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Azathoth123 comments on What are your contrarian views? - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: Metus 15 September 2014 09:17AM

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Comment author: Azathoth123 17 September 2014 01:43:52AM *  7 points [-]

How would you define "privilege"?

Comment author: IlyaShpitser 17 September 2014 01:51:16AM *  11 points [-]

Easier difficulty setting for your life in some context through no fault or merit of your own.

Comment author: Azathoth123 17 September 2014 02:01:33AM 9 points [-]

So would you describe someone tall as having "height privilege" because they're better at basketball?

Comment author: Prismattic 17 September 2014 05:38:40AM *  25 points [-]

I'd argue that height privilege (up to a point, typically around 6'6") is a real thing, having nothing to do with being good at sports. There is a noted experiment, which my google-fu is currently failing to turn up, in which participants were shown a video of an interview between a man and a woman. In one group, the man was standing on a footstool behind his podium, so that he appeared markedly taller than the woman. In the other group, the man was standing in a depression behind his podium, so t that he appeared shorter. The content of the interview was identical.

Participants rated the man in the "taller" condition as more intelligent and more mature than the same man in the "shorter" condition. That's height privilege.

Comment author: jkaufman 17 September 2014 11:50:20PM 6 points [-]

There's also a large established correlation between height and income, though not enough to completely rule out a potential common cause like "good genes" or childhood nutrition.

Comment author: TheAncientGeek 17 September 2014 03:50:49PM 1 point [-]

You really need riders to the effect that privilege of an objectionable kind is unrelated to achievement or intrinsic abilities,

Comment author: Azathoth123 18 September 2014 12:43:03AM 3 points [-]

The problem is that most of the examples SJW object to are in fact related to achievement or intrinsic abilities.

Comment author: spxtr 17 September 2014 02:41:36AM 3 points [-]

This is a good definition. In particular, "Anti-oppressionists use "privilege" to describe a set of advantages (or lack of disadvantages) enjoyed by a majority group, who are usually unaware of the privilege they possess. ... A privileged person is not necessarily prejudiced (sexist, racist, etc) as an individual, but may be part of a broader pattern of *-ism even though unaware of it."

No, this is not a motte.

Comment author: ChristianKl 19 September 2014 09:03:35PM 4 points [-]

Why focus only specific majority groups and thereby ignore things like men in domestic violence issues getting a lot less help from society than women?

Nearly everyone has some advantages and disadvantages. It's often not helpful to conflate that huge back of advantages and disadvantages into a single variable.

Comment author: shminux 17 September 2014 05:14:27PM *  8 points [-]

Why the "majority group" qualifier? Privilege has been historically associated with minorities, like aristocracy.

Comment author: Azathoth123 17 September 2014 03:02:05AM 8 points [-]

Anti-oppressionists use "privilege" to describe a set of advantages (or lack of disadvantages) enjoyed by a majority group

Does it have to be a majority group? For example, does this compared with this count as an example of "black privilege"? Would you describe the fact that some people are smarter (or stronger) than others as "intelligence privilege" (or "strength privilege")?

Comment author: Prismattic 17 September 2014 05:33:32AM 4 points [-]

That's in the bailey, because of "enjoyed by a majority group."