this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
390 points (97.1% liked)
World News
32314 readers
760 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Because attributing any blame to a victim is always a sleazy attempt to shift all responsibility for a situation away from the aggressor and onto the victim. It's a common abuse tactic.
Plus, most people really aren't capable of doing what they need to do in life-threatening or abusive situations. Adults really don't have as much agency as they like to pretend they do, and I personally am tired of being dishonest about it.
I say that as one of the people who has been abused partly through their own failings and iniquities. I don't call myself a victim. I'm also not an average representative of people in abusive situations -- I have always been and always was capable of doing far more than most other people, and so I am telling you from that experience that you cannot attribute any responsibility for a situation on a victim like that. Most people are just NPCs and you need to respect that.
I agree with your intentions. The integrity of a victim mustn't be questioned. The issue to me is that it is not logical that attributing any blame does shift all responsibility. If that is the case then the victim is still in an abusive situation and priorities shouldn't lie on the usage of language.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope that you are in a safe environment. I am overextending my position a bit and claim that despite your experience we shouldn't accept limited agency in humans. For one, I have just been arguing that democracy relies on it. Apart from that, the aggressors can also claim limited agency. To me, that is not acceptable. Agency is a lie that we accept for the law to work. There are no aliens who take care of us. We have to make do with what we have.
That said, I am of course open to concepts about how to structure society with limited agency.
I don't really disagree with you, I'm just informing you of the reality of the situation. I just read on the World News reel here that 54% of American adults read below a 6th grade level -- that alone shows us that Americans at least really don't have any agency and I assert this is part of the reason why abuse and exploitation from all sides is so goddamn rampant here.
Stopping abuse is a fight that will have to be done through multiple methods, but the only way to do that is to restore our agency as a people, and the only way we can do that is by first recognizing that most of us really don't have it.
It's up to us who are educated and who therefore do have agency to lift the others up. We need to make government force people to be educated -- offer free remedial classes at community colleges, enforce a high-school level reading standard and if you can't meet that, you legally can't be gainfully employed. Anonymize testing and tie results to social security numbers. It can be done.
I was all with you until the forced education. Nothing kills curiosity faster. We can do better. There are enough humans that not everybody has to read, especially in a world of phones and videos.
The important part is respect. Children need an environment that nurtures it so that they are respectful as adults. A bit like 'do not abuse a child and it won't become an abusive adult.'
But yes, we don't have full agency. That's where development is needed.
Nah dude, literally everyone does have to be able to read. You can't do anything in life unless you can read, especially using the internet, and abusers specifically use the inability to read to exploit victims financially -- if you can't read, you can't sign contracts or consent to anything, you can't learn anything (and no, videos are not enough; most of the things they teach you require reading) and you can't effectively communicate with anybody who isn't directly in front of you.
I agree with you about the respect part. Respect is BADLY needed and the lack of it is part of the root cause of the collapse of the education system. People just don't think education or learning is needed, and I think deep down inside you suspect as much, which is why you were talking about victim agency.
I am convinced that reading will be replaced with computers generating videos. Apart from that, I agree.