A principled universalist stance can coexist with deep condemnation of historic crimes

Evidence

The image Canovan employs to present and defend liberalism is striking: “making a garden in a jungle that is continually encroaching” and a “world [that] is a dark place, which needs redemption by the light of a myth.” This image is not only an invitation to adopt a mythic approach; it is already part of the myth. It fixes on (explains and justifies) the violence lying at the heart of a political doctrine that has disavowed violence on principle. … The liberal violence to which I refer (as opposed to the violence of illiberal regimes) is translucent. It is the violence of universalizing reason itself. For to make an enlightened space, the liberal must continually attack the darkness of the outside world that threatens to overwhelm that space. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 293 (#complicates, via linked claim)

I asked my girlfriend, “How dare you (an American) raise the issue of these teeny tiny camps when you have dropped atomic bombs over two cities?” — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2085 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Comparing one’s group’s offenses to worse deeds of others is a moral defense — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2085; Liberal universalism requires violence against the unredeemed outside world — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 293

Broader Connections

• Liberal universalism requires violence against the unredeemed outside world #complicates (0.78) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 293
• Comparing one’s group’s offenses to worse deeds of others is a moral defense #complicates (0.74) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2085