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Oppression Quotes

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Oppression Quotes

“We still find, especially in parts of academe, the damaging notion that everything is a struggle for power, or being empowered, or hegemony, or oppression: and that all competition is a zero-sum game. This is not more than repetition of Lenin's destructive doctrine. Intellectually, it is reductionism; politically, it is fanaticism.”

StillsGamesStruggleCompetitionNotionDoctrineOppressionDestructiveZeroRepetitionEmpoweredFanaticismHegemonyReductionismZero Sum Game
Author:Robert Conquest
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“If I rule out violent anarchism, there remains pacifist, anti-nationalist, anti-capitalist, moral, and anti-democratic anarchism (i.e., that which is hostile to the falsified democracy of bourgeois states). There remains the anarchism which acts by means of persuasion, by the creation of small groups and networks, denouncing falsehood and oppression, aiming at a true overturning of authorities of all kinds as people at the bottom speak and organize themselves.”

PeopleIfsKindMeanStatesSpeakMoralDemocracyGroupsCreationAuthorityRemainsDemocraticBottomViolentAll KindsOppressionCapitalistFalsehoodOrganizePersuasionHostileAnarchismBourgeoisSmall GroupsPacifist
Author:Jacques Ellul
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“'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality.”

PeopleMenKindSelfAmericaPoliticalEvilOpportunityNamesSocialVirtueMastersGainsSlaveIndividualitySeekingTyrannyOppressionAspirationIndividualismRepresentativesHandfulCastesRuggedRugged Individualism
Author:Emma Goldman
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“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”

PeopleMindBodyPoliticalSpiritEvilInspiringEducationEnlightenmentTyrannyOppressionDawnPatrioticTyrantsClassroomMind And BodyEnlighteningWar On DrugsGood Against EvilIndependence Day PatrioticJuly 4th 1776Evil Spirits4th Of July InspirationalTyranny Founding FathersMind Body And SoulJuly 4Universal EducationUs Independence Day
Book:The Essential Jefferson
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“Had I no other proof of the immortality of the soul than the oppression of the just and the triumph of the wicked in this world, this alone would prevent my having the least doubt of it. So shocking a discord amidst a general harmony of things would make me naturally look for a cause; I should say to myself we do not cease to exist with this life; everything reassumes its order after death.”

WorldShouldLooksSoulOrderCausesDoubtThis WorldHarmonyProofCeaseOppressionThis LifeTriumphImmortalityWickedShockingAfter DeathDiscord
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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“Hence, when some members of the Iranian diaspora, especially women at the moment, use different tropes including the trope of the veil and the issue of gender to construct an image of oppression or to describe the 'silenced' Iranian woman, western intellectuals, policymakers, and publishing houses are all quick to introduce them as presenters of the authentic Iranian experience.”

DifferentMomentsUseHouseIssuesMembersWesternIncludingGenderOppressionIntroducingPublishingConstructsVeilsIranianDiasporaTropesPresenterPublishing House
Author:Mohammad Marandi
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“In the early period of Left struggles, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there were many different trajectories for the struggle, whether you call it 'syndicalism' or 'anarchism' or, at the time, 'social democracy', eventually 'Communism', these were different theories of struggle. But all of them shared a basic understanding that the people...experience exploitation, they experience oppression, but they're not prepared to rise up.”

PeopleDifferentLeftSocialUnderstandingStruggleDemocracyCenturyTheoryPeriodsLatePreparedOppressionCommunismExploitationTwentieth CenturyAnarchismTrajectorySocial Democracy
Author:Vijay Prashad
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“When anarchists are having a debate, they're having a debate about tactics, 'Should you do this?', 'Should you do that?' The question isn't 'Should you do this?', 'Should you do that?', the primary question is how do you build confidence among the masses of people who experience hierarchies, who experience exploitation, who experience oppression.”

PeopleShouldMassDebateOppressionPrimariesExploitationTacticsHierarchyAnarchistBuilding Confidence
Author:Vijay Prashad
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“Of course, intersectionality theory is a confused muddle. It fights racism and sexism by classifying everyone according to race and sex. It views race and gender privilege as the root of all evil, while ignoring the role played by dogmatic ideologies held by all genders. And it is unfalsifiable - to its adherents, criticism and rejection of the theory actually demonstrate its truth, by showing how deeply we all have internalized our oppression.”

FightingCoursesEvilSexViewsRaceRolesTheoryRacismRootsCriticismPrivilegeGenderOppressionIdeologyRejectionConfusedSexismDogmaticIntersectionalityMuddleClassifyingRace And Gender
Author:Christina Hoff Sommers
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“Certainly here in the U.S., we've had fundamentalist movements that have taken very critical and hostile attitudes toward immigration and the assimilation of immigrants into our society and culture. So these tendencies are fairly universal. The problem is what if they get out of hand and become the dominant factor in a society, which can only lead to the oppression of minorities or even to war with neighboring societies with differing cultures. That's why it seems to me it's important to try to keep these tendencies toward extremism under control.”

IfsTryingImportantWarProblemHandsSeemsCultureAttitudeTakenMovementUniversalCriticalImmigrationTendenciesFactorsOppressionMinoritiesOur SocietyImmigrantsWhat IfDominantHostileExtremismAssimilationFundamentalistHad FunSociety And Culture
Author:Samuel P. Huntington
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