The Oppression Olympics

[brewer]

The dogs keep me in a constant state of servitude.

[The Grand Nudger]

Maybe it's not okay to oppress....at all?

Perhaps we can frame this as the Problem of Evil, which we can divide into natural evil and moral evil.  Eveyone is oppressed by natural evil - by an oppressive snowstorm or an oppressive disease.

Nah.  "Natural evil" doesn't oppress, it's non thinking and indiscriminate.

As for moral evil, people naturally organize themselves into social hierarchies, with the people on the bottom being oppressed by the people on the top, and the people on the top being oppressed by the people on the bottom.  

-and?  Just because some folks do it, doesn't mean we -should-.

Maybe life is just oppressive by nature.

Or maybe you have low expectations and standards? "It's just natural" and "everyone does it"...really? No and no, in any case.

[brewer]

New room mate time?

[TheRealJoeFish]

I'm wondering why the OP has any skin in the game.

Good question.  I'm a straight white male, so why should I care?  Well, I have a new roommate who is a sociology grad student, so he talks a lot about privilege and oppression, and I at least want to know where I stand.  He is a Hispanic male.  It does bother me a little bit that his whole ideology is based on the belief that white males are society's master oppressors, and I sometimes wonder why he's even nice to me at all given that his worldview points to me, the white male, as his oppressor and the source of all evil in society.  

...

Bolded seems like an egregious misunderstanding of ideas about privilege and oppression.  If he's literally told you that you, as a white man, have oppressed him, then the misunderstanding is his.  If you've heard him talk about the "privilege of the white male class that effectively oppresses minority groups" and have interpreted this to mean that he's calling you an oppressor because you're a white male, then the misunderstanding is yours.

[The Grand Nudger]

That's the thing about oppression.  There is no requirement that it be consciously arranged, or actively engaged in.  This misconception is what fuels milleniel apathy, milleniels being the most racially apathetic group on record since we started tracking the data.

"It's not me being oppressed.  I didn't set up the system.  I don't personally set out to oppress.  Why is it my problem?  Do they really have it so bad anyway, that was a long time ago, and isn't all this talking about it unfair to me in some way? "

In a twisted reversal of misfortune, the case could be made that racial antipathy is -preferable- to racial apathy, in that it shows that a person is at least engaged and active with their perceptions of those defined as other...and as such, more amenable to both being swayed by countervailing opinion and to take action as regards those countervailing opinions if swayed. OTOH.... racial apathetics are shitty people who..perhaps, accidentally support the traditional hierarchy of oppression, whereas racial antipathetics have a habit of stringing people up in trees.

[A Theist]

I'm wondering why the OP has any skin in the game.

I'm wondering why you're asking. Your point?

[The Grand Nudger]

Hehe, the usual suspects are -almost- all here.  Just a few more and I get to yell "Bingo!"

[A Theist]

Hehe, the usual suspects are -almost- all here.  Just a few more and I get to yell "Bingo!"

I see you reserved your own space on the Bingo card, too. As usual.

[The Grand Nudger]

OFC, I told yall fellas before, you make me feel at home.  

[A Theist]

OFC, I told yall fellas before, you make me feel at home.  

Always got a light shining in the window for you.