because I was just trying to use the most objective terms possible because I know how one wrong word can make about 900 people start screaming at you around here.