Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

obscuredreference t1_ix46gsv wrote

Reply to comment by redosabe in In honour of FIFA, who are absolutely not corrupt bastards by daveclampart

While I agree that forced labor in prisons is immoral and should stop, you can’t seriously try to argue that some criminals working, in humane conditions and with no harm to them, is on the same level as random innocent people being enslaved and forced to work to death.

1

terrorpaw t1_ix4b878 wrote

It's a good thing prison conditions are always so humane and harm never comes to the inmates.

2

obscuredreference t1_ix5emly wrote

Even if it happens, it’s supposed to be the outlier, and there are laws that are supposed to be there to stop it, despite these people being criminals.

Slavery of innocent people in the Middle East is not on any comparable level to that.

That’s a simple fact, no matter how much whataboutism you use to hijack this serious situation in order to talk shit about the US.

1

terrorpaw t1_ix5ltiw wrote

I simply disagree, wholeheartedly. I think it's very much comparable. In no way is prison labor for far below minimum wage an outlier in the US. It is not at all an outlier that working those jobs is often mandatory or practically mandatory for inmates. (You can go to work or you can sit in solitary.) Absolutely deplorable conditions like those seen in tent city prisons in places like Arizona, Texas, and Nevada are not outliers.

There are laws that are "supposed to stop" the worst of the abuses in Qatar too. In response to worker protests they enacted regulations requiring a minimum wage and outlawing practices like requiring employers' permission to change jobs, seizing the passports of migrant workers to secure their recruitment debts, and so on. It has changed nothing. In reality those regulations have been rarely if at all enforced, according to groups like human rights watch and amnesty international.

Migrant workers from places like Nepal and Bangladesh were (and still are) forced into substandard housing with up to 8 people living in a single room by zoning laws, very much mirroring the development and continual existence of shitty housing for poor and migrant workers in and around major cities in the US and elsewhere (ever heard of Slough?) "Anti-vagrancy" laws criminalize the very state of being homeless in many major cities in the US. These kinds of abuses are perpetrated against the poor under color of law every single day in every single Western country, yet you call it "whataboutism" when someone points out that they are not at all unique to countries run by people who don't look like you.

1

obscuredreference t1_ix6s17i wrote

> when someone points out that they are not at all unique to countries run by people who don't look like you.

Firstly, please don’t be quick to assume what others look like. I’m not even American, though I do live there now. It’s especially distasteful that you imply racism with your bit about people condemning the Qatari situation because it‘s people of a different ethnicity.

As for the rest, I guess we can only agree to disagree, since I maintain that while the situation in US prisons is not ok either (or the homeless situation and so on issues outside of prisons too), it can’t be compared to the slavery and horrors being perpetrated against complete innocents in the Middle East.

1

unripenedboyparts t1_ix4g7kf wrote

You really should explain how these things are different. Because so far it just sounds like you're repeating a white nationalist doctrine that only exists to justify slavery. Namely, that people in prisons are laboring because they committed a crime, received a just sentence, and are paying restitution to society, rather than because some groups are worth more to this agenda incarcerated than they are free.

I'm not singling you out because I think you're racist, I'm singling you out because you sound decently intelligent and this sub seems to be a pro-slavery echo chamber due to the upvotes and downvotes. This shit is imbedded in society and a lot of people didn't even realize it until it was on the ballots this month.

2

rydan t1_ix51msd wrote

They are being compensated. It is illegal not to. Now you say, "last I checked they weren't even making $15 per hour" and you'd be right. On paper. But have you seen the cost of food and housing? Noone can afford both on just $15. Yet they survive and have a little left over for snacks. So in reality they are being paid more than you.

1

cain071546 t1_ix7ff3z wrote

I survive with food and housing making $17.50, gtfo with that shit.

It's slavery, there's no middle ground.

1

obscuredreference t1_ix5f049 wrote

> r/funny is a pro-slavery echo chamber

Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

1

unripenedboyparts t1_ix5ofnc wrote

I know it sounds hyperbolic, but people become less anti-slavery once you start reframing it.

0

obscuredreference t1_ix6sn53 wrote

By claiming that a funny pics subreddit is a pro-slavery echo-chamber, you actually devaluate the term, making people tune out real conversations about it (because then they assume it’s more ridiculous nonsense like that), harming actual activism against the real issue, which is tragically still horribly prevalent in the modern world.

So by being nonsensically hyperbolic, you’re actually damaging the anti-slavery cause you claim to be defending.

0