This isn't to say what we're doing is okay. Just because it's usual doesn't mean it's RIGHT. But I find it kinda eye-rolling how people will use their own white guilt to recenter discussions to be about themselves.
YES. Even when they're villains it's about white people. The narrative isn't about the sufferings of their victims, but the evilness of the people making them suffer. Hence objectification.
And I'm sure it would please you to know (not really) that one of the most successful cult leaders in the US was a Korean dude, Sun Myung Moon!
Ugh yeah. The Moonies are a problem back here, too. I've heard a lot about labor violations in a Moonie-run school here, and am involved as a representative in one such case. From the descriptions of the teachers I've talked to, the school sounds like a thoroughly abusive organization. This doesn't represent even a hundredth of the Moonies' corruption, of course.
Admittedly, in the US, missionaries DID have a lot to answer for in the havoc they wreaked on Native American and Pacific Islander communities, where it really was a matter of "convert or die." (Or lose your children, or...)
Oh absolutely, missionary work has been destructive in a lot of places, particularly in conjunction with the work of subjugation. Given my own country's largely positive experience with missionaries my impulse is to think that it was the programme of subjugation that was the problem, not the religion, but of course religion was also an animating and amplifying force in the destruction of indigenous peoples, and of minority groups like Jews.
Then again, atheism has also been used in imperialism--communist China comes to mind.
Careful, some New Atheist is liable to jump down your throat if they see that. "Atheism is not a religion, or ideology, or any kind of unifying force! I have nothing in common with Mao or Stalin!" I think it's more accurate to say anti-theism, or anti-religious thought and policy. After all, the Communists' main thing wasn't merely that God doesn't exist--it was that religion was an evil that should be stamped out.
The problem isn't necessarily our religion, but the power we wield over others so callously.
Exactly. And that's part of my beef with this New Atheism, that in their rage-on for religion they tend to downplay other and, in my mind, far more destructive evils like imperialism, expansive capitalism, and lack of civil protections.
no subject
YES. Even when they're villains it's about white people. The narrative isn't about the sufferings of their victims, but the evilness of the people making them suffer. Hence objectification.
Ugh yeah. The Moonies are a problem back here, too. I've heard a lot about labor violations in a Moonie-run school here, and am involved as a representative in one such case. From the descriptions of the teachers I've talked to, the school sounds like a thoroughly abusive organization. This doesn't represent even a hundredth of the Moonies' corruption, of course.
Oh absolutely, missionary work has been destructive in a lot of places, particularly in conjunction with the work of subjugation. Given my own country's largely positive experience with missionaries my impulse is to think that it was the programme of subjugation that was the problem, not the religion, but of course religion was also an animating and amplifying force in the destruction of indigenous peoples, and of minority groups like Jews.
Careful, some New Atheist is liable to jump down your throat if they see that. "Atheism is not a religion, or ideology, or any kind of unifying force! I have nothing in common with Mao or Stalin!" I think it's more accurate to say anti-theism, or anti-religious thought and policy. After all, the Communists' main thing wasn't merely that God doesn't exist--it was that religion was an evil that should be stamped out.
Exactly. And that's part of my beef with this New Atheism, that in their rage-on for religion they tend to downplay other and, in my mind, far more destructive evils like imperialism, expansive capitalism, and lack of civil protections.