I will begin a new, regularly irregular series called "Politically Incorrect with " in which I will air politically incorrect opinions, and attempt to argue for them. Maybe a weekly thing, I'm not sure yet.
This is done for engagement; feel free to come and debate, and I will debate back. I will reward good arguments with upvotes, whether I agree with them, or not. Agreeing is not the key, I will look at overall quality of the argument.
Everybody is focusing on the money right now, but let's try to also celebrate the fact that Steemit won't ban you for 30 days for an unpopular opinion!
Let's bring some entertaining engagement to Steemit! And less "Upvoted and followed!"
Discrimination is a Human Right
Sure to ruffle some feathers.
I remember being taught in school that discrimination is wrong, and should always be condemned. On the surface, it makes sense. Not only because it's a feel good statement, but also because it's rarely studied further; it's just thrown around without looking beneath the surface. People also have different definitions for discrimination.
So, what is discrimination, really?
Here's what a Google search gives us.
The first definition falls flat on its face right away, since something like "unjust" is completely subjective and open to interpretation. It can mean anything, so therefore it doesn't mean anything. Take ten guys off the streets and ask them what "unjust" is, and you'll likely get ten varying responses. They can be similar to one another, but different nontheless.
However, let's say this applies to something like hiring.
If I'm starting a strip club, and looking for strippers to hire, surely I would discriminate based on age. It's obvious to everyone that I can't hire an 80 year old stripper - unless it's a strip club for people with a very specific kink, and I won't go there in this post. Go search pornhub, if you want to learn more.
Sex is another big and obvious factor; I doubt male strippers would attract heterosexual males as customers. And if they are the demographic I'm going for, discriminating against male strippers makes sense, and should be widely accepted.
Race is probably the one that will elicit emotions the most.
However, it's entirely doable to do a study or questionnaire about my target demographic's preferences, and if those preferences state that I should go for a specific race, be it white, Asian, Arab, black, latino, or whatever combination, then that's the race I should go for at the expense of others.
Most of you should be with me still.
This probably seems reasonable, so the problem is with the term "unjust" - or any variation of "unfair" - but since it doesn't mean anything, it can't be used as an argument.
But let's say my strip club was now forced to have quotas on strippers, based on age, sex and race. All groups should be equally represented.
Would you be ready to have such a quota on your own social circles?
You'd be forced to have an equal amount of people from all imaginable groups as your friend, and failure to do so would lead to punishment.
Because what a lot of people fail to realize is that companies are run by people, big and small. No company is - yet - run by robots. At the end of the day, it's a person in charge, and his or her tends to be a big part of their daily life.
So, I'll ask you this: at what point does a business become big enough where it becomes okay to forcefully control its hiring practices?
If we're not okay with regulating our social circles, when does it become okay to regulate who an ice cream stand owner does business with? And why?
It's simply illogical for a private citizen to be allowed to be free from these equality mandates, but as soon as he or she takes a risk and becomes a business owner, he or she is suddenly forced to interact with people he voluntarily would not interact with.
Case in point: bakeries forced to bake cakes for gay weddings, even though a gay wedding went against their personal views.
At the same time, people would understand why it would be wrong to force a private citizen to bake a cake for a gay wedding, or any wedding, for that matter, against their will.
This sort of separation between private people and business owners should not exist.
In our private lives, we all discriminate, all the time.
On top of that, most of it is so trivial to us, we may not even pay attention to it.
Our social circle consists of people we have voluntarily chosen to be a part of it; there are always people left out. People are left out based on a number of things, some of which can be things such as race, age, sexual orientation, etc. It can also be because we consider the people who are left out as trash. For whatever reason.
So, we discriminate against them.
If you ask them, they may call it unfair, or unjust, so it would meet the definition above.
Being able to freely choose our social circles, and the people we interact with, is a fundamental human right. Without it, there can be no freedom.
If you disagree, allow me to choose your social circles for you, then. I bet you wouldn't like that very much.
Whenever we prefer a person over another, we are discriminating against the other person. You don't want to be friends with everyone, you don't want to have sex with everyone, and you don't want to do business with everyone.
Luckily, you don't have to, yet. But that may happen if the gospel of "Discrimination is wrong" gets out of hand.
Some business association is already being forced.
I hope it doesn't spread into our "private" lives.
If you disagree, let me know, and let's debate!