There a certain argument that I will call the glorification of self interest.
It goes like this:
People who are subject to personal threats of their livelihood, tend to think about those threats and focus their mental energies on fighting those threats whenever possible.
Because those people are indeed facing threats, they are they good guys which have to be defended. Anybody who isn’t centrally concerned with threats against them, is privileged and should be ashamed for being privileged.
The only way to act utilitarian and care substantially about people in some far off country is because one doesn’t have personal threats against oneself that need attention.
I don’t think that’s true. During the last US presidential election there were people who argued that Glenn Greenwald can afford to oppose Obama because of personal liberty issues and being a warmonger because Glenn Greenwald isn’t subject of a minority for whom it’s very important that Obama and not some Republican heads the White House.
At that point Glenn Greenwald lived in exile in Brazil because his homosexual partner couldn’t legally live in the US. As far as being discriminated against being forced to live in exile seems to be something serious. That still didn’t prevent social justice warriors from saying that Glenn opposed Obama because of his privilege as a middle class white American man.
But they’re racists who continually obsess over optimizing their philanthropic contributions to African charities. So, maybe not racists in a dangerous way?
If you are an African American and get support from some sort of charity, then you are in danger if somebody comes and says that you shouldn’t get that support because it’s higher utility to spend that money on a charity that actually operates in Africa.
If you do the utility calculation you will stop supporting many of the programs that social justice warrorism favors.
I once had a conflict in an online community about whether an African is allowed to say in that community: “Just because some countries legalized homosexuality doesn’t mean that it isn’t still a crime.” The person lived in a country in which it was a crime. We had a split that those who were white heterosexual males favored allowing the African his free expression and a US upper-middle-class woman and homosexual male wanted to censor that person.
The kind of safety belts that US social warriors want are policies that keep the majority of the world from participating.
If you are a member of an US minority group than of course you have to fear someone who makes clear utility calculations and comes to the conclusion that resources are better directed at helping poor Africans than members of US minority groups because in contrast the fate of the poor African is simply worse.
That doesn’t mean that members of US minority groups don’t suffer to some extend. but showing that you suffer just isn’t enough. If you however suffer and don’t want to make clear utility calculations because you don’t want to weaken your tribe, then you will find it hard to fit into this community.
I don’t think the claim that the only way to do those clear utility calculations is to have no self interest and thus have privilege. I think that unfair to those people in minorities.
There a certain argument that I will call the glorification of self interest.
It goes like this: People who are subject to personal threats of their livelihood, tend to think about those threats and focus their mental energies on fighting those threats whenever possible. Because those people are indeed facing threats, they are they good guys which have to be defended. Anybody who isn’t centrally concerned with threats against them, is privileged and should be ashamed for being privileged.
The only way to act utilitarian and care substantially about people in some far off country is because one doesn’t have personal threats against oneself that need attention.
I don’t think that’s true. During the last US presidential election there were people who argued that Glenn Greenwald can afford to oppose Obama because of personal liberty issues and being a warmonger because Glenn Greenwald isn’t subject of a minority for whom it’s very important that Obama and not some Republican heads the White House.
At that point Glenn Greenwald lived in exile in Brazil because his homosexual partner couldn’t legally live in the US. As far as being discriminated against being forced to live in exile seems to be something serious. That still didn’t prevent social justice warriors from saying that Glenn opposed Obama because of his privilege as a middle class white American man.
If you are an African American and get support from some sort of charity, then you are in danger if somebody comes and says that you shouldn’t get that support because it’s higher utility to spend that money on a charity that actually operates in Africa.
If you do the utility calculation you will stop supporting many of the programs that social justice warrorism favors.
I once had a conflict in an online community about whether an African is allowed to say in that community: “Just because some countries legalized homosexuality doesn’t mean that it isn’t still a crime.” The person lived in a country in which it was a crime. We had a split that those who were white heterosexual males favored allowing the African his free expression and a US upper-middle-class woman and homosexual male wanted to censor that person.
The kind of safety belts that US social warriors want are policies that keep the majority of the world from participating.
If you are a member of an US minority group than of course you have to fear someone who makes clear utility calculations and comes to the conclusion that resources are better directed at helping poor Africans than members of US minority groups because in contrast the fate of the poor African is simply worse.
That doesn’t mean that members of US minority groups don’t suffer to some extend. but showing that you suffer just isn’t enough. If you however suffer and don’t want to make clear utility calculations because you don’t want to weaken your tribe, then you will find it hard to fit into this community.
I don’t think the claim that the only way to do those clear utility calculations is to have no self interest and thus have privilege. I think that unfair to those people in minorities.