[lookbothways]

Man, if there ever was an instance of alienating a sympathetic audience, this would be it.

How does one take a golden argument like "privacy is an inalienable right," turn it into a tired "you should be ashamed for being white, check your privilege shitlord" flamebait, and still get taken seriously?

[glesica]

> you should be ashamed for being white, check your privilege shitlord

You had to work pretty damn hard to get this out of that quote. His point was that a lot of people who say they (and by extension society, this part is important) don't need privacy probably don't need privacy because their privilege protects them. So then the goal has to be to convince them that their privileged position makes them a special case, and that they should care about the unprivileged. It isn't just white people who have privilege, that's just an example.

This general idea really isn't controversial, but the terminology elicits very strong negative reactions in people for some reason (I honestly don't understand it). If I pointed out that the TSA screens darker-skinned people with extra vigor, often inconveniencing those people, most people would agree with me. If I then said that I don't care about this issue because I'm white, so I breeze through TSA checkpoints without any problems, many people would tell me I should be a little more considerate of others.

But if I call myself "privileged" in this instance then all of a sudden people would be whining about social justice warriors or something like that. Very strange.

[aaronem]

> But if I call myself "privileged" in this instance then all of a sudden people would be whining about social justice warriors or something like that

No one has ever managed successfully to divorce the concept of privilege from the implication of blame, so saying that someone has privilege (or, worse in this context, is privileged), is tantamount to saying that they're a bad person and they should feel bad. Is it any wonder there's pushback?

Whether privilege and blame should be so inextricably linked is a separate discussion, and one I've seen from time to time in progressive circles. But, to people who aren't deeply enough immersed in such circles to be familiar with all the theory around the concept, that's how it comes across.

[glesica]

I guess I've never really associated privilege and blame. Maybe other people do, I can't speak for anyone but myself. I do, however, think that blame is appropriate when a person refuses to admit that privilege exists.

For example, the way I see it, I can't help that I'm white, it isn't my fault, I didn't do anything to "earn" my white privilege. However, if I refuse to at least acknowledge that I have privilege, then that is my fault, for that I would deserve blame.

[superuser2]

>is tantamount to saying that they're a bad person and they should feel bad

What makes you (hypothetically) a bad person is having privilege and supporting policy which benefits the privileged at the expense of the unprivileged. The blame is assigned not for being a member of a privileged class, but for forming and acting on political opinions (including acceptance of the status quo) based on that privilege.

People who use privilege as an argument aren't asking you to be ashamed of being white, they're asking you to be ashamed of being conservative.

[theorique]

People who use privilege as an argument aren't asking you to be ashamed of being white, they're asking you to be ashamed of being conservative.

Well that's a big problem too.

It's essentially erasing the experience and stories of an entire swath of the political spectrum, and shaming people for their political orientation.