My point is that a lot of people are try to frame it as 'my side is holier than yours' (no pun on the holier), leading to such action on wikipedia supposedly taking its roots on a moral superiority of the losing side.
Whereas it's just two group fighting for some absurd reason (religion / race / language pick one) and territory and the losing side would do the same to the winning side if it was capable of.
It's no different that any war in the past in europe or africa. 'Complexity' is an illusion.
I agree with you in a very broad sense, but I also feel that stripping an issue of its complexity results in apathetic or impossible stances. Where do you even start to craft solutions when this is your understanding of the matter?
Yes, “they” might be fighting for absurd reasons but everyone does, to one extent or another. At some point there has to be a concerted effort to minimize casualties and suffering, and that effort usually comes hand in hand with picking a side - as long as your goal is a reduction in harm and violence, that side is often the weakest (in many senses). But pick any side for all I care, if your intentions are holistically sane.
This is inherently a political effort, one that necessitates impartiality in order to sway public opinion, political weight, budgets, etc. And so these weird “holier than thou” moments arise - yes, sometimes for the sole sake of claiming superiority, but more often than not because “impartial” action is necessary to move the issue forward.
Mind you I don’t agree with Wikipedia on this one, given its nature, but still - embrace the hypercomplexity and patterns and nuance will both emerge and you’ll have something to work with, at the risk of maybe realizing that often to play a part in reality is to pick a side, even if it’s somewhere on the spectrum between two insane positions.
davidguetta|2 years ago
Whereas it's just two group fighting for some absurd reason (religion / race / language pick one) and territory and the losing side would do the same to the winning side if it was capable of.
It's no different that any war in the past in europe or africa. 'Complexity' is an illusion.
tzarko|2 years ago
Yes, “they” might be fighting for absurd reasons but everyone does, to one extent or another. At some point there has to be a concerted effort to minimize casualties and suffering, and that effort usually comes hand in hand with picking a side - as long as your goal is a reduction in harm and violence, that side is often the weakest (in many senses). But pick any side for all I care, if your intentions are holistically sane.
This is inherently a political effort, one that necessitates impartiality in order to sway public opinion, political weight, budgets, etc. And so these weird “holier than thou” moments arise - yes, sometimes for the sole sake of claiming superiority, but more often than not because “impartial” action is necessary to move the issue forward.
Mind you I don’t agree with Wikipedia on this one, given its nature, but still - embrace the hypercomplexity and patterns and nuance will both emerge and you’ll have something to work with, at the risk of maybe realizing that often to play a part in reality is to pick a side, even if it’s somewhere on the spectrum between two insane positions.