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Comment on America continues to fall behind the rest of the world

We don’t use slavery for manual labor. That’s an extreme exaggeration of what’s happening in a small number of prisons in a handful of states.

If you’d like to discuss wage inequality or the wealth gap, I’m happy to do that—but it’s a different conversation than the one we’re having here.

So why aren’t we talking about your country?

I think I understand why you won’t answer. There are only two possibilities: either you’re from America, in which case you’re applying a double standard, or you’re from another country with its own serious problems, in which case you’re hardly in a position to lecture anyone.

There isn’t a single country on Earth, past or present, that hasn’t committed moral wrongs or isn’t currently grappling with serious moral failings. That doesn’t excuse them, but it does mean criticism should be applied consistently rather than selectively.

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Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

We don’t use slavery for manual labor. That’s an extreme exaggeration of what’s happening in a small number of prisons in a handful of states.

No, you literally do, in most states. Honestly if you just deny reality like this much more I’m just not gonna entertain your bullshit.

So why aren’t we talking about your country?

Because this thread is about America being a shit hole.

I think I understand why you won’t answer. There are only two possibilities: either you’re from America, in which case you’re applying a double standard, or you’re from another country with its own serious problems, in which case you’re hardly in a position to lecture anyone.

No, it’s because this thread is about America being a shit hole.

Wrong on both of your assumptions.

There isn’t a single country on Earth, past or present, that hasn’t committed moral wrongs or isn’t currently grappling with serious moral failings. That doesn’t excuse them, but it does mean criticism should be applied consistently rather than selectively.

K, and this thread is about America being a shit hole.

Your attempt to steer the conversation away from America using slavery as a punishment is pathetic. Are we done here?

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- mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  No, not even close. Your attempt to sidestep the obvious hypocrisy people are displaying in this comment thread isn’t going to work.
  
  This thread is not about America being a shithole. It’s about America falling behind the rest of the world, which it is in several important ways, and that’s extremely concerning, as I’ve stated in previous comments. America is objectively not a shithole. You’d know that if you actually lived here. The United States still has an extremely high standard of living.
  
  And even if this were about America being a shithole, I still have the right, and perhaps even a duty, to defend my home and the people I love.
  
  But let’s address your claims.
  
  “No, you literally do, in most states. Honestly, if you deny reality this much more, I’m just not gonna entertain your bullshit.”
  
  The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, but it expressly preserves an exception allowing involuntary labor as punishment for a crime following a lawful conviction. Whether prison labor should be characterized as “slavery” is a matter of legal interpretation and political debate.
  
  There is a significant difference between the antebellum system of chattel slavery and requiring convicted prisoners to perform labor as part of their sentence. Prisoners also retain a multitude of constitutional and legal rights. The unacceptable conditions found in some American prisons are a separate issue, and one I’ve already acknowledged.
  
  What you’re doing is deliberately erasing that distinction. If you’re going to call every form of compulsory prison labor “slavery” without acknowledging the legal and historical nuance, then you’re either arguing in bad faith or you’re uninformed. Possibly both.
  
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