this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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I also hate the term privilege because it implies those people have something they shouldn't have, i.e. they need to be brought down, when really it's that other people have a disadvantage. This makes the ones labeled privileged defensive because it seems like an attack instead of a call for help.
Everyone should be at least at the same level as the "privileged" ones.
Edit: it seems I might not have been clear as the discussion below seems to perfectly encapsulate why I personally dislike the term privilege because of how it frames things. The majority of privileged people aren't getting a leg up, they just don't have the things dragging them down that underprivileged people do. Maybe an analogy will help:
Imagine a grueling and difficult race everyone is forced to run. The actual distance is arbitrary and doesn't matter, you just need to complete it. The starting line is a staggered mess with people starting forward and backwards from each other to varying degrees. Many of the people in the race rightly point out this is not fair and want the starting lines to at least be the same for everyone. Now, which do you think is more beneficial to having everyone agree/work to move the starting positions; saying the people in front need to move back, or that the people further back should be moved forward?
I think you're running into a little cognitive dissonance. In this scenario, the privilege is what is causing the disadvantage in the first place. You cannot be privileged in a truly equal society, therefore you can't elevate everyone to a privileged class, you can only equal the playing field.
It's a zero sum game.
I was with you most of the way but you lost me here. Some of the biggest privileges for cis straight white males is that they don't have to deal with racism, sexism, and bigotry over who they are and who they love. That's not a zero sum game. We can all have that privilege. That privilege isn't what causes bigotry.
There are some privileges that would be lost, like being preferentially hired by racists. But for the most part we're fighting in large part for equal good treatment. It's not a zero sum game.
How does that racism materially present itself? With racism it's by decades of economic support and government programs aimed at creating wealth for a certain ethnicity over another. With sex it's decades of reinforcing gender roles and denying educational opportunities for women. Rules about race mixing were created to deny a dilution of the ethnic collective of political power.
I would argue that it shouldn't be a privilege, but a universal right.
I think you might want to look up the definition of privilege. You can't be privileged unless someone is being disadvantaged. If you want to get rid of privilege then what you're saying is you want everyone to be treated the same.
I've tried to bring this up before, but I personally don't believe everyone should be treated the same.
In an ideal world where we had an objective way to measure this, I would prefer that we lived in an absolute meritocracy.
Some people are a better fit for a particular purpose than other people due to racial advantage, gender advantage, physical advantage, age advantage, or any other number of advantages that they have been gifted by the miracle of life and talent, or that they have earned from dedication and struggle.
In my ideal world, if you remove all of the things that are not important to the task at hand, and only judge based on who is most fit for the task at hand, then the people who are the best fit would get the most appropriate reward for their capacity.
As a nonwhite male IT worker, my ability to lift heavy objects is secondary to my ability to fix a printer. If a female can fix printers better than I can, she's more than welcome to have the job at the same pay they would have paid me for it.
It's almost like you wrote a whole thing to say "from each according to their means, to each according to their needs"
Unless you intended to say that you prefer "to each according to their means" because you believe people who achieve more due to their natural gifts should get more...... But that's kind of fucked up when you really think about it. I hope you're born gifted!
Imo an absolute meritocracy would first require a society of absolute equity. Otherwise how would you know if someone is actually more inherently better at something or if they just had more opportunity?
I think meritocracies are a nice idea, but they've mostly been supported by societal elites throughout history because they know it's easy to score when you're born on third base.
A society of absolute equity is impossible. Some people will be taller, faster, smarter, more charismatic, dumber or any other adjective you wanna name. Trying to decrease that variance by limiting systemic advantages is one thing. But, it will never lead to truly equal opportunity and/or outcome for everyone. Thats a type of optimism that requires a high level of ignoring the objective reality of the world. Relationship based opportunity availability will also always be a thing. Limiting it via legislative action could curb it to a degree but never completely. Thats just not a realistic ideal. You could implement some Harrison Bergeron esq limiters but at that point I wouldn't want to live in that world. My sole non trolling response so far.
That was kinda my point about absolute equality. There will always be people with disabilities and therefore absolute equity and absolute meritocracies are mostly utopian philosophical concepts. Plus, if we're doing idealist delights why bother with anything but luxury space communism?
Meritocracy is inherently the most fair.
It’s also the most unrealistic.
Whats more realistic?
Godeeem
Yes, and that's the point with male privilege? It's an advantage without any other reason than the holder being male.
Raising women to hold the same privilege is the same as removing it for men, if everyone has it it's not a privilege.
I think this is why the equality in society moves forward too slowly, not necessarily because men don't want women to have equal rights and opportunities, but as you said the privileged are defensive because they don't want to lose their privileges.
Stop arguing semmantics and understand what they're saying! This is about communication, not being technically correct.
FFS, your post is exactly portraying the problem.
You even use a much better word: equality. Yet argue in favor of using a less effective word... Truly sad.
Stop arguing semantics and accept their argument of semantics!
FFS the cognitive dissonance is dizzying.
Semantics are important and I do understand what they are saying. Did you read my comment?
This for example. Male privilege is something men shouldn't have since it's based entirely on gender. So the privilege teeds to be abolished for equality to happen.
And as I said, of course men gets defensive when its problematized and put in the spotlight, you may support equality but who wants to lose their advantages? 🤷
Ironically enough your comment also focused on the semantics instead of the issue at hand.. :)
No, it's really not a privilege, especially for any non-rich, not cleaned up white man. It's what should be the minimum respect people are given for being conscious beings.
I'm not sure what you're talking about?
What is not a privilege and how does it relate to a minimum level of respect?
Basic respect and zero assumptions about intent are a solid start. Those ARE NOT privileges, but what any honest person engaging with someone or something should expect... Someone should be able to ask a basic question about a service you are providing with zero assumptions made as to what you expect as a result or a cost, as a basic example.
Seriously, how is this confusing??
Wtf are you on about? What does assumption free questions about services have to do with anything?
It's confusing as hell because your comment is non sequitur
It's not a non-seuqitur if you actually understood how "white privilege" worked in the real world. Assumption free means people not judging you based on stereotypes. It means everyone gets a basic level of respect all human beings deserve, until they themselves specifically do something to prove otherwise.
You are clearly missing a vital part of what male privilege or white privilege is. That's ok but a bit surprising given how long it has been discussed and problematized both IRL and online.
This is ALWAYS about being technically correct