Let’s think about this for a moment:
Somebody
insults you – or the demographic that you belong to – with language that leaves
no room for equivocation. You can’t believe what you have just read. You look
at it over and over again, searching for any other possible interpretation. But
the words are as clear as a glass of cold filtered water on a winter’s day.
You send a
message to the person who dealt the insult. You push back against it, saying
that it is just not true.
The person
who insulted you not only says that it is NOT an insult, but you are a bad
person for thinking it is.
What is the
right word for such a person?
A bully?
A
gaslighter?
A tool you
don’t need in your life anymore?
How about
“social justice activist”?
Yes, that is
a real Tweet, and that is a real argument promoting insulting whole
demographics.
It is a
common one in the world of contemporary social justice, but there is nothing
just about it. Whatever happened to the Golden Rule? Or, using one of social
justice’s Golden Rules, “Intent doesn’t matter?”
When people
in a so-called “marginalized”1 group get together and speak amongst
themselves, sometimes they vent against the “dominant” group. You know, when
women get together and say “men are trash.”
Here’s the
facts: when you get together with your friends and say “men are trash” (or
“whites are evil,” or “down with cis”, and so on), it means “I’m tired of the
people in this dominant group who are causing problems in my life.”
If you go on
Twitter (or Facebook, or Instagram, or your own blog), and say “men are trash”
– in front of an audience that consists of every other user of the platform –
it means “men are trash.”
It doesn’t
matter if you claim,
“If you’re
one of the ‘good’ ones, this doesn’t apply to you!”
“Why are you
whining about this when my people go through far worse every damn day?”
“Get out of
here with your male (white) (cis) tears!”
No one is
crying, I can assure you. We’re just bewildered. Why is this okay, when if
someone said the exact opposite, they’d be thrown out of civilized society?
(Imagine what would happen if you posted “Blackness is evil.” Don’t actually do
it, just imagine it.)
Now, I’m not
blaming these misguided social justice warriors for the situation we are in
today – subject to the irrational whims of a hugely unpopular U.S. President.
But they didn’t do jack to stop it from happening, either. So...
In two words
that I hear so much in social justice circles, do better. Be the good guys you
claim to be. Or else rational people like me are just going to stop listening.
1
I have a huge problem with the word “marginalized” in this context. I think
that it is condescending and ignores individual circumstances. Are all women “marginalized” in this world? All people who are non-white?
