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IPFS News Link • Vin Suprynowicz's Columns Archive

Does it matter if we're oppressed for what we 'do,' rather than what we 'are'?

• vinsuprynowicz.com

I believe a false dichotomy is being embraced by some correspondents here, a dichotomy which is beneficial to the oppressors, but not to the oppressed — who would be better advised to form common cause, rather than arguing "I'm more oppressed than you are; you insult me by comparing the threat of jail under which YOU now labor, to the disabilities which the law sought or still seeks to impose on MY group."

Otherwise, we risk falling into the trap so memorably summarized by Pastor Niemoller, who summarized the cowardice of the German intellectuals in his famous speech (there were many versions) ending: "When they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me."


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