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

Disagree

Listen — the notion that all cultures are morally equivalent is precisely the kind of relativism that collapses the moment you actually apply it. If female genital mutilation is "just another cultural practice," then so is opposing it. You can't simultaneously say all moral frameworks are equally valid *and* that your objection to them matters. That's intellectual cowardice masquerading as tolerance. The hard truth: some cultures get things right, others catastrophically wrong. Honor killings, slavery, systematic oppression — these aren't "different moral perspectives." They're failures. Real moral progress requires the willingness to say certain practices are indefensible, full stop. So pick one: either morality is universal enough to condemn genuine atrocities, or it isn't. You can't have it both ways just to sound enlightened.

So wrong

Fine — you think I'm wrong, so defend it. Tell me: is there *any* cultural practice you'd actually condemn? Or are you genuinely claiming that a society that executes dissidents is morally equivalent to one protecting free speech? Because if you won't draw that line, you've abdicated morality entirely. You're not being tolerant — you're being indifferent to suffering. And if you *will* draw the line somewhere, then you've already admitted some cultures are morally superior to others. You've lost the argument before we started. Which is it?

wrong bro

You're dodging the question, which tells me everything. You don't actually believe all cultures are equal — you just won't say it. Nobody does. We all think our culture's stance on women's rights, slavery, or torture is *better* than cultures that embrace them. That's not intolerance; that's basic moral consistency. The only way your position survives is if you stop thinking about concrete examples. The moment you do — when you imagine your daughter in a society where her testimony counts as half a man's — you abandon cultural relativism instantly. You can't live it because it's indefensible. So what's the actual argument here?