[legulere]

On the other hand talking about those believes can also lead to real changes. Slavery used to be seen widely a necessary evil, just like for instance war.

[bee_rider]

I don’t actually know a ton about the rhetoric around abolitionism. Are you saying they tried to convince people that everybody else thought slavery was evil? I guess I assumed they tried to convince people slavery was in-and-of-itself evil.

[true_religion]

IMO, abolitionist made absolutist arguments like appeals to the common sense of inalienable rights, or Christian virtue. Their opponents would have to fight through the cognitive dissonance of arguing an unnatural or unchristian position.

That sounds a lot like saying slavey is obviously bad, and simultaneously also saying everyone else naturally already believes this.

[jibal]

Slavery used to be seen as a good thing by those who benefited from it (or thought they did).

[mekoka]

Slavery itself required the belief in lesser humans to absolve its beneficiaries. Guilt is one hell of a party pooper.