Whenever people scream about “equality” online, it often feels like what they really mean is “I want my group to get more advantages, even if it means others get less.
You see it across politics, gender, race, even in workplaces — people don’t want true fairness where everyone has the same rights, opportunities, and responsibilities.
They want the upper hand, and they wrap it in the language of justice.
Equality isn’t everyone getting a turn. It’s everyone playing by the same rules and let’s be honest, most people don’t like that idea.
Comments
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I’m gonna need an example
Equality isn’t the goal. Equity is.
Equality is some meaningless and impossible concept given the long and storied history of mankind. Equity is a something that takes that into account and promotes an actual functional solution
Have you seen the fence comic that illustrates the difference between equity and equality?
“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
> it often feels
…have you just asked them what they mean rather than trying to determine what they mean based on how you feel? Go ahead. Ask me
Totally get what you’re saying. Equality should be about everyone getting the same opportunities and rights, but it often turns into a fight for more advantages for specific groups. It’s frustrating because it shifts the focus from fairness to power dynamics. Everyone wants to win, and they use the idea of equality to justify it.
Kinda like how you hear feminists screeching about equal hiring for job opportunities, but only for the high paying ones like CEOs, doctors, etc. You never hear feminists campaigning for more women as taxi drivers. Or garbage collectors. Or sewer cleaners.
You’re wrong. Some of us want true fairness where everyone has the same rights, opportunities, and responsibilities. I have zero desire for the upper hand, so please don’t give it to me. Some of us really are disturbed by what’s happening to others. Demanding that people get due process doesn’t give me any kind of power.
I mean I’m sure most people just want politicians to stop using their existence as part of a wedge issue.
Most people screaming for equality only want it on those points where they’re not already better off.
Men suffer over 90% of all workplace fatalities. I don’t see any feminists calling for that to be equalized.
“Equality isn’t everyone getting a turn. It’s everyone playing by the same rules and let’s be honest, most people don’t like that idea.”
The rule of this game is that anyone can go to college as long as they have enough money. If you weren’t born into money, you don’t get to go. It’s fair because everyone plays by the same rules.
Yes, that is basic human programming. No society has ever worked any other way.
Not unpopular, just wrong
Mmmmm.
Let’s unpack this.
This is often true of those already in a privileged position. They don’t want to give up those privileges.
Those that don’t have those same privileges aren’t looking for more or special privileges. They just want access to the ones enjoyed by others.
I think you might be listening to the wrong people about equality.
Yep. And even when a group initially has a good cause, it’s usually taken over by scam artists pretty quickly, who leverage the issue for “donations for the cause”.
phew it’s nice to know everyone that disagrees with me is just an intellectually dishonest liar. i thought i might have to challenge my preconceptions there for second.
The projection goes hard with this one!
I think this is misconstruing equal opportunities with equal treatment under the law. There’s alot of well documented and studied disadvantages for some groups of people, and laws that attempt to rectify these are/were sloppily handling the issue at best, and face a perpetual feeling of injustice due to it being in the literal sense biased laws. I think this belief is often aided by the many people, of almost any group imaginable, that genuinely do only see victimization of their ingroup and self justify their prejudice against outgroups. That said, there are always well meaning and rational people in the world, even if they aren’t the loudest in the room. No upvote because this is basically a core rightwing stance in the U.S.
Indeed, i just came across a wonderful example https://www.facebook.com/reel/697468562630495 and even then people still dont get it as per the illogical comments
I just know the comments are gonna be good
Let me guess, you’re a white guy
Nice way to say you’re white
Not ‘Most people’. Conservatives want that.
It’s the fundamental tenant of conservativism. Heirarchy. There must be have nots if you are going to have HAVE’s. My guess is that you are a conservative and want that and just assume that everyone else must want that as well.
You pretty much described the woke movement lol.
I’m sure some do but to say MOST is mad.
This is true. Which is why any of these calls need to be viewed skeptically. And we can’t allow any specific special interest to dominate decisionmaking or the dialogue around these issues.
>You see it across politics, gender, race, even in workplaces — people don’t want true fairness where everyone has the same rights, opportunities, and responsibilities
Only the privileged don’t want true fairness. The second they feel even the slightest hint of a twinge of them losing even a tiny bit of their power, they lose their shit and start to turn mountains into molehills. They are afraid to give up anything that makes them change their definition of normality because it inconveniences them. They don’t understand that change and evolution is going to happen whether they like it or not, and they can’t accept that.
Example: The transgender movement. I can admit that I was guilty of this way of thinking, as I remember being upset that I had to change and adapt my way of speaking to people because of pronouns. Everyone I knew around me was pissed about it as well, cause it was like, “It’s been this way my whole life, why do I have to change it just for someone else’s sake?” Eventually, I got older and realized that the point wasn’t that my “rights” were being taken away. It was about understanding that it’s not about me. It’s about making sure that they feel comfortable in their own skin and feeling acknowledged as who they are currently.
Also, equality has never been and never will be a realistic goal as long as we live unfortunately due to internal bias. That’s why the goal is instead equity. Making sure that all people are given the opportunities they deserve regardless of background.
This is very vague. Like if you mean diversity initiatives, then yeah of course they’re important, the West has historically been very priviledged for white people, and still is. Like it’s not priviledge when historically (and currently) many facets of life like employment, still ostracize women and minorities. Biggest example i can think of is how having a foreign name will drastically hurt your employment chances.
YES. I’m on the left and this is maddening to see leftism turn into demographic nationalist bullshit
“When education isn’t liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor.”
There’s a considerable difference between equality and equity, and many people shout about equality, when what they’re actually advocating for is equity.
As a separate issue, there are an awful lot of people who just use the word “equality” or “fairness” as a synonym for “how I feel the world should be run.”
True, that is why the poor ate the rich during the French and Russian revolutions, they didn’t do it because they were communists, they did it because they were hungry, communists just seized the opportunity to manipulate them.
Unfortunately people desperately need someone to tell them what to do, all the while fighting for freedom and equality.
It’s a complete hypnosis.
Eh. I think it’s more like most people don’t want disprivilege for their group. Subtle difference.
I’m glad you said most. Some people are brats that think they can just sit on their tussies doing nothing, and because of some current or past injustice, the world owes them everything. That’s being a brat. But some people truly want fairness – like women in some third-world countries who can’t even go out in public without their one male significant other or a male relative. And some of them were thrown out on the street to starve like animals because they made it against the law for women to work in any kind of job. You have to look at each situation individually and see if they’re being brats or not. And not just women – ANY person of a so-called discriminated against group.
A study from the university of no shit.
I want equity
Everyone loves talking about ‘equality,’ but let’s be real—most people don’t want equality, they want a chance to flip the power dynamics in their favor. We love the idea of fairness until it means we have to give up some of the power or privilege we’ve always had.
OP, I honestly think that because YOU (and others like you) can’t imagine that there are groups of people out there that would genuinely just want to chill and nobodies rights to be violated you’re projecting onto others.
Even the poorest and most marginalized of people still reveal the idea of someone or something being lower than them on the societal totem pole.
As Micheal once sang, that’s just human nature.
From my experience, marginalized people will often go out of their way to NOT come across like some poor, pitiful, helpless victims unless they seek to gain something from it!
But if everyone had the same privilege, wouldn’t they be equal?
Yup
It sounds like you’re projecting. It isn’t an indictment of others just because you are inclined to want more. Equality is defined by those who want it, not by those who deny it.
I believe most people who care enough about social issues and equality actually do want those things. Not everybody wants to be king. Some of us just want to get by without immense struggle and being hated for how we are born, or for being our true selves. There is enough to go around, and if the powers that be don’t burn the stockpiles they’ve been hoarding.
Thats MAGA thinking anyway. I don’t know about most people.
Do you have any proof, an anecdote, or a situation in recent years where such a thing was seen, proven or stated? I’ve never met a single person who talks about equality but what they actually mean is preferential treatment. Not a single person, not in any online space, public space, or anything I’ve read.
Like…. absolutely nobody thinks this way, bro. You’re just standing in your own way