They shouldn’t be happening to anyone
Posted on | October 9, 2018 | No Comments
A problem with saying that you want to protect women’s rights because you love your mother, sister, best friend, wife is that essentially you are saying that you’re passionate about what happens with the people you love and you don’t really care that much about what happens to strangers. That ultimately you want justice for people you know, who you most closely identify with. Which is a particular problem with justice. And why men stand with men against women, and why racism is such a powerful force.
This same approach is being used by conservatives when they say we need to protect our sons, our husbands, our fathers. Essentially saying you need to protect the people you love and people outside of that protective sphere can be allowed to suffer because they are less real because you don’t know them.
The thing is that the people you love are strangers to the vast majority of the world. Laws aren’t for protecting people you love. They’re for protecting everyone, including people you don’t know well enough to care about. If strangers aren’t protected the people you love are also in danger. That we need to say these things are wrong one hundred percent of the time. The things aren’t wrong because they might happen to someone you love.
They’re wrong because they shouldn’t be happening to anyone.
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