Always with the questions

I’m wondering something.

You know “All Lives Matter”? That infuriating retort to Black Lives Matter? That maddeningly clueless, point-missing, pugnacious attempt to say shut up about racism?

Here’s a fresh new one just today, from the Elko Daily, by someone named Chuck Muth:

I know I shouldn’t write this – and I know I’m going to bring down the wrath of the Thought Police and the race-hustlers upon my head – but I’m sick and tired of this white-hating “black lives matter” crud and ain’t gonna take it anymore.

You know right where you are with that kind of thing, don’t you. You know to turn around and walk briskly away.

You know that “Black Lives Matter” is absolutely not saying that only black lives matter, or that other lives don’t matter – it’s just saying that black lives matter. You know that jumping in to shout that all lives matter is totally missing the point, and is shutting down the much-needed work of reminding complacent white people that racism hasn’t gone away.

By the same token, you know “I’m not a feminist, I’m a humanist”? That’s a trope too. It has the same flaw. Being a feminist is not opposed to being a humanist; one can (and should) be both. Feminism doesn’t mean taking away all the rights from men and giving them to women; it means ending the second-class status of women. It means treating women and men as equals. Treating the two as opposed is just an annoyingly uninformed way of denying that women are treated as subordinates. You already know that; it’s obvious, and it’s been much rehearsed over the past few years, including here.

So what I’ve been wondering is, what is it with a lot of progressive types who lose their shit when a feminist says no we should not stop talking about abortion as an issue of women’s rights? Why do those progressive types suddenly start saying it doesn’t erase women at all if we talk about people who need abortion rights as opposed to women who need abortion rights? Why do they suddenly forget all about shit like All Lives Matter and I’m not a feminist I’m a humanist when it comes to abortion?

I would love to know.

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