If you're ever tempted to think people overstate the power of postmodern ideas of knowledge, truth, power & identity because so few people have studied these, think of how much influence Christianity & Islam etc can have in a culture where only a tiny % of ppl study theology.
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Postmodernists were right to say that society is profoundly influenced by dominant discourses. They were wrong in their approach to remedying this.
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Because they believed that knowledge and truth were constructed by power and that people are situated within this by their position in society determined by their identity, the solution was to demote dominant ideas & elevate marginalised ones. Make everything equal.
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But this does necessarily require abandoning the idea that objective truth exists and that some moral value systems are better than others.
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It's quite possible to recognise that some truth claims & moral claims have been excluded from the conversation & remedy this but still evaluate both according to evidence, reason & consistently liberal humanist ethics.
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The problem is not that some ideas get marginalised but that they get marginalised for the wrong reason. Rejecting an idea because of the gender/race/sexuality of the person/people expressing it is a problem. Rejecting an idea because it has no evidence and/or is unethical is not
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End of conversation
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You know what. You make a good point. One that I don't like to admit to because it hits me in something else I've argued about and now I have to re-evaluate my position on something. I don't know whether to thank you or be salty, so I'mma do both.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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If one has studied theology (I have) it’s not hard to see an almost breathtaking connection between the postmodern concept of “privilege” and the doctrine of “original sin”.
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