Privilege

Privilege is a concept associated with the oppressor/oppressed Identity Politics model of postmodernism.  The idea is that if a person belongs to an oppressor group, then that person is “privileged”, and must confess that privilege before speaking about issues.  Further, the “privilege” concept does not allow people in oppressor classes to offer any thoughts on oppressed classes, because they do not have the “lived experience” of the oppressed.  Two of the most common uses of this concept are concerning “White Privilege” and “Male Privilege.”

Critique: The “privilege” concept is a weapon in the political correctness arsenal to limit free speech, under the assumption that oppressors have nothing of value to say about those they oppress.  But of course the whole Identity Politics oppressor/victim model is intellectually and pragmatically a vast oversimplification.  Some identifiable “class” defined by Marxists that a person might belong to is only a small fraction of the totality of that person, and in no way a priori should prevent them from expressing opinions on the presumed oppressed, or anything else.  The value of what a person says should be judged on the content of their speech, and not on ad hominin issues such as which supposed “class” they belong to.

 

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