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Comment by vidarh | Hacker News Reader

> Fair enough, but that advantage is well deserved if they worked to build it.

But the point is we didn't work to build it. Merely being born were I was gave me extremely high odds of being amongst the richest people in the world.

At most you could claim my ancestors "worked to build it", but that's still a massive stretch - the main reason for the wealth I grew up around was oil and European imperialism.

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yay lets nerf those undeserving white men. that will make the world a better place

How does recognizing you are lucky imply "needing" them? Telling well of American children to keep in mind their privilege and that most people in the world don't have what they have hardly seems like Marxism to me.

'Privilege' implies shame. 'Culture' implies pride.

I prefer to teach our kids culture.

No. Wrong. Privilege implies no such thing. Privilege is not a moral judgment: it is a description of a condition. You are privileged when you have advantages due to your religion, birth class, sexual orientation, or other socially relevant criteria.

You are a dick when you refuse to recognize when you are privileged and act to reinforce your privileged position.

Pride (or shame) in other people's actions seems irrational to me (unless you had some involvement).

Why should I feel proud that I am from the same country as Isaac Newton? Or shame about the bombing of Dresden? I had nothing to do with either of those things.

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