a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by Grendel
Grendel  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Slate Star Codex on similarities between social justice and anti-social-justice

Any article that begins with a "content warning" is immediately suspicious in my eyes. The first paragraph unfortunately confirmed my suspicions.

    The social justice narrative describes a political-economic elite dominated by white males persecuting anybody who doesn’t fit into their culture, like blacks, women, and gays. The anti-social-justice narrative describes an intellectual-cultural elite dominated by social justice activists persecuting anybody who doesn’t fit into their culture, like men, theists, and conservatives. Both are relatively plausible; Congress and millionaires are 80% – 90% white; journalists and the Ivy League are 80% – 90% leftist.

The fact that most millionaires and senators are white doesn't prove that white men persecute anyone they don't like, or even that most whites are rich and powerful; so this isn't even an "apex fallacy", it's a non-sequitur. On the other hand, the preponderance of leftist ideologues in universities and the media would actually seem to support what he defines as the anti-social-justice narrative.





tauta_krypta  ·  3445 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's worth reading further – he doesn't really support one side or the other (see for example: "there are a lot of social justice arguments I really hate"), and more considers the psychology of both sides.

Grendel  ·  3443 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's obvious from the first paragraph that he's trying to offer a balanced view and not take sides; unfortunately it's also obvious that his reasoning skills are terrible...