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Comment by guard-of-terra | Hacker News Reader

There's more similarity between you and white men in Russia than you might think.

The trajectory of both cultures were at times parallel. Industrialization. Space race. Higher education accessible for middle class. Having to figure out womens and minorities rights, freedom of religion and abortion.

The bashing of white male culture obscures the fact that it's the culture that made universal human rights possible. Not done by Indians, Chinese or Arabs. We invented this idea that women and men, black and white should be viewed from same angle. Was universally unthinkable before.

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Firstly, I'm not American, so no, 'space race' is not part of my culture. Similarly, just because you can draw parallels, does not mean the cultures are the same. American men like to drink to excess? So do Russian men. Ergo the cultures are the same? But wait, Japanese men also like to drink to excess.

As for "white men figuring out women's rights"... are you serious? Women have had to fight for their rights every step of the way. And as for universal human rights, that wasn't a "white male" thing either. It came from certain parts of Europe, not "white males".

You can't simply take everything that came from any white country and just claim that it's a monoculture.

It's sad that 'space race' is not part of your culture. You've missed out on one of Top 5 Things To Do In XX Century.

WRT women had to fight every step: In Soviet Russia, which by the way I don't really like, women got quite a few rights over a range of time without big struggle, and that in part encouraged other white women in the world, and then all other women too, to go for what's theirs.

The white European male culture is what made fight for human rights possible. It's where it all happened, just like Jesus happened in Jerusalem and not in Ohio.

You're not even being internally consistent. Apparently I get to share in the culture of human rights because I'm a white male and white males were in Europe doing human rights things, but I don't get to share in the culture of the space race, which was done predominantly by white males? Why do I get to culturally associate with one and not the other?

> In Soviet Russia, which by the way I don't really like, women got quite a few rights over a range of time

The primary example of women's rights, the Suffragette movement, well predates the existence of the USSR. Women had gained the ability to vote in several countries before the start of WWI, let alone the USSR.

> The white European male culture is what made fight for human rights possible

No it didn't, because there isn't one culture like that. It's like saying that there's only one black culture, only one yellow culture, only one arab culture.

It's a question to you whether you get to shate the culture of the space race. You rejected it in your parent comment.

Suffrage is not everything. The right of doing your finances is another one. The right to abortion is yet other. Entering higher education a different one.

You make it sound like culture is a rigid thing like a barcode, it's either same on two individuals or different, end of story. It is not so. You share more with your peers, a bit less with other compatriots, a bit less with people from neighboring countries, a bit less, but still significant amount, with all white Europeans, and then you share some with the rest of the world.

But on the 'white European' level quite some interesting things do happen.

What the hell? Binary like a barcode? I couldn't be arsed anymore - you're projecting a bogeyman onto me that reflects nothing I've said.

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