rdfs:comment
| - Cultural relativism can be depicted in many ways, making it come across as a good, neutral or bad thing. When a character argues that Culture Justifies Anything, the relativism is at its lowest and nastiest, and sometimes also at its most hilarious. This nastiest form of cultural relativism is to honour people's "right" to be murdered, raped, and subjected to any kind of horror against their will. A "right" they get burdened with for belonging to a certain culture... or even simply because their abuser belongs to a certain culture, never mind that they have no connection to it themselves.
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abstract
| - Cultural relativism can be depicted in many ways, making it come across as a good, neutral or bad thing. When a character argues that Culture Justifies Anything, the relativism is at its lowest and nastiest, and sometimes also at its most hilarious. This nastiest form of cultural relativism is to honour people's "right" to be murdered, raped, and subjected to any kind of horror against their will. A "right" they get burdened with for belonging to a certain culture... or even simply because their abuser belongs to a certain culture, never mind that they have no connection to it themselves. This trope is about someone directly or indirectly using "culture" as a way of trying to get themselves or someone else off the hook for truly heinous acts or structures -- either justifying the crime with a reference to culture, or insisting that the case should not be properly investigated out of respect for the culture. Note that the claim that "Culture Justifies Anything" is usually done by a character, not by the narrator. The character being portrayed as wrong is still a straight example, not a subversion. For this trope to come into effect, it must be clear that the setting or at least the author treat the act thus defended as morally questionable at best. Otherwise it's merely Your Normal Is Our Taboo. If the setting in general agrees with the objectionable act, this trope does not have to be used, since the act is simply considered normal and doesn't have to be defended by reference to culture. If the trope is used anyway, it's purpose might be to highlight the Deliberate Values Dissonance. For good, neutral and neutralish forms of cultural relativism, see instead Good Versus Good, Both Sides Have a Point and Blue and Orange Morality. Compare Agree to Disagree. Contrast Against My Religion, where someone is sticking to his values in a honorable manner. No Real Life Examples, Please - this is not the place for that eternal flamewar. Examples of Culture Justifies Anything include:
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