But you aren’t just laughing at the joke are you? I laughed at it. It’s funny as an imaginary line of dialog. Funny at how abrupt and ignorant the man in the second panel is. Dark humor. But the line that separates humor from propaganda is often found in the comments. I laughed at this- but I also acknowledge that people deserve the right to respect and that there can be more than 2 genders. When you come to the comments and argue for the second panel- you are saying there is truth to the jest. You aren’t laughing with the target you are laughing at them. There’s one critical litmus test you can use. You don’t become a bigot by laughing at people the same as you don’t become a murderer when the knife goes in. You already were. You just needed opportunity and a victim.

If you gotta actually kill someone to be a murderer- but to be a bigot, to repress a person or group, all you have to do is say a few words or trivialize them- then there should hopefully be a clear difference there- even to you.

The difference between putting a knife in a man and laughing or laughing at the idea of a man getting a knife put in him is a far cry from making fun of someone. There’s nothing wrong with topical or edgy humor- but there’s a HUGE difference in laughing at society and making fun of a group of people. Especially when those people are so marginalized by society that it either thinks they don’t exist, shouldn’t exist, or are mentally ill for existing.

It takes more effort to fight people over pronouns than it does to just nod and say “ok.” Did you know there are actually FIVE medically recognized sexes- with the last 3 being categorized together as “intersex” despite being distinct from each other? 5 sexes (or more according to some...) and... 2 genders.... you don’t have to be a math whiz to figure out those aren’t related 1/1. We also know there are more than 2 types of sexual attraction. So... how do any of these numbers line up to 2 genders?

Not my job to make a list. I’ll listen. I’ll respect other people. That’s where a sea of ignorant folk get mixed up. You don’t have to march on Congress or go out of your way and put up some grand effort to personally change the social norm of gender. You just gotta listen and respect other people. That’s all. Simple. Enough people do that and all those individuals a society do make. Theist writes itself at that point by those genders which have been established through usage.

So- I call bullshit on “saint slave driver.” Maybe this guy treated his slaves relatively well- but when he bought those slaves, kept those slaves, profited off those slaves- he made it clear it wasn’t the slaves who he was virtuously defending. It’s nice that some kind of “better than the alternative” came out of it- but you can’t paint that as “noble slave owner buys slaves to save them from a worse fate” as much as you could paint it “man has guilt over own actions. Lacks conviction to set right. Is complacent in wrong but tries to settle his nerves by at least doing less wrong.”

You’re on a critical mission. You’re buddy goes down. No one else on the field but you. Scrub the mission and save your pal- or stop the next embassy bombing or this threat or that. Tick Tock on the clock- If he doesn’t get out now he dies. Know it. If you go off mission to extract you leave the rest of your team in the wind, and fail the objective. Your friend or your country and your team? Your answer here doesn’t matter. Hope you never have to find out- but those are the moments where who you really serve become clear.

Understand that. It’s critical, especially when we are talking life and death or weighing these lives against the other when its decision time. You can save 100 peoples lives and still feel real shitty about how you had to do it. That’s what being human is- being a real grown up in the real and ugly world is; when results are the primary concern. Distill it down- a man only can serve one master. The choices you make shows who that is.

Because right not we are talking about a hypothetical situation that all but didn’t exist- and if did exist was in the extreme pocket case. It’s fair to say this guy or that guy was better than most for their time or place- but not to say they were good. When you’ve got bad and worse as choices- wether that’s in a life-raft or buying slaves or whatever- you do what you have to do. The thing that you can’t afford not to. That’s harsh reality. But choosing bad over worse doesn’t make you a hero. No man I’ve ever known who had much of anyone’s respect ever claimed the high ground for choosing the lesser of two evils. They did what they had to do.

Slaves were still slaves. Find me a name. A name of a guy who we can confirm kept slaves but allowed them total freedom. Who did profit sharing or paid wages, allowed them to come and go as they pleased and held them equal in rights and status to any other employee. Find the name of this guy who is our hypothetical example of the benevolent slave owner- who’s slaves got the full benefit and freedom of their work as a free man would.

Maybe he’s better than his pals. But if a team is going in or a bomb is on the way- are you gonna risk your life to warn him? Would you say he doesn’t need to be taken in, he gets cut loose because he followed good manners when dealing with his prisoner?

So... we are talking ONLY about slave owners who SPECIFICALLY bought slaves for the SLAVES good? Not people who bought slaves for their own good but just weren’t excessively cruel? Because while I a acknowledge some slave owners were almost hospitable to their slaves- THEIR slaves says what needs said. Anyone except those who specifically bought slaves to free them, by vast majority- used them as... slaves. If one guy in the cave bunker protected a US soldier from being abused as bad as he could have been but is still ISIS or Taliban- you’re really gonna say that he gets a free pass? He’s as good as one of our team?

I can’t believe it’s not rust.

Not everyone is. Faced with death of dishonor, harm of harming another- most people will choose the latter: especially if they have others who rely upon them. That’s a general truism. 2 men lost at sea long enough on a raft- one eats the other or they both die. That’s the truth. The distinction is that you ain’t a hero for being the fella what got ate; but you’re sure as hell not the hero for killing and eating someone to save yourself.

Lmao. I didn’t think you did- but even if you did it’s brutally pragmatic and very close to the way we are often treated, and treat each other or ourselves. I appreciate the distinction between inherent self and action of self however. We aren’t defined as people by what we do or say- but that is what the rest of the world has to try to define us by.

Try using rust.

You assume a lot there. It’s a straight forward question, reframing the scenario changes the question. It doesn’t matter how nice a prisoner is treated if they are still a prisoner does it? It’s better to be a prisoner treated nicely than a prisoner treated poorly- but if you were kidnapped and I bought you and kept you as mine- would that mitigate that to you? “He keeps me as property but meh. I eat better than these other trafficked folks so what a great guy he is.”

Lol. I like you.

As for the kindly slave owner- by that logic I guess if a guy sees a group of dudes about to rape you, and is scared or unable to stop them, if he rapes you so they won’t, but is gentler about it- he must be a hero yeah?

Japan and Germany are still tied up militarily and otherwise for what their great great and great great great ancestors did Does the Russian Federation get to just forge about all their nuclear sites and other weapons because “hey man, I was never a Soviet Communist. I didn’t make that stuff...” Of course not. It’s a problem- and who’s problem should it be? Should Ukraine have to clean up a nuclear site that provided materials for weapons currently benefiting Russia because it wasn’t them it was their fathers? Whoever takes the legacy takes it all. Good and bad. A Soviet defector or traitor living in Russia- their taxes will pay those disposals too even if they resisted the USSR because they live there NOW. It’s a Russian problem and they.. are Russian.

That’s how that fits in. We did the same in Europe and Japan and all over the world that’s been done in one way or another. Because there are no bystanders in stuff like this. You’re either a part of the problem- or part of the solution. We are Americans. We live in America. We benefit in direct or indirect ways by misdeed done by Americans. By being an American and celebrating an Independence Day you weren’t alive for, so on and so on- by taking the benefits of men and women who came before you you take on their load too. That’s how this all works.

When we went to Baghdad, we didn’t target anyone specific who wasn’t raising arms against us. We were there for the regime and the wrongs it did. The people of Baghdad by and large couldn’t stop those wrongs. Some tried in various ways. Some may have loved America- even helped us. We tried to leave the hospitals and things that were not a part of the fighting alone- we didn’t target anyone but we still destroyed the streets they walked on. The offices and homes they lived in. The power grid and telecom grid they relied on.

It’s not a competition. We all have struggles. I’d hope we’d be more about trying to help each other with those, use society as a tool to get rid of those struggles. And for a person- especially one who knows what deep suffering is like to want another to experience that so that they can understand... I can’t support that. You don’t teach a cat not to scratch by scratching it.

If you want to know why it’s like to go hungry take what you have and give it to someone who doesn’t have, then live off of nothing. It loses its romanticism quickly, especially when you can’t just call it off whenever you feel the experiment is over. But often it’s those who have suffered who try to use the type of logic in this meme. Suffering as a badge of honor. A bandaid for the ego- a great equalizer that whatever you’ve done, they’ve outdone you by virtue of their struggle.

I’ve been hungry. I personally feel it’s a lesson that people would hopefully never have to learn. People who have been fortunate in life (even those who aren’t so blessed or rich and wouldn’t see themselves as having been fortunate) often cannot comprehend what it is really like to NEED or not have. Truly and chronically. They tend to be dismissive and not understand how a person could be in that position and not “yank themselves up...” If we are willing to take the word of those who know what pain feels like- we don’t have to learn ourselves. Just listen. Listen when they tell you their troubles and believe it is that bad and not just someone “looking for a handout.”