3 Ways 'Checking Your Privilege' Never Fixed Anything

ctlawguy · 2014-06-22T16:34:24+00:00

These are good points, but the strongest point of all (only alluded to by the author) is that "check your privilege" is faulty reasoning. It's a form of the Ad hominem fallacy. This fallacy is statement that says or implies that an argument is wrong because of some characteristic of the person making it.

Basically "check your privilege" says "you are wrong because you are ______." It's not an argument. You could substitute someone who was not _______ and that person could make the same argument.

For example, if you are against affirmative action, your opponent might say "well check your privilege, white guy!" But, in response, you could say, "well, I'll go get Clarence Thomas, and he'll make the same argument." Then what is your opponent going to do?

Privilege has NOTHING, NADA, ZIP, ZERO to do with the validity of your argument.

If someone says "check your privilege" to you, say: "That is not valid reasoning (be prepared to explain why), please tell me why my argument itself is wrong."

solaria_mra · 2014-06-22T20:11:30+00:00

Uh oh, I have a feeling Gladstone is in for a stern talking to down at the Cracked office tomorrow morning.....

LockNuts · 2014-06-22T16:18:26+00:00

So Cracked has given up on even pretending that they're writing comedy now?

Chad_Nine · 2014-06-22T18:36:15+00:00

Huh. After all the "MRAs are stupid nooony-head" articles from Cracked, this one addresses the "Priviliege" argument pretty well, for a Cracked article. And there are posts in the comments that "The MRAs are gonna agree with this article, those stupid noony-heads!"*

*I am paraphrasing.

anonlymouse · 2014-06-22T19:39:25+00:00

Cracked article. Normally I'd say it's shit, but, good article is good. Content > source.

Gittiup · 2014-06-22T16:31:45+00:00

We should stop giving cracked any traffic.

IS44 · 2014-06-22T16:00:30+00:00

Can't tell if smiling guy with Swedish flag is a Swede making fun of Finns, or if the author made a mistake and thinks that this is the Finnish flag...

imphic · 2014-06-22T18:47:06+00:00

WARNING: Written by Wayne Gladstone.

WomenAreAlwaysRigh · 2014-06-22T18:04:02+00:00

i almost puked.

Title	3 Ways 'Checking Your Privilege' Never Fixed Anything
Author	Lightfiend
Upvotes	39
Comments	30
Date	June 22, 2014 3:46 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/28srdx/3_ways_checking_your_privilege_never_fixed/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/3-ways-checking-your-privilege-never-fixed.998880 https://theredarchive.com/post/998880

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