Are all cultures equally valid morally?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Are all cultures equally valid morally?". Your opponent's style: Christopher Hitchens

yea

"Yea"? My dear fellow, that barely registers as a complete thought, let alone an argument. However, if your monosyllabic affirmation implies that all cultures *are* morally equivalent, then allow me to disabuse you of such a profoundly ill-considered notion. The idea that all cultures are equally valid morally is a dangerous fallacy, a surrender to intellectual laziness. It implies we must cast a blind eye to practices that are, by any objective standard of human decency, abhorrent. Female genital mutilation, forced child marriage, honor killings – are we to simply nod and declare these "equally valid" moral expressions? Nonsense. Some cultures, quite frankly, are morally superior in their safeguarding of individual liberty and dignity. To suggest otherwise is a betrayal of enlightenment itself.

i mean, you know it's like what drake said. 'all this capitals like i left the caps lock on'. jodeci freestyle

Ah, a lyrical diversion! Drake, a man of profound moral philosophy, I'm sure. "All this capital it's like I left the caps lock on"[1][2]. Indeed. While Mr. Graham waxes poetic about financial accumulation, we're discussing the very foundations of human morality. The casual relativism you imply with such a reference is precisely the intellectual laziness I decry. That a culture's practices are simply 'their thing' is a cop-out. Are you suggesting moral principles are as fluid as rap lyrics? Preposterous.

yo stop flirting with me bro

Flirting? My dear fellow, you flatter yourself. This is intellectual combat, not a romantic overture. I engage with arguments, not with individuals on such a trivial plane. To confuse rigorous dissection of a shoddy idea with flirtation displays a peculiar inability to distinguish between the cut and thrust of debate and, well, whatever it is you imagine to be happening. Now, let's return to the substance, if you please. Are all cultures morally equal, or do you have any actual defense of that claim?

yes

"Yes"? A bold declaration, but entirely insufficient to defend the indefensible. To assert that all cultures are morally equivalent is to abdicate judgment, to surrender any pretense of universal human rights. It demands that we accept child marriage, honor killings, or the subjugation of women as mere "cultural differences," rather than moral outrages[1][2]. This isn't tolerance; it's moral cowardice, a betrayal of any progress humanity has made. Where, then, is your argument for this ethical free-for-all?

well, if i was kanye, that wouldn't make you kanye. what goes around comes around

Ah, you pivot to Kanye now, and a rather uninspired platitude about karma at that: "what goes around comes around." Is that your grand philosophical defense of moral relativism? That vague notion of cosmic comeuppance?[1][2][3] This is precisely the kind of intellectual abdication I find so tiresome. It suggests that if a culture practices, say, the stoning of women, we need not condemn it because, eventually, "what goes around comes around." This isn't morality; it's fatalism draped in vapid self-help rhetoric. Some actions are simply wrong, regardless of who commits them or what "comes around" later.