Ok, but consider: you can be a well-fed slave or a slave who is being starved and tortured. Are these two slaves facing the same level of oppression? Or put another way: is oppression based on the lack of potential good, or the existence of actual bad? — coolazice

Oppression is not the aggregate of all the bad things that happen to you, but since food is a resource, the deprivation of food can be considered oppression in the appropriate circumstance. That circumstance is the purposeful, politically motivated withholding of food by a group abusing its power. Maybe you can construe torture as oppression in the right circumstance, for me, it depends on how we characterise or categorise torture in the particular circumstance. I've given a roadmap for determining whether something is oppression or not but there is room for interpretation.


Discrimination is not oppression, it needs to be an abuse of power, a judicious use of power shouldn't be described as oppression. For example, I don't think jailing murders is oppression, however, I might consider disproportionately imprisoning a type of person as oppression or a certain type of crime as oppression. Jailing political dissenters or on the basis of race for example.

It seems to me that you are just broadly giving a condemnation of hierarchies. More precisely, the losers in merit-based hierarchies, as being oppressed by their inability to outcompete or outdo their peers. Whether we're talking about genetics, forms of presenting oneself or other forms of nature/nurture characteristics, essentially, anything that is not one's choice, no matter how unfair it may seem, none of these things constitute oppression.

You have still not given your definition for oppression, you just seem to be describing undesirable outcomes as oppression. I can't imagine what definition of oppression says it's oppression that people don't want to sleep with you. if it's something close to mine then your interpretation needs to be explained.

Can oppression be measured and compared? — coolazice

It's measured in PSI. Pounds per square inch. The higher the PSI number, the greater the oppression.

Just a quick aside, have you seen this sweet JBP mix?

Anyhow, I'm broadly defining 'oppression' as injustice, but it could also just be anything that isn't fair. Often this unfairness is beyond one's control, or beyond anyone's control for that matter.

So I think we're just defining it differently and that's okay because no one has a monopoly on the definition of the word... it's vague. You make solid points and all I can do at the end of the day is state my position and give my take and it's okay if we disagree.

I can't imagine what definition of oppression says it's oppression that people don't want to sleep with you. — Judaka

Would you call just a general social undesirability (e.g. someone who is ugly and socially awkward) a form of oppression? If I were to be totally honest, I would. I think people who struggle socially are quite limited, generally speaking.

EDIT: I don't generally process the world in this way, but if we are going to talk oppression then I've got a lot to say. Dark thought: Disability only exists because non-disabled people exist. Everybody is both oppressor and victim.

Just a quick aside, have you seen this sweet JBP mix? — BitconnectCarlos

lol

So I think we're just defining it differently and that's okay because no one has a monopoly on the definition of the word... it's vague. You make solid points and all I can do at the end of the day is state my position and give my take and it's okay if we disagree. — BitconnectCarlos

I don't like your definition, I doubt you would even accept describing anything unfair as "oppression". A guy cheats in a race, is that "oppression"? Injustice is oppression? No... nono, I can't. Even you can't possibly use the word oppression as you've described.

Would you call just a general social undesirability (e.g. someone who is ugly and socially awkward) a form of oppression? If I were to be totally honest, I would. I think people who struggle socially are quite limited, generally speaking. — BitconnectCarlos

Are you asking if I'm saying social undesirability can be unfair? Yes, it is but I don't consider oppression to mean unfair so, according to my definition, not at all.

I don't like your definition, I doubt you would even accept describing anything unfair as "oppression". A guy cheats in a race, is that "oppression"? Injustice is oppression? No... nono, I can't. Even you can't possibly use the word oppression as you've described. — Judaka

I'm just going by the way that I've seen it used (generally by leftists) so I'm going along with that.

The left does make a point though...is it fair that we as men (you're male, right?) immediately judge attractive women more positively? Is it fair that we make snap, unconscious judgments on the clothes people wear and how they look? Everyone oppresses other people in a billion different ways... we can't even count all the ways that just through existing and thinking and living we oppress others. We are all complicit in upholding unfair standards. Trust me, I work in a disability community and these judgments and little looks/facial expressions do have real consequences. Nobody is innocent. You can call this "not oppression" but then we're just back to the definitional issue again.

As mentioned I don't usually spend time thinking about all the ways that oppression exists or that I oppress others or that others oppress me, but if those on the left want to waddle into that territory I'm happy to talk.

Leftists describe oppression as unfairness and injustice? I'm pretty sure they use my definition. They just say that the group with the power is white, male, cisgender, ablebodied patriarchy - whatever, and they oppress minorities by abusing their power, to limit access to political and economic resources, as well as other types of resources. On the national level, within businesses, within homes, within political discourse and so on.

I think we could analyse the political and economic resources in a domestic setting. To say that the husband controls the finances, makes all the important decisions, dictates what the wife is allowed to say or wear and so on, and call that oppression.

Oppression can be applied to many different circumstances and we adjust the "resources" to match the setting but it's always based on control and abuse of power. I don't think your definition works at all, unfairness and injustice occur in so many contexts, we can't label all of them oppression. You can't describe discrimination as being synonymous with oppression either. I don't think someone could take your definition and accurately define what is or isn't oppression, it's inadequate.

Oppression can be applied to many different circumstances and we adjust the "resources" to match the setting but it's always based on control and abuse of power. — Judaka

Do stereotypes or prejudices qualify as 'oppression' to you at all? You really don't think that a standard, like a beauty standard, for instance... can be oppressive? What if we only defined beauty as "whiteness?" Beauty standards, social standards... can definitely be oppressive. They can exclude certain groups purely on their identity.

Is oppression synonymous with unfairness and injustice? Then sure... I don't really understand your definition. If I replace "oppression" with "unfair" then I agree.

Is oppression synonymous with unfairness and injustice? Then sure... I don't really understand your definition. If I replace "oppression" with "unfair" then I agree. — Judaka

Yeah, basically.

These things do matter though: I don't think you'd like it very much if you had a disability that was repeatedly portrayed in books and movies as something to be laughed at or pitied. Especially if that's how many people are getting their only exposure to that disability. Portrayal matters.

I can describe things I don't like without using the term oppression. I just don't agree that oppression means "unfair" and "unjust", if you said those things were unfair and unjust then I might've agreed. We can agree to disagree on the definition, we both understand each other but are at an impasse.

Yeah, that's cool.

I was watching a youtube video today where they interviewed a bunch of asexual people and the majority of them said that they did not feel welcome in the LGBTQ community. They've been marginalized by a marginalized community. I just think issues like this present interesting challenges to the oppressor-oppressed framework.