Is cultural relativism still a thing?

[Martinus]

I got into a few arguments recently with Polish self-avowed leftists who essentially defended certain practices and laws of muslims countries (such as stoning or hanging people for atheism, homosexuality or being a victim of a rape) by arguing that it is something that exists in the cultural context of these countries and it is inappropriate for the West to meddle in this.

This left me totally baffled.

I thought such views have been completely discredited as morally bankrupt by now.

So here's a question - are these just Poles being stupid and behind the Western trends, or are there still significant voices in the European or American left who think and argue this way?

[Syt]

Poles being stupid

Isn't that like snow being white or water being wet?

[Martinus]

Poles being stupid

Isn't that like snow being white or water being wet?

Yeah but what I am trying to establish is whether in this particular case they are uniquely stupid.

[Razgovory]

I think you might be confusing this with "moral relativism".

[Martinus]

I think you might be confusing this with "moral relativism".

According to online dictionaries, the two concepts used to be separate but are now used interchangeably outside of anthropological studies.

[Razgovory]

So by the ignorant?  I'm not sure the best way to start a thread about how stupid other people are is begin by confusing one concept with another.

[Josquius]

I've not heard the argument that it is OK to stone adulterers and all that crap.
But I have certainly heard the argument that the west shouldn't meddle as that will just entrench fucked up views and not let them develop sanity themselves.

[garbon]

So by the ignorant?  I'm not sure the best way to start a thread about how stupid other people are is begin by confusing one concept with another.

Because he isn't a very good troll.

[CountDeMoney]

I think you might be confusing this with "moral relativism".

According to online dictionaries, the two concepts used to be separate but are now used interchangeably outside of anthropological studies.

Cultural relativism as a methodology in Political Science is not used to defend "certain practices and laws" that are "inappropriate for the West to meddle in".  Your friends are doing it wrong.

[Siege]

I ain't going to touch this thread with a ten foot pole.

[crazy canuck]

So by the ignorant?  I'm not sure the best way to start a thread about how stupid other people are is begin by confusing one concept with another.

[citizen k]

So here's a question - are these just Poles being stupid and behind the Western trends, or are there still significant voices in the European or American left who think and argue this way?

Ben Affleck?

[Eddie Teach]

I ain't going to touch this thread with a ten foot pole.

I suspect he's in the 5-6 1/2 foot range in height. Though his tackling range may be 10 feet.

[derspiess]

I had an Anthropology prof who was a big time cultural relativist.  He pissed off a lot of people in class by defending female circumcision and never backing down.  I want to think he was doing some exercise to "challenge our ethnocentrism" and wasn't necessarily defending the practice, per se.  But if that was what he was doing he never bothered to clue us in.

He also had some flat-out bizarre theories about American culture, was the spitting image of Freud and dressed like some teenage stoner.

[Razgovory]

I ain't going to touch this thread with a ten foot pole.

Oh, I don't think Marty is nearly that tall.