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Full Idea
To defend the rights of minorities is to defend the rights of all. Everyone in turn finds himself in the minority.
Gist of Idea
Minority rights are everyone's rights, because we all have turns in the minority
Source
Benjamin Constant (Principles of Politics [1806]), quoted by Ian Dunt - How to be a Liberal 4
Book Ref
Dunt,Ian: 'How to Be a Liberal' [Canbury Press 2020], p.127
A Reaction
Very conformist people, who are often the most oppressive, are rarely in the minority, and are unlikely to be impressed by this idea.
| 22597 | Minority rights are everyone's rights, because we all have turns in the minority [Constant] |
| 23037 | People are improved by egalitarian institutions and habits [Green,TH] |
| 6448 | A legitimate system is one accepted as both impartial and reasonably partial [Nagel] |
| 18644 | States can't enforce mutual aid on citizens, or interfere for their own good [Nozick] |
| 23102 | Liberals are egalitarians, but in varying degrees [Kekes] |
| 21113 | Liberal equality concerns rights, and liberal freedom concerns choice of ends [Shorten] |
| 22821 | Liberalism asserts maximum freedom, but that must be equal for all participants [Charvet] |
| 22834 | Egalitarian liberals prefer equality (either of input or outcome) to liberty [Charvet] |
| 23141 | Left-wingers are inconsistent in their essentialist descriptions of social groups [Gopnik] |