Hi! Can you please delete my question about if advocating against torture was more of Western thing? I wasn’t sure if it came out well and I don’t want to start any fights on your page. Thank you.
Anon, I understand that this was well-intentioned but I don’t think you realise the effects of your actions here.
It is unfair to approach someone, invite a conversation about your own privilege and then decide that you do not wish to have that conversation. It is unkind. And the fact that you can walk away from the issue is a function of privilege.
By the nature of the blog you’ve now put me in an extremely awkward position. Because now I have to wonder if I can talk about how Western privilege affects conversations about torture and abuse. If I do so, even without a question, it could be interpreted as answering your specific question and hence going against your wishes. I have a new ask now on a similar subject. Do I assume this is you and you just wanted to rephrase your thoughts? Do I assume it’s someone different and that answering it may result in you assuming I’ve answered your question against your wishes? Because that’s happened to me before.
I deal with the difference between Western and non-Western experience or perception of the world every single day. So this isn’t just an interesting philosophical or cultural point to me. It is intensely, painfully personal.
With respect Anon, do you understand how much I have to censor myself every single day? Do you know what it’s like to have to invest time into educating other people just to try and work out if you could be friends? Can you imagine what it’s like to live without an unspoken assumption of shared experience?
Are you aware of the silences, here and now, as I try to find a way to express this that will be both understandable and acceptable to Westerners generally and Americans particularly (a culture I’ve got no experience of or real frame of reference for)?
Do you have an idea of the things I am not saying?
Because there will be people reading this who not only know but feel that silence in their bones.
Now I’ve volunteered to help people here and spend my time educating others to the best of my ability. But that does not mean the askbox is a dumping ground for personal problems or a way for you to offload your emotional troubles on to me.
I will probably give my limited, individual perspective on Western wealth and privilege at some point. And I will continue to expect bouts of hate mail or guilt-trippy disapproval every time I express something that does not align with the Western ‘norm’.