We Cannot Ignore Buddhist Extremism—Lions Roar

[richard.nagyfi]

So at the beginning of this thread I really did feel guilt for listening to JP but now I actually see where he was coming from and why he felt the need to talk about every single minisclue topic.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have the feeling that the underlying idea here is that “it is okay to lie a bit and shut up certain voices because we as a human race in general lack the tools to reduce inequality and to get back at people who abuse power”. I think the main difference in JPs view is that he would argue that with all of its flaws, this is still one of the best systems so far, and dismantling it blindly will most likely just gets everyone end up in a worse place, similarly to socialism.

@anon56826743

This sort of thing is basically the problem with people like Peterson and JK Rowling. The problem is not always what they’re saying, but the narrative they’re building by saying certain things in a specific context.

So Rowling made the case that women in developing countries need additional care regarding hygene because of menstruation cycles. She then gets called a transphobe because this statement implies that trans women do not have periods. This is okay, because others can feel bad about not what she ever said or meant, but what others might mean about what she might have said?

@anon56826743

Instead of actually listening to trans people’s viewpoints, some people take these debates out of context and reduce it to “trans people are denying basic biology”.

I am sorry to hear that. I still don’t see how attacking these people would fix any of this. If you want to attack someone why not actually call out transphobes?

@anon56826743

Women and minorities who share their experiences of discrimination are often met with dismissal along the lines of “gender is just your sense of self, something-something anatta”

This is horrible! Thank you for pointing this out, I now have a better idea about where you are coming from. Again, I still don’t think that calling people nazis would fix this. Telling the truth would. Calling out the disrepancies between the teachings and the words of these leaders and showing an example will slowly prevail. Having a community like this where the practicioners can look up at the silla of the monks will discredit these false gurus.

@Erika_ODonnell

Trans people kill themselves because of discrimination and lack of health care. J.K. Rowling will just… feel a bit bad for being criticized, I guess?

Can you provide me with a list of trans people who commited suicide because they were too sensitive to read Rowling’s statement? If Rowling can take criticizm as a women, howcome trans women can’t? It is hard to be part of any minority, in fact there is research about how people tend to come out more only if they have the ecological background to do so, because they could get banished from their families for being gay and starve to death alone. However, bullying people for saying facts that might hurt the feelings of hypothetical homogenous groups is just nonsense.

@Erika_ODonnell

that there is something abhorrent about rich white people

This is it! You know who thought there is a small group of rich white people, who got their wealth through exploitation of others and did not deserve their places in society, therefor it is okay to destroy them? I sure hope these hípothetical “white cis patriarchical leaders” of yours aren’t of jewish origin.

@Erika_ODonnell

I mean, JBP’s philosophy is its essence a defense of hierarchies. JBP himself has said that conservatives defend hierarchies, and leftists challenge them. I agree with JBP here.

Indeed. His point is that it’s still the best we have, other hierarchies only generated inequality, capitalism generates both inequality and wealth. He also stretches that the reason that some leftist want to break them down is not because they actually want to make a better system, but because they are full of resentment and just want to take revenge on masses. For instance on every man because of their hatred towards their fathers.

@Snowbird

Please connect your posts to Buddhist extremism or start a new thread.

I disagree with some of the statements here on how Buddhism is always so progressive and the West should be ashamed of itself in general. We are on a forum that was partly built on the technology, generosity and extra wealth of westerners who have the free time and luxury to discuss politics because they also have the right to vote for their leaders. Can anyone please show me a democratic buddhist country? One where their narcissistic king didn’t have the good karma to be born omnipotent and use this power to rape women? And yes, I know that Buthan is going for the happiest country award, but I find it strange how that pursuit of happiness was preceeded by some ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing in Bhutan - Wikipedia

[Erika_ODonnell]

@richard.nagyfi

@Erika_ODonnell

that there is something abhorrent about rich white people

This is it! You know who thought there is a small group of rich white people, who got their wealth through exploitation of others and did not deserve their places in society, therefor it is okay to destroy them? I sure hope these hípothetical “white cis patriarchical leaders” of yours aren’t of jewish origin.

It looks like you are deliberately selectively quoting my post to misrepresent what I was saying. Please don’t do that.

[Ficus]

(The OP author and mods have repeatedly tried to keep this on topic but some of you aren’t listening, so I’m trying to help out with some humour)

[DhammaWiki]

@Snowbird

I also don’t think that we can hide behind “some of my best friends are black/gay/bhikkhunis” when defending a forum we are responsible for.

Just to clarify, I was not hiding behind anything. The discussion came up about the political views of admins and mods at DW. I was just showing that I am a centrist, politically; I was not referring to the moderation policies at DW.

If I wanted to play the game of “some of my best friends are …” I would have mentioned that my wife is African-American, but I did not, since it was not relevant. I mentioned my support for bhikkhuni full ordination and made no mention of gay or Black friends. I was just discussing my political views, which some speculated about and some thought were right wing.

I’ll admit that there have been some mistakes in the past and some probably going on right now, just as is the case at any forum on the internet. Sometimes, some posts that cross the line slip through. Sometimes no one makes a report of a post and mods have lives outside of the forum, so don’t read every single post.

[richard.nagyfi]

Great post!

@CurlyCarl

The above reminds me of the Wiki quote about the terms woke capitalism and woke-washing. New Zealand is a Capitalist country. I doubt the whatever amount of “progressive” politics has reduced the growth of Capitalism, Selfishness & Narcissism in NZ. In NZ, as in the USA, Australia, UK and many Western countries, there is obviously no longer any significant differences between say the Democrats & Republicans, Conservatives vs Labor, etc. Each major party seems to serve the same military & corporate interests. Neither the Democrats or Labor Parties have done anything to reduce the militarism & rampant consumerism in the world.

Yes, exactly! Everyone hates Victor Orban and one of the most searched questions about Hugnary is why aren’t we kicked out of the EU already. And the thing is, that every single EU country does the exact same as he does, except they do not talk about it! He tells the world that he is not willing to accept any refugees, everyone gets shocked and call him an evil right wing dictator, then after a few months, all the western EU states follow suit, and quietly Germany and Austria makes it harder for refugees to come and they pay Trukey to build camps and keep them there. Then they pay Hungary to strengthen their border fences.

Same with the situation with Ukraine. We travelled to the border with my family to bring food and diapers to the border and bring a few people back to the city by car. Then Orban announced that Hungary does not support Ukraine, as they are “trying to get us drifted into their own war”. He became a scapegoat russian collaorator in the media. You can’t say that to poor Ukrainans, how uncivilized! That was almost half a year ago, the war is still going on, the borders are now shut, and support is low, while EU countries are making shady deals to ensure they get coal and gasoline for the winter so their people won’t starve to death.

It’s all a smoke and mirrors. Politicians can keep their hands clean by condemning Orban, and then just follow whatever he is doing. Of course they will never kick us out from the EU, Angela Merkel was a great ally of Orban, they like the cheap Audis our cheap labour puts together for them.

@CurlyCarl

But as a non-white person, I personally am not buying into more White Supremacy, where white people still supporting the Capitalist & Militaristic structures, such as regime change wars, which are the historic roots of modern racial injustice, are still being fully embraced. No amount of African-American bureaucrats, such as Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Barrack Obama, Kalama Harris or Lloyd Austin, will cause me to stop discerning the same rampant Imperialism.

This is because racial injustice is unrelated to anything inherently “white”. Instead, it is related to greed, hatred & delusion.

10 / 10 analysis

@CurlyCarl

The view of your governments is for Ukraine to not negotiate with Russia. Its like WW2 where the West was happy for the Nazis and the Communists to annihilate each other. I hope you don’t believe it was the British or the American D-Day Landing that defeated the Nazis. It was the Russian Communists.

There was this notion that conservatives are looking for simpler times that never were. But everyone who thinks the Ukranian war is against good versus evil are similarly just looking for a simple, primal description of world politics where there is a rightous David against the stupid Goliath.

And as the US media is cheering for Ukraine, 1 USD is really close to being equal to 1 EURO, because, you know, there is a war going on next to the EU, with its economy being in turmoil due to the lack of Russian gas and coal. Resources we made ourselves overly reliant on, because somehow nuclear energy is evil, but burning coal at other countries with weaker green movements isn’t.