I haven't responded to every post in the thread because I don't believe they all warrant a reply or I simply can't discern who they are in response to.
But at your behest I have, so there you go.
Now to your points about morals and overall class, social grace, and dignity.
There are a few angles on these that I believe should be addressed. The first being that all of these are completely subjective. I feel it's beyond my mandate of living a life to pass judgement on others, thus I don't consider arguments predicated on subjective metrics to be valid.
Secondly, all of the things you mentioned are social and/or cultural constructs, meaning that in one society they may be deemed as negative and in another as positive. There are no objective norms that transcend all cultures in all times and all places. Perhaps this is to our determent or it may not matter in the least, again it's in the perspective. I personally don't think any metric for assessing how well a life is lived is necessary, it's only a matter of how the individual feels about that life at any point in time.
Many believe that your consumption of marijuana makes you a bad or inferior person. I don't believe that, I believe you are making a choice that you want to make. I do not know how informed your choice is, but it is likewise none of my business. I would not treat you any better or worse for knowing you have made a choice that I wouldn't make.
And the real point I'm driving at isn't about respect so much as it is about dignity. I see homeless people all the time that I believe could be doing better for themselves if they tried, but for whatever reason they choose not to try. I don't particularly respect what they've become but I don't attempt to demean their dignity as they are after all, human beings and I believe that all life is precious and deserving of being treated as such. Of course, YMMV.
Is it normal that sex workers are looked down on?
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I haven't responded to every post in the thread because I don't believe they all warrant a reply or I simply can't discern who they are in response to.
But at your behest I have, so there you go.
Now to your points about morals and overall class, social grace, and dignity.
There are a few angles on these that I believe should be addressed. The first being that all of these are completely subjective. I feel it's beyond my mandate of living a life to pass judgement on others, thus I don't consider arguments predicated on subjective metrics to be valid.
Secondly, all of the things you mentioned are social and/or cultural constructs, meaning that in one society they may be deemed as negative and in another as positive. There are no objective norms that transcend all cultures in all times and all places. Perhaps this is to our determent or it may not matter in the least, again it's in the perspective. I personally don't think any metric for assessing how well a life is lived is necessary, it's only a matter of how the individual feels about that life at any point in time.
Many believe that your consumption of marijuana makes you a bad or inferior person. I don't believe that, I believe you are making a choice that you want to make. I do not know how informed your choice is, but it is likewise none of my business. I would not treat you any better or worse for knowing you have made a choice that I wouldn't make.
And the real point I'm driving at isn't about respect so much as it is about dignity. I see homeless people all the time that I believe could be doing better for themselves if they tried, but for whatever reason they choose not to try. I don't particularly respect what they've become but I don't attempt to demean their dignity as they are after all, human beings and I believe that all life is precious and deserving of being treated as such. Of course, YMMV.