Fiction:Katarian Sapient Rights Organization/Tips For the Advocacy of Sapient Rights

Tips for the advocacy of Sapient Rights.

In order to further the Katarian Sapient Rights Organization’s goal to end all violations of sapient rights, the KSRO has decided to release its guidelines, which are already given to all of Justidia’s volunteers. It is our hope that all advocates of sapient rights will be able to increase the effectiveness of their activity with this document.

1: Never behave dishonestly. No, not even in those circumstances you just thought of. To lie in the name of a cause is to stain it, and give its enemies an excuse to demonize and dismiss it. Dishonesty is like terrorism in that way. The more advocates of a cause engage in it, the more the cause is harmed by it. We recommend that other organizations follow our own policy of instantly and permanently dismissing any advocate who has been shown beyond a reasonable doubt to have knowingly lied in any official publication connected to the issues for which the KSRO has charged them to argue.

2: Always ensure that the behavior of advocates is, in every reasonable way, in conformance with the relevant society’s standards of respectability. They should act in accordance with what the society considers to be appropriate dress, activity, and conduct for them. Seek out members of respected demographics to serve as advocates, and conform to the society’s standards of an ideal public speaker.

3: Related to the above, conduct yourself as humbly as possible, unless you are working in a society where such humility is considered an admission of inferiority. Arrive at formal gatherings slightly overdressed, and do not take honored seating positions unless specifically invited to. Make a point to take the least honored position possible, so as to make the biggest possible show of your virtue especially if you are invited a higher position later. Of course, in accordance with #1, be sure to live out this humility in private as well, so as to avoid hypocrisy.

4: On a related note, avoid hypocrisy. Do not allow yourself to violate the virtues you profess to uphold. The ideal advocate should exemplify at once the virtues for which he is arguing, along with the virtues which the society he is operating in holds dear. This must not be merely your public persona, but a pattern of behavior which permeates every aspect of your life.

5: Make use of non-moral arguments. Do not limit yourself to moral objections to the abuses you are advocating against. There will always be a sub-set of the population you are trying to reach who is not moved by such argumentation. For those people, be sure to make use of argumentation that does not refer directly to the morality or lack thereof of the abuse in question. For example, when fighting slavery, do not merely argue ethically, but economically as well. Point out that slavery often increases wealth inequality and takes jobs from the free poor. When fighting genocide, make note of any scientific data undermining the reasoning behind the acts. That goes triply when fighting eugenics.

6: While continuing to abide by the principle of honesty established earlier, twist your opponents’ ideologies against them. Often, the ideological basis of a violation of sapient rights can be subverted to condemn the same action. Most religious systems used to oppress also contain foundational moral principles of love and kindness which contradict the very abuses. When doing so, remember that if any works of scripture are truly inerrant, than these principles are applicable to the situation or not objectively. Do not be taken in by the argument that you are imposing your understanding of kindness on ancient text. Tell them that the text commands kindness and that whether an action is kind or not is a matter of verifiable fact, not the fruit of the mortal author’s intention.

7: Never say anything in a private communication that you wouldn’t want to see, completely out of context, on the front page of your opponent’s website. Whether it be a snide comment, admission of argumentative weakness, or anything that could be taken out of context to seem to be such, always act in a way that you would be happy to be seen acting while on camera in front of the entirety of your target population.

8: Make special effort to recruit locals to your cause. Do not allow your cause to be thought of as an alien one by the populous. If the people you ate trying to reach perceive you as a bunch of aliens trying to get them to do things your way, you will make little progress. Instead, make your cause a local one, and recruit natives of the population you’re working with to your cause. If your organization is founded by natives, do not allow aliens to crowd your organization and make it into the above. If the fact that your ideas do not originate on the planet of the population you are trying to reach is brought up, call it out for the genetic fallacy that it is.

Thank you all for reading. We hope you find this advice fruitful. Remember, progress is slow. It may seem like you’re getting nowhere in the quest to make things better, but that is only because you are not looking at the bigger picture. Change can take centuries, but so long as you maintain hope, and continue fighting, there is always hope for a brighter future.

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