Thursday, November 08, 2018

"but would you let your daughter marry one" - deconstructed

heard this phrase from some article about israel/palestine - you can probably guess but it could be from a guy (yes a guy) from any extreme group there - let's deconstruct this shall we?

"but would you let your daughter marry one"

but - so the phrase usually follows some apology (I'm sure they are all fine, but- or even I'm not a racist but). i.e. the speaker is a racist.

would you - why does the speaker think their view is like the listener ("you")?
how about my answer is "none of your business" - but also, why "would"? it isn't up to me.

let - see "would" - someone who wants to marry is by definition legally (and possibly religously) allowed by the state (church, mosque, synagogue etc), so it isn't up to the speaker or listener if the daughter is allowed - it would, indeed, in most countries nowadays be illegal and in many religions unethical, immoral and untenable to "not let" someone follow their heart...

your daughter - raises to questions immediately - 1. do you know (assuming it is a guy speakning or listening) that it is your daughter - there's no guarantee without dna testing. 2. why single out female children (actually grown up since they are of marrying age)? what's worse about a daughter than a son marrying "out"? is there some sexual deviance about this, or is there some incestuous unhealthy obsession or is there some property rights question? all mediaval bullshit.

marry - marry, why now? but why is marriage a "step" too far? and what if its same-sex marriage, does that make it ok, better, or worse? if the marriage is to someone of a different (or no) faith, then perhaps there's conversion going on (either side, either direction) or abandoning of religion, or, hey, guess what, the other "side" might be more tolerant of mixed religion marriages - given the above (daughter) and matriliear rules on the religions in the source region in question, what exactly is the "concern"? precision please, in your bigotry.

one - reduce the daughter's chosen loved one to "one", as in "any one of" - like people are interchangeable if they aren't the right kind of people? great, reveals what is really going on which started with "but" and ended up only 7 words later revealing inherent lack of regard for some people as humans.

I'm sure there are more things one could extract from this phrase, but it sure is revealing of the speaker's mindset.

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