Feminists are utilitarians, egalitarians are deontologists

The-Author · 2021-03-29T16:03:28+00:00

I can see why you came to this conclusion, but I think this is an incorrect conclusion to come to.

Utilitarians, by definition are for maximising happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Deontology is the normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of the action.

I wouldn't say Tradcons are utilitarian by any stretch. Sure they may say they do the things they do for the greater good, but in reality they are much closer to deontologists in my view. This is why a lot of them are against gay marriage and raising the minimum wage. Despite the fact that no-one would be hurt by it or the benefits far outweighing any perceived cons. They reasoning is just them working backwards to support something under the guise of being utilitarian despite there being a lot of evidence showing otherwise.

From an objective utilitarian stand point, a lot of feminist/ social justice actions don't make much sense. Such as denying men have problems despite a lot of evidence to the contrary or pretending that false accusations don't exist, It makes much more sense to view feminism as Deontological with what is considered right and wrong being determined by how it impacts women.

There are feminists/ social justice advocates who do genuinely believe in creating a better world for everyone regardless of who they are. But it is also true that there are a lot of people who basically use social justice as an excuse to treat people horribly without thinking that their bad people.

In much the same way that a lot of people have, and continue to, use religion as an excuse to act like horrible people to others. In that sense these bad feminists/ social justice warriors are really nothing new.

BloomingBrains · 2021-03-29T18:16:36+00:00

I'd say you have it backwards. Feminism (and most radical hate ideologies) are deontologist. They have religious-like dogmas that state certain things are always right or always wrong, with context never mattering. Examples: women are always the oppressed, men are always the oppressors. Women need to be listened to, men should be ignored. Etc.

Utilitarianism thrives on debate, because it involves a complicated moral calculus to determine which actions or attitudes create the greatest happiness for all. But feminism doesn't even want to have that conversation; it just wants to blindly assert things and not have them challenged. Which is why you see so many feminists put fingers in their ears and shout down logical points with accusations of mansplaining.

Take the sexual harassment issue. The utilitarian perspective would ask, what exactly did the man say? What was the context of the interaction? Maybe he was being creepy or maybe not. Under utilitarianism, everyone's happiness has equal value, so the man's feelings matter. The woman doesn't get to override the debate by saying that she felt "unsafe", because her feelings aren't more important than he man's feeling of not wanting to be unfairly demonized. Instead we should look at things objectively and decide if what he did was wrong. But feminism doesn't care about this. It puts the emphasis on "did the woman feel harassed, if so, then it was harassment".

Title	Feminists are utilitarians, egalitarians are deontologists
Author	Xemnas81
Upvotes	33
Comments	4
Date	March 29, 2021 2:43 PM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/mfr27z/feminists_are_utilitarians_egalitarians_are/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/feminists-are-utilitarians-egalitarians-are.1061670 https://theredarchive.com/post/1061670

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