I have an economics teacher that made this claim in class yesterday. I wanted to know other people’s thoughts about it.

  • TheWeirdestCunt@lemm.ee
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    20 days ago

    I had a university lecturer who claimed that climate change was racist “because Bangladeshi women can’t swim”

    Idk how some people end up being able to teach sometimes

    • Vaggumon@lemm.ee
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      20 days ago

      All I could think was: Aliens don’t wear hats on Tuesdays because Tuna Helper is in Retrograde

    • Vanth@reddthat.com
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      20 days ago

      I’d bet a dollar it was a comment on the disparate impact of climate change on women and people of color, using Bangladeshi women being statistically less likely to know how to swim as an example. But sure, climate change is racist because Bangladeshi women can’t swim, that’s a much more juicy soundbite.

    • kellenoffdagrid❓️@lemmy.sdf.org
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      20 days ago

      The irony of them making a racial and gendered generalization on swimming skills lmao.

      It’s always bothered me when people will blame a phenomenon and call it racist, when the systematic racism lies in our society and its response to the phenomenon. Climate change isn’t consciously choosing to target minorities, but societies are choosing not to support the minority groups disproportionately affected by it.

    • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      At a public awareness March in my country a speaker claimed COVID was racist because it disproportionately killed indigenous peoples.

      You could argue that is correlation, where the cause was actually being unvaccinated. This was an antivax march, so obviously it was the government’s fault, not being unvaccinated.

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    All property is a social construct and is defined by law. So if the law says debt is no longer valid, then the loan agreements cease to be property and there is no stealing it.

    • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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      19 days ago

      That’s like saying if there was no law against theft I could drive away with your car, and that’s not stealing. I don’t think your argument is very convincing.

      • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        If the law said my car is no longer my property, then driving away with it would cease to be stealing, correct. What is property without legal, government-backed title? There’s no way to formulate a definition, because without government and laws property has no meaning.

        • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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          18 days ago

          Property has existed before laws existed to enforce it. It was enforced with violence. Stealing is still stealing even if there’s no law against it.

          • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            And if there was a disagreement about whose property was who’s? With no laws to settle it, it would just be determined by who grabs said property and runs off with it first. That’s indistinguishable from a free-for-all.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      19 days ago

      But, assuming that this is in the US, one of the major parties relies on keeping people uneducated, so they don’t want people to pursue higher education. And certainly do not support cancelling student debt.

      • SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee
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        19 days ago

        Im not sure where they’re referring to, but it’s the same, or similar at least, in the U.K.

        That’s how they got Brexit and they’re pushing us to be right wing.

  • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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    19 days ago

    My thought is that you should find a different class with a different teacher.

  • Vaggumon@lemm.ee
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    20 days ago

    No more so then all the COVID loans forgiven for members of Congress.

  • molave@reddthat.com
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    20 days ago

    It’s the same answer to “if you give someone a gift, did they steal from you?” or “is a discount stealing?”

  • Zak@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    Not any more than any other subsidy is.

    Actually nullifying a debt a borrower owes to a lender, which the government guaranteed would be paid at the time the loan was issued would be akin to theft. As far as I know, all programs that “cancel” student loan debt are actually the government paying the balance to the issuer.

  • Bronzebeard@lemm.ee
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    20 days ago

    Only by the rich people who are actually stealing from us. PPP loan forgiveness for their litany of fraudulent claims…

  • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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    20 days ago

    I think one way you can at least partially answer that is by asking whether college tuition has increased in price equally with how valuable a college tuition is.

    The answer is no btw

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    20 days ago

    Stealing from who? It’s a social program, if society has deemed it necessary and the bourgeoisie allows it then it is simply spending.

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
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    20 days ago

    Stealing = the act of taking feloniously the personal property of another without his consent and knowledge

    There is nothing felonious or illegal here. The universities signed on to deals for government funding and the money comes with strings.