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whatshisface | on: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs
Yes, collectives don't have special interests. Individuals have specific instances of universal interests, like security or freedom. "Black people" doesn't have a separate existence from a black person. By guarding the principle of equality before the law, you are not getting involved in anybody's business but yours.

It isn't right to view something like equality before the law as a matter of somebody else's self-interest, or to justify a ruthless pursuit of self-interest by recasting it as service of an imagined collective interest.

lazide | parent
I honestly don’t understand the point you are trying to make. Does it have a practical point?

If a bunch of, say Catholics, get together to make a community group and lobby for something they want - how is that not that groups ‘special interests’ in every practical way?

whatshisface | root | parent
In 100% of cases, that group will either be lobbying for a universal value in a less effective way than if they were defined by the cause, or advocating for the interests of a few of the members of the larger group against the interests or views of other members.

Anyone who doesn't find that self-evident, I challenge to think of a single political opinion that is universal to members of any religious sect or ethnicity that is not universal to all human beings.

lazide | root | parent
The right for Sikh’s to wear religious weapons in places where weapons are normally forbidden.

Dispensation for Orthodox Jews to observe Shabbat even when they would otherwise be compelled to break it due to civil duties.

The right for Muslims to take specific breaks for prayer when required, and have a place for such prayer.

And I can go on.

Or are you going to move the goal posts again?

whatshisface | root | parent
Those are all the same right, the right to practice your religion without being expelled from normal society. Nobody has different rights from anybody else, we just exercise them in different ways.
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