This Is What Saudi Arabia's First PSA For Violence Against Women Looks Like

[BainsBane]

64. What does that have to do with this discussion in any way?

The issue is whether to respect the views of women abroad or to treat them with imperialist scorn. The issue is whether we as Americans have enough decency to treat peoples around the world with basic humanity. The results of our foreign policy, appalling disregard for human life, and the arrogance displayed by American citizens demonstrates that we do not. The notion of respecting rights to self determination is met with ridicule here. Americans believe themselves fit to remake the world in their own image. So we sanction war, occupy Muslim holy lands, and commit murder in the name of "freedom." So would I prefer my daughter live a life of First World privilege or neocolonial exploitation? Naturally I would want the best possible life for her. But that does not mean I refuse to recognize the nature of my privilege, that I am able to fill my gas tank with fuel acquired through the deaths of hundreds of thousand of Muslims. The results of empire is the rest of the world lives under our dominion. Fundamentalist Islamist extremism has arisen because of a century of European colonialism, US imperialism, and our propping up authoritarian regimes. The Arab Spring overthrew the chains of that political oppression, and fundamentalist radicalism has emerged from the ashes. And then people here with no sense of responsibility to learn about the implications of their own nation's policy abroad have the nerve to look down on cultures resulting from political forces creates by our foreign policy. Our comfort is the direct result of misery and oppression abroad. And to them turn around and treat them with scorn, refusing to even listen to their concerns, is the height of imperial arrogance.

It is similar as to when early 20th-century white Americans, self-satisfied after taking the continental US from Native Americans, looked upon native peoples with scorn because of the poverty their children were compelled to live under. That then justified taking those children away form native communities and placing them in white homes. We created conditions of mass exploitation, and then hold that exploitation against people we judge as inferior. That is precisely what people here are doing toward Muslim women.

Another parallel might be asking if someone would prefer their daughter live in the home of a Fortunate 500 CEO or with a family whose jobs had been outsourced to China, with no way to provide good nutrition, medical care, and education. Anyone would choose the best for their child, but that doesn't mean the unemployed worker's family is inferior because the corporate raider gutted local industry and removed any possibility of decent employment.