Hacker News Reader

Comment by unoti | Hacker News Reader

"Guys" is fine, except when it isn't. It's a pain point for some people, and it's reasonable to be sensitive to that.

> Yeah, and medieval oppression was actually real, unlike some other "oppression" I can think of.

That crosses the line into the ridiculous, and is precisely the kind of poison we should try to avoid. Oppression means longstanding cruel treatment or control. The author doesn't perceive longstanding class, gender and race based control and oppression over the last few generations in our society. That makes the author maybe not a great source to take advice from on the topic at hand.

View on HN

Oh god. So much this. Author is a ding-bat for pulling that terrible argument out. It makes it very hard to take the rest of the argument seriously when poorly thought out garbage like that is introduced. "I don't notice or feel the oppression, therefore it must not exist. Sample size of N=1 is good enough for me". Thick.

You really think the "oppression" of women in western industrialized nations today is comparable to the oppression of a conquered people in medieval times?

It's the author that made the comparison. And NO, I don't think they are comparable. I'm also the one that is not making the comparison. I think if you try to compare them you are an ass. That's my point, that it's stupid to compare them. Bad things are bad. Congrats.

Certainly not, no-- but that doesn't make the oppression we're talking about not real. We've come a long way. The oppression today is not anything like it was 50 years ago. But just because we've come a long way today doesn't mean that we need to quit striving for the ideal and trying to do better tomorrow. That's a fallacy. If everyone always thought that way, we'd have just been done when we gave women the vote a hundred years ago. Or maybe the 3/5ths compromise was a big improvement over the status quo at the time. I certainly don't think the oppression of various groups in the West is comparable to oppression of conquered people in medieval times; but that's no excuse to claim that the oppression of various groups in the West in modern times is not real.

What oppression?

Just for clarity: are you saying that women don't face any oppression in the US? How about Europe?

I am asking how women are oppressed in western democracies.

The author says nothing about class- or race-based oppression, either to address or dismiss, so that's a bit of a strawman, and the little bit of well-poisoning you do in your own last sentence doesn't elevate the discussion much either. Who is it we shouldn't be taking advice from, again?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com