Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Family’s Slave

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 645 posts

Re: My Family’s Slave

#631

Post by dang »

quirkafleeg wrote: post #628
quirkafleeg wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Comments on HN do nothing for the victim What was the point of the original comment then, in your opinion? Just to upset people here? > and it's self-righteous posturing to pretend they do. This is nothing more than your opinion, based on nothing more than your imagination. > We don't do this kind of thing because we care about someone we'd never heard of until a minute ago. It's an opportune way to get some of our…

And as per usual, downvoter/s (assuming they are genuine downvotes) are totally incapable of addressing any of the points made. Just more mindless dislikes.

I'm afraid your comments to HN have been breaking the site guidelines badly for quite a while. You've been uncivil—often egregiously so, such as repeatedly accusing others of being Nazis—and gotten into lots of flamewars. This is unacceptable, we ban accounts that do it, and I'm banning yours now.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com. We unban accounts when people give us reason to believe that they'll follow the site rules in the future.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#632

Post by [deleted] »

quirkafleeg wrote: post #619
dang wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comments on HN do nothing for the victim, and it's self-righteous posturing to pretend they do. We don't do this kind of thing because we care about someone we'd never heard of until a minute ago. It's an opportune way to get some of our own anger out and see ourselves as moral at the same time. Lashing out at the person you're talking to, on the other hand, actually can do harm—and that only means hurting the victim…

> Comments on HN do nothing for the victim What was the point of the original comment then, in your opinion? Just to upset people here? > and it's self-righteous posturing to pretend they do. This is nothing more than your opinion, based on nothing more than your imagination. > We don't do this kind of thing because we care about someone we'd never heard of until a minute ago. It's an opportune way to get some of our…

[deleted]

Re: My Family’s Slave

#633

Post by PhasmaFelis »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #425
colechristensen wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like ... slavery-lite. Fundamentally what's the difference between Lola's role and a common role of a wife a hundred years ago?* And second – a dangerous question – is it necessarily wrong? I ask not to lead one to believe to think that it isn't, certainly there are aspects which are unquestionable immoral, but is there room for such a social construct? More importantly, answering why not in a robust way could m…

Having a servant who is paid but is well-cared-for is problematic, but not necessarily wrong. Having a servant who is abused daily, made to sleep on the floor, kept away from her family, forced to work when sick, denied medical care for no good reason, and not allowed to leave is blatantly obviously wrong. There's nothing but physical/sexual violence distinguishing this from the horror stories of the pre-Civil War Am…

That should say "unpaid but well-cared-for," of course.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#634

Post by abalashov »

kelnos wrote: post #611
abalashov wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I had to read the grandparent's comment charitably, there is a formal distinction in that Lola's relationship to the family was not legally institutionalised. If they tried to stop her from leaving the house by force, they would be committing a crime. Whether it amounted to de facto slavery is a different question, as I pointed out in another comment on this article.

I fail to see how the distinction matters. If you are treated like a slave, act like a slave, required to do a slave's work, and aren't compensated and are coerced into giving up your freedom, then you are a slave. The legalities or formal relationship is irrelevant. The de facto nature of her slavery is all that matters.

I don't disagree with you in the slightest, personally. I was just trying to provide some interpretation of the possible guiding sentiment behind ancestor comments.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#635

Post by quirx »

dang wrote: post #631
quirkafleeg wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as per usual, downvoter/s (assuming they are genuine downvotes) are totally incapable of addressing any of the points made. Just more mindless dislikes.

I'm afraid your comments to HN have been breaking the site guidelines badly for quite a while. You've been uncivil—often egregiously so, such as repeatedly accusing others of being Nazis—and gotten into lots of flamewars. This is unacceptable, we ban accounts that do it, and I'm banning yours now. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com. We unban accounts when people give us reason…

You're banning my account because I had the temerity to ask you to back up your claims, including the deletion of another poster's comment then falsely claiming he "lashed out" at someone in it.

Who you're trying to kid, other than yourself, by pretending otherwise is anyone's guess, but if I'd genuinely been badly violating the rules for quite a while, why was I only banned now, after posting something to you that you're unable to answer?

As for "repeatedly accusing others of being Nazis", now you're not even trying. That's simply a blatant lie that anyone reading this before you delete it can verify is false merely by checking my posts.

The only time I've even called someone a "Nazi sympathizer" is WRT an actual Nazi sympathizer, in this thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12962943

As I say in that thread:

     Just as Holocaust denial isn't *literally* saying the Holocaust
     didn't happen, being a Nazi sympathizer is not about shouting 
     Sieg Heil, it's about picking away at small things here and 
     there. Minimizing or ignoring the crimes or victims of the Nazis
     (which cyberferret did), emphasizing the offences of the Allies
     (which cyberferret did), posting misinformation and/or lies 
     (which cyberferret did). All textbook far-right/neo-Nazi tactics.
cyberferret posted lies straight from the David Irving school of Nazi atrocity denial and was upvoted by the resident far-right crowd here at Hacker News, who, as all crybabies do when they lose the argument, also started flagging posts they don't like, to be rescued by the mods.

My correction of him - using facts taken from his own link that he hadn't even bothered to read - was downvoted, and I was attacked by the mods for calling him what he is, just as you're doing now, in line with the far-right bias of Hacker News.

Another example of that far-right bias - that I'm not the only person to have noticed or remarked upon - is mentioned in the same thread, where you or some other mod deleted an entirely civil undisputed historical fact:

"Maybe we should also remember that most of the people who signed this document owned slaves"

because it had so many upvotes it couldn't be buried in downvotes by far-right racists here.

This is the site you're running. Apparently you're not ashamed of it.

Thanks for reminding me.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#636

Post by triangleman »

rgbrenner wrote: post #555
bubbleRefuge wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think fleeing a life of slavery is a good argument for asylum.

can you claim asylum for abuse suffered in the country you fled TO? Doesn't the abuse need to be in the country you are from (the one they will deport you to)?

Actually in the US there is a process for granting residency to abused spouses and children:.

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/battered-spouse-children-...

I have heard that it's fairly lenient and the cousin described by OP might fit into that category for immigration status. IANAIL.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#637

Post by adrienne »

jimmywanger wrote: post #592
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even though I always objected to her treatment, I feel complicit. As an adult who knows this is happening and allows it to continue, you are complicit. There's lots of good advice in this thread. Please do something.

> As an adult who knows this is happening and allows it to continue, you are complicit. Do you use consumer electronics? Do you know the conditions at Foxconn, or any factory in China? More to the point, do you know how polluted China is right now, and how much manufacturing destroys the country? So therefore, by your logic, you are complicit.

Of course. We're all complicit. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. You've got blood on your hands. Deal with it.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#639

Post by BrandoElFollito »

mycatislenin wrote: post #150
Symbiote wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the name of the film?

Possibly "L'esclavage moderne de Fatou"

Unfortunately not. I watched the movie some 5 to 10 years ago and I cannot remember neither the title nor the actors. Sorry.

Re: My Family’s Slave

#640

Post by JPLeRouzic »

baby wrote: post #626
JPLeRouzic wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was born in country side in France (Morbihan) but I never heard that farmers would adopt kids to exploit them. The closer to this that I know are some professional foster people [1] who have a bad reputation among the orphans that I met, that said I know also some perfect foster people. Those "professionals" are usually themselves quite poor and it is a second job for them (or at least for the spouse). However I re…

I googled and found out that there is actually some nasty history related to my fact: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfants_de_la_Creuse > Les enfants réunionnais déplacés en Creuse étaient accueillis lors de leur arrivée dans un foyer de Guéret5. "Certains ont été adoptés, d'autres sont restés en foyer ou ont servi de main-d'œuvre gratuite dans les fermes6", les paysans à travers la Creuse les utilisant alors comme…

That is true, now that you mention this, I remember there were other similar cases in France.

Thanks for the information.

Post reply on HN