[whimsicalism]

I don't really find this a compelling critique, but beyond that - the suggestion that what is experienced in the average modern-day sweatshop making your shoe is akin to the historical chattel slavery of the middle passage is absurd and hyperbolic.

[zmgsabst]

I was referring to forced labor from Uyghurs.

[whimsicalism]

Even that, which I have not seen evidence that the median shoe is produced by Uyghur labor, is not comparable to the middle passage & chattel slavery.

[zmgsabst]

In what way do you believe they are substantially different?

[whimsicalism]

In places where colonial chattel slavery was practiced, like Brazil, mortality rates were massive, living conditions were unimaginable, and people were bought and sold.

The average African slave in Brazil lived to be 23 years old.

The forced labor of interned Uyghurs, while reprehensible, is just not the same. Moreover, most shoes are not made with forced labor AFAIK.