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Viliam_Bur comments on [LINK] Why I'm not on the Rationalist Masterlist - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: Apprentice 06 January 2014 12:16AM

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Comment author: ThrustVectoring 06 January 2014 08:40:33PM 10 points [-]

IMHO, feminism has flat-out won. Women have the vote, they have reproductive rights, they have no-fault divorce, they have a majority of the collegiate student body, and they have equality of opportunity. Single, childless women who live in cities make more than their male counterparts. Wife-beating has been vilified. Society is hyper-vigilant about domestic violence.

What's left for feminists to fight for are pretty much non-issues in comparison - especially given the institutional, social, and organizational power they wield. They're still fighting for the rights of women, sure -- but that's more because they don't have anything else to do with themselves.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 07 January 2014 10:19:32AM *  8 points [-]

What's left for feminists to fight for are pretty much non-issues in comparison

Actually, there is a lot left for feminists to fight... but most of that is in other countries. Female genital mutilation being the most obvious example.

Two problems with that.

First, all humans are naturally selfish. My own hurt thumb feels like a greater tragedy than someone else being killed. In the same way, a sexist comment somewhere on internet feels like a greater issue than someone being mutilated on the other side of the planet, if the former is about me and the latter isn't. It's the same reason why Occupy is more popular than Effective Altruism; both are about people who have more giving to people who have less, but only in the former you are included in the list of possible recipients.

Second, there are political alliances, because the more applause lights you put together, the more applause you get. Unfortunately, at some moments some of the applause lights get in conflict. How can you believe "female genital mutilation is evil" and "all cultures are completely equal" or even "all native cultures are noble and perfect" at the same time? Let's rather focus on the non-issues which avoid these paradoxes; you can always safely speak about the evil of the white hetero cis males.

Maybe we need another movement that will care about eradicating female genital mutilation in the world. Even if doing so requires saying politically incorrect things.