Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> >   If the current situation is that some minorities are being discriminated
> > against, the solution is not to give them *more* protection than to the
> > rest.

> Are you saying that the current levels of protection are adequate?

  Why would I be ranting if I thought so? Some groups of people *are* being
protected more than others, and that's discrimination.

> > Two wrongs don't make a right. You don't fight discrimination with
> > more discrimination. The correct solution is to give them the *same*
> > protection as everybody else. That, by definition, removes the discrimination.

> Yep. And this is exactly the sort of thing affirmative action is supposed to 
> address.

  "Affirmative action" is just a buzzword meaning "discrimination".
Trying to counter-act discrimination (real or perceived) with even more
discrimination. That's not the way to go.

> And, again, "the same protection" prevents both rich and poor from sleeping 
> under the bridge, and prevents both gay and straight men from marrying other 
> men.

  I don't understand how you equal limiting people's freedom as "protection"
and equal rights.

  If a law does not apply equally to all people, then it's discriminatory.
"Apply" here meaning "has the same effect on", rather than "is being
equally imposed on".

> That's what you get in a democracy, sometimes even in a constitutional 
> democracy.

  Fortunately in a democracy the citizens have a way of correcting the
wrongs.

> I'm not saying that affirmative action is the right solution to problems 
> like this. I'm saying that this sort of balance doesn't naturally arise from 
> democracy, and that obtaining this sort of balance is therefore 
> non-democratic and implicitly supports those statistically discriminated 
> against more than it supports those statistically doing the discrimination.

  I get the feeling that somewhere along the line in this thread you misread
some post of mine where I mentioned "democracy". As if I had said something
along the lines of "democracy is a good thing because it automatically
removes all injustice and discrimination".

  I have nowhere said that. All I said was "democracy is a good thing
because it allows you to try to correct the wrongs you are seeing in your
society" (as opposed to some other more totalitarian forms of government).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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