Slavery Rampant in Africa, Middle East; The West Wrongly Accuses Itself

[Victoria33]

Slavery Rampant in Africa, Middle East; The West Wrongly Accuses Itself :: Gatestone Institute

Slavery Rampant in Africa, Middle East; The West Wrongly Accuses Itself​

by Giulio Meotti
July 5, 2020 at 5:00 am

• For the intersectional activists, the US is the world’s biggest oppressor – not China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or Iran.
• “What the media do not tell you is that America is the best place on the planet to be black, female, gay, trans or what have you. We have our problems and we need to address those. But our society and our systems are far from racist”. — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Twitter, June 9, 2020.
• “The new anti-racism is racism disguised as humanism (…) It implies that every white person is bad… and that every black person is a victim”. — Abnousse Shalmani, born in Tehran, now living in Paris, to Le Figaro, June 12, 2020.
• “America looks different if you grew up, as I did, in Africa and the Middle East”. — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, The Wall Street Journal , June 26, 2020.

Most of this is on the mark I think. More at link.

 

[arvo]

I have rational solution to end all slavery and all human exploitation - forever. Let us adopt robotics and automation to eradicate all bad jobs. Let us develop artificial intelligence, cognitive robotics etc. Let us invest in R&D. There are so many bright people that are willing to program robots and AI and to program automation software instead of creating the yet another video game or yet another Android of iPhone app or yet another adult page. Let us invest in people and in science and technologies and development of automation. Let us eradicate bad jobs and hence the slavery will be eliminated at its root!!!

We, the Catholics, can do this policy shift. It is our calling and rational charity! Let us do this! Let us create new equestrian order that accumulates investment and that distributes investments, let the participants of this order automate bad jobs! We can do this! I pray for that!

 

[TK421]

Two wrongs do not make a right. Whataboutisms do not accomplish actionable change that can help people.

It is ideal for a country to be the primary criticizer of itself rather than criticizing outsiders.

 

[1ke]

“Hey, look over there” isn’t actually an argument.

 

[JulianN]

Being “better” than Tehran in how we treat the less powerful members of our society is setting a pretty low bar.

 

[mary15]

I find the robotics suggestion to be very intereresting as an idea.

I do think it would be lovely to have robots do the back breaking labor of harvesting crops and other labor intensive jobs if that would indeed prevent low wage jobs or the abuse of various peoples for labor.

Im not sure of all the ins and outs of actually bringing this to fruition, and if that would indeed stop all abuses.

I am thinking about human nature and the stain of sin.

Where ever we go, well, there we are. So to escape or try and prevent abuses…is that even possible in this world?

And who will be the laborers to create the robotics parts and the plants to create them?

Is AI against God and His creation, or is AI actually a gift from God as its a creation of ours based upon the intelligence He gifted us with, for the betterment of mankind?

 

[JSAD]

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Oh …what then will the humans do? And what about the ‘rights’ of the robots? wouldn’t that be then the new form of ‘slavery’?

 

[Mister_Friscus]

I understand that, but at the same time, if the lower end of the most wealthy 1% on earth apply language and labels that suggest they are oppressed and live horribly… it’s mentally unhealthy, and inconsiderate of how the rest of humanity lives. It’s important to maintain a worldwide perspective.

If you chop off the rest of the world, you can probably make America out to be the worst thing every. However, if you don’t chop off the graph, it looks a lot better. That perspective is important.

Just because a Valley Girl whines of how her daddy didn’t buy her a convertible for her 16th bday doesn’t mean she has legitimate gripes. The rest of her friends in paradise might have them, but the uber majority of people in the world will never have it so good as she does.

Americans always need to keep the grand picture. I think many modern activists want to chop the graph off to make things here in America worse than they are. The truth is, if you live in America, you are living in the greatest living conditions in human history. With this perspective, it kills a movement based on anger and victimhood… so it’s no wonder they want to avoid looking at the rest of the world.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

It is ideal for a country to be the primary criticizer of itself rather than criticizing outsiders.

“Hey, look over there” isn’t actually an argument.

Being “better” than Tehran in how we treat the less powerful members of our society is setting a pretty low bar.

There isn’t any whataboutism going on in this article unless you are missing the point or uninformed about what is going on.

The relevance of the article in the OP is tied to world events. The events in this country are not somehow independent of the influence of the rest of the world. Social Media Platforms Fight Back Against Manipulative Foreign Actors

The last paragraph of the article in the OP seems like a good summation of one of it’s most important points:

Real slave traders and racists – those who believe Western societies and values should not exist at all – most likely look at the current Western self-flagellation and cheer their approval.

 

[twf]

“Greatest conditions” in human history is a stretch. Yes, better than much of the world… but the US ranks below various European countries, Canada, etc when it comes to various indices including quality of life, happiness, democratic freedoms…

 

[JulianN]

There isn’t any whataboutism going on in this article unless you are missing the point or uninformed about what is going on.

The entire article is whataboutism. The premise seems to be that, since we are so much better than other places where abuse is truly horrific, nobody should be complaining about the problems we genuinely have. Except the author believes those problems are “imaginary racism.”

This isn’t an either/or proposition—we should support the end of slavery, misogyny and racism wherever it occurs. We should stand against genuine oppression of religious practice. We should also work to end racism, sexism and bigotry here in our own country, even if it’s “not as bad” as elsewhere.

 

[Mister_Friscus]

I stand by my claim. “Quality of Life” is a vague, generic title, living conditions are more direct. Average wages, safety, freedom of the individual, etc. No people in history have had it better than in America in modern times. There’s a reason why people still flock here more than Canada, Sweden, etc. Those gated communities have things to offer, but not like the USA.

 

[Mister_Friscus]

When we speak out against unproven, theorized, politically expedient claims of racism more than actual racism elsewhere, it reveals one as somewhat of a fraud.

Racism, sexism, they exist in individuals. The USA and its constitution certainly aren’t racist and sexist, and our overarching laws aren’t. If certain laws are found to be discriminatory, we change them. There are pockets of people who are bad, and we can all fight them together. What harms the cause is watering down terms by throwing them around to anyone you disagree with politically, which has been going on for decades, since the USSR disbanded. We stopped calling the USSR the worst and instead called the opposing party the worst.

Racism isn’t hard to identify. Academia has had to reword the definition many times so they can apply it to anyone they want. “Cryptoracism”… “Systematic racism”… we can’t prove it, but we know its there. I’m sorry, but when you make a big claim, you need big evidence… and simply pointing out anecdotal evidence as well as a difference in outcomes among cultures/races doesn’t cut it at all, as there are so many other factors that are at play.

Stop cutting the graph. It’s a cheap statistical trick. Let Americans know they’re living in great conditions worldwide, perhaps the virtue of appreciation can be had. If you convince groups they are being mistreated as bad as or worse than true slaves, it’s disrespectful to the slaves, and warps the perspective of the convinced. It’s not a nice thing to do. The worst of it all is, when it comes to the thinktanks of this movement, its planned. Destablize a government to change it. Cause class/race warfare, destablize safety… it’s rather sick. Marxism 101. BLM founders proudly proclaim they are Marxists, so if the shoe fits…

 

[annad347]

50% of my job is already being taken over by robots or advance computer programs, let’s not create something that will give the rich even more reason for them to get rid of people who need those back breaking jobs they don’t want to do… besides giving those jobs to an AI wont do anything except make the rich richer and the poor homeless.

And I think it’s sad that the best Americans can do is be like the Pharisee who says at least I’m not like the tax collector.

 

[Hume]

" Slavery Rampant in Africa, Middle East; The West Wrongly Accuses Itself"

I’ll re-title;

These Other Guys Do It Too, So It’s Kinda “Ok” If We Did It.

 

[VanitasVanitatum]

With this perspective, it kills a movement based on anger and victimhood… so it’s no wonder they want to avoid looking at the rest of the world.

There are real problems that America has and while it is good, brushing things off by pointing to the most deplorable of conditions is just as bad as the other extreme.

 

[Hodos]

Two wrongs do not make a right. Whataboutisms do not accomplish actionable change that can help people.

It is ideal for a country to be the primary criticizer of itself rather than criticizing outsiders.

I don’t think the issue here is “whataboutism.” The issue here is there is a narrative that is purposefully distorting historical reality that the United States has addressed racism in a profound way by appealing to her founding principles, and that we have actually made incredible strides that are virtually unprecedented in any other historical period of 250 years. While slavery was permitted at our founding, this was the reality in all the world (East and West, North and South). And it was the principles that the nation was founded upon that men like Jefferson who were flawed used to try to limit slavery in the United States. People forget that throughout his public career Jefferson tried numerous times to outlaw slavery, or prevent its spread. This set the stage for a growing abolition movement that culminated in the emancipation of slaves in the South during the Civil War, and the passage of the XIII-XVth Amendments. And though some parts of the United States put in place institutional barriers to blacks and other minorities through the codification of the Jim Crow laws, these laws were eventually repealed. Not only that, but other laws have since been passed such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and numerous bills since to make discrimination illegal. The issue people have is not that we refuse to deal with the results of slavery and racism, but that we have done so time and time again, and remain committed to doing so when actual acts of racism occur. We punch back at the intellectual dishonesty that says we are evil and don’t care about minorities when clearly we have done more in 250 years to benefit one another than has been done in the entire history of mankind.

 

[arvo]

No, it is not so. World needs today more people than ever - but in far better and meaningful jobs. E.g. while we can automate the agriculture and food processing, and we can automate even the drug discovery (as happened in Covid19), there are new branches which need people and the nascent anti-aging/rejuvanation industry is one of them, e.g. what medicine is saying Turning back time with emerging rejuvenation strategies | Nature Cell Biology !!!

It is so great, that robots and software can do mundane jobs and that people can work in searching for and implementing angi-aging therapies.

But this political will is of essence: 1) one should provide educational opportunities for all, especially in the times when robots and AI do so much. It should be norm that people is back in school (in one form or another) even when they have 40, 50 or even 60 years and education should be materially accessible. but it is political decision; 2) one should have access to the basic resources in these times of automation - e.g. - by receiving Andrew Yang Freedom Dividend or Varoufakis Citizen Dividend (kind of Universal Basic Income), but it is political decision of the People again.

besides giving those jobs to an AI wont do anything except make the rich richer and the poor homeless

This is political decision again - People have the power to tax robots, to provide for education, to provide for Universal Basic Income, to provide for Adult Education and so on, so on.

It is true tha automation creates the dualisation of jobs, precariat, unusual forms of work, but again - it is the decision of the People to legislate in a way that all people benefit from the work of robots and software, no just the owner of technologies and patents.

Even more - declining wage share Wage share - Wikipedia will necessitate some legislation of another. Again - it will be the political decision of everyone of us.

 

[annad347]

still wouldn’t end slavery… as long as there are people in the world who think other human beings should be slaves it will end it.

 

[adamhovey1988]

Yeah, but if you criticise the ideology behind this folks, that makes you a whateverphobe.