Not “woke” or “with it” or one of the cool kids
Bruce is wondering what’s taking the bus so long.
[I]t’s not as if I haven’t made comments that should rile these people. Yet, I’ve been left alone. People haven’t got the message that I’m persona non grata. Allow me to make a few more inflammatory comments that I regard as true, in one convenient place so as to incriminate myself. As I’m not trying to convince anyone, but rather trying to get them to condemn me, I’m not going to put too much effort into justifying myself.
***
Not all oppression is based on identity. Do you think the oppression suffered by pigs entails their identity as porcine? An organism doesn’t need to be self-regarding in order to be oppressed – it doesn’t require an ego, just nerve endings and oppressive surroundings. Oppression can be and often is arbitrary and indifferent to people’s inner states. Sure, the likes of fascists can and do attempt to author the identities of the people they oppress, and it’s even possible to harmfully foist an identity on another inadvertently, but while often relevant, identity isn’t anecessary criteria of oppression. The humans who oppress pigs aren’t trying to get the pigs to identify as tasty, they’re just trying to eat them, and indifferently going about a lot of cruelty in the process.
…
If you’re a Vegan because of the way the dairy industry handles bobby calves, but you embrace the sex industry despite its involvement in human trafficking, you’ve got one hell of a blind spot. I can’t believe how often I’ve seen Vegans failing to generalize this kind of analysis, all while managing to be condescending to people who do. (Disclosure: I don’t eat meat or dairy).
That’s a small selection. They’re all that good.
Normally I wouldn’t be so ‘splainy, but for quite some time now I’ve been waiting for the bus I’m supposed to have been thrown under and it still hasn’t arrived. I belong under that bus. I’ve said The Things.
So go ahead and call me a “TERF” or a “whorephobe” or a “shitlord”, just don’t address me personally if that’s your take; I don’t owe you that. Shun me if that’s the case. Add me to your block-lists. Unfriend or unfollow me on social media. Dis-approve of my person. Don’t put me on your Christmas list. I’m not “woke” or “with it” or one of the cool kids, and I don’t care to be. I will insist though, if you’re going to consider me at all, that you give me the same degree of smear you’d give to women for writing what I have. I’m rather over this particular form of special treatment I seem to be getting.
Have you noticed that? That it’s women who get thrown under that bus while men are mostly ignored? Funny, isn’t it. It’s almost as if the whole thing is absolutely riddled with misogyny, and people are positively vibrating with excitement at having a gold-plated pretext for shitting on women again.
If on the other hand, you think any of what I’ve written above is even defensible, but you still treat claims of “TERF” status, “whorephobia” and crypto-right-wingedness as self-evident, semantically obvious and unchallengeably evil, well, you may want to consider the possibility of contradictions in your political view, or that there are definitions of “TERF”, “whorephobe” and “right-wing” in circulation that you don’t actually agree with. I’ll leave dealing with that up to you.
We’ll wait.
10 hands-down agreements, 1 I disagree with provisionally, and 2 where I’m willing to admit ignorance sufficient to express no opinion at this time. So, yeah, I think I’m in the clear and not about to toss him under a bus anytime soon.
NO WAY! I – male as I happen to be – was called all kinds of TERF and whorephobe during the events that led to the re-location of this site at this location. I’m totally in the same boat as women who say things.
I’m kidding, of course. While I certainly did get called those things around that time, none of it was about me. It was about the women (mostly Ophelia) that I was supporting. It was a circular attempt by a few people to conjure a pretend army of terrible people to cite in support of their inexplicable(*) anger at something they’d never been angry about before or since. Look at all these terrible people who support Ophelia! They MUST be terrible people because they support Ophelia! Brilliant.
* Yeah, it’s totally explicable, I know. Stupid and illogical but not very hard to explain. I mean ‘inexplicable by halfway-decent people’.
Yes, I’ve noticed. What’s more, it’s feminist women. After all, one must be a feminist to be a TERF. The thugs who beat up and murder trans women are not TERF’s. They are exactly the sort who would treat their wives and girlfriends like shit.
Come to think of it, the views held by so-called TERFs are mostly in line with those of the general public. Would the hypothetical man on the Clapham omnibus accept the ideas about gender that are so standard in social justice circles. Try explaining these debates to someone unfamiliar with the subject and they will be perplexed.