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Comment by mason55 | Hacker News Reader

What’s the difference between cultural discrimination and constructive criticism? Can you complain that the Saudis don’t (didn’t) let women drive or is that cultural discrimination? Anti-FGM campaigns?

I’m being intentionally obtuse but there has to be a line somewhere. Or not and people should be free to argue without fear of the label “cultural discrimination”.

FWIW I have no idea what the answer is.

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It depends whether your criticism is informed and empathetic. Are you criticizing to prove that another group is somehow "lesser" or "other", or are you listening to and supporting activists from within those groups? How informed are you on the issue, etc.

I've bumped into this recently with SE Asian politics. The West has tried to get SE Asia to be democratic for decades. But SE Asians have, almost uniformly, rejected democracy and opted for variations on monarchies, communist autocracies, military juntas, and "elected" dictators.

At what point do we accept that SE Asians don't want to have democratic governments, and just let them do their thing?

OR do we never accept that, of any culture, and keep pushing them to be democratic because it's "better"?

how do you know which are the "correct" activist groups to support? there are many different groups that could be considered activist in most large countries. if you just pick ones that largely align with Western values, it doesn't seem much better than being uninformed.

Look for where their funding comes from. Puppet organizations will often lead you back to U.S. state-funded organizations like the NED or BBG or billionaire-funded NGOs

sure, it's easy enough to filter out blatant puppet organizations this way, but I'm asking a different question. in pretty much any community you will find different groups of people organizing in good faith to improve it. if they disagree with each other, how do you decide which one to support?

> What’s the difference between cultural discrimination and constructive criticism? Can you complain that the Saudis don’t (didn’t) let women drive or is that cultural discrimination?

I would argue that individuals should be treated on their own individual merit, and not on the merits of their race/religion/nation/culture.

If you meet a Saudi person who doesn't allow his wife/daughter to drive cars, feel free to shun him all you like. If you meet a different Saudi person who does treat his wife and daughters with equality, I would hope that you would give him a fair shake.

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