Sharing injustice stories across distance forges empathy and recognition that close moral distance

Evidence

I want to argue that the actions of many in both environmental and ecological justice movements actively counter this distance. The point of communicating diverse battles, even those emanating from continents away, or in the depths of rainforests, is to give those far from, or different from, ourselves a voice and to acknowledge their situation. The explosion of diverse discourses of injustice, the availability of these discourses via the Web, alternative media, or mainstream media, and the attention brought to the diversity of environmental injustices through the actions of international civil society, forges empathy, recognition, and unity—even across great distances. This was one of the key lessons of the first major WTO protests in Seattle, and continues in a variety of movement networks. Diverse people come with different stories of injustice, with varying emphases on equity, recognition, capabilities, and/or participation. It is common to see those with different experiences of environmental injustice sharing stories. Through participation and recognition—two key elements of justice itself—those who are distant and many circles away (using Wenz’s analogy) become much closer. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 634

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that cosmopolitan narrative networks narrow perceived moral distance echoes the Seattle WTO case discussed earlier and the pluralist-convergence literature. — connects to: Pluralist engagement rests on agonistic respect plus critical responsiveness — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 649; Physical segregation severs communication needed for moral recognition — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 543; Pity presupposes inequality while empathy requires equal standing — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 518 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Moral inhibition is neutralized by making victims remote and invisible #contradicts (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 550
• Moral inhibitions do not act at a distance and depend on proximity #contradicts (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 546
• Moral responsibility to others shrinks and vanishes with increasing distance #contradicts (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 547
• Physical segregation severs communication needed for moral recognition #qualifies (0.72) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 543
• Pity presupposes inequality while empathy requires equal standing #qualifies (0.72) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 518
• Shared liminal identity builds trust that reveals suffering invisible to media #corroborates (0.72) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 55
• Perceiving a victim’s shared humanity can break the disengagement that enabled violence #corroborates (0.70) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2424