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Friday, September 18, 2015

Debating Anti-Feminists: First World problems!

One of the most common arguments you will encounter is the fallacy of relative privation.

People who say, "Oh, if you're a feminist then you should focus on things going on in other countries!" are just using that as a red herring to distract from the topic and silence people. They are also committing a logical error called the relative privation fallacy. You shouldn't ignore problems in your own backyard simply because there may be worse issues in other parts of the world. That is how smaller problems quickly turn into much larger ones.

If we followed this reasoning then no problems would ever be solved because there is always something worse happening somewhere in the world. Marriage Equality? Nope, we can't fight for that because at least LGBT people aren't being killed like in other parts of the world. Church/State issues? Nope, we can't fight for those because at least Atheists and religious minorities are not being killed like in other parts of the world. Reproductive rights? Nope, can't fight for those because at least we have the other basic rights that women don't have in other parts of the world. You can apply this logic to anything. Gun-Rights supporters? Civil Rights? Advocating for the poor? Forget about ALL of it if we follow this logic because regardless of what issue you support, there is always something worse happening to your group in other areas of the world.

Also, if the person using this argument happens to be an MRA, then be sure to point out that it applies to THEIR issues as well. After all, there are far worse things happening to men in other countries than custody issues, signing up for selective service, circumcision, etc... If the person is a GamerGater, then you can quickly point out that corruption in the gaming industry is a first world problem as well so they should stop talking about it.

People do not get to just selectively apply this bad logic to feminists and other groups they dislike.

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