Forums

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

You don't see an outrageous lack of self-awareness in her arguing "How dare anyone turn 'woke' into an mocking term!" (That is what she's arguing.)

This is underdog privilege taken to a level of absurdity.

She's not alone, of course. There's definitely been a wink and nod from many media outlets over the past few years in the direction of allowing certain groups to get away with things others cannot. The laughable suggestion from many news sources that the Floyd protests and riots were: (1) excusable; and, (2) not Covid super-spreading events, while outdoor dining in TX and Trump rallies were super-spreader events was a new low in terms of the media putting its thumb on the scale and assuming it could flagrantly bullshit its audiences.

Over on the right, every fucking story for the past five years has been framed as one of downtrodden common folk up against nefarious "elites." Who are these evil elites exactly? Well, no one can define that. They're alleged to be college professors, reporters, pundits, and some politicians. Nevermind that professors are about as "elite" as the lady processing your license renewal at the DMV, and only .001% of reporters and pundits are powerful enough to, in Chomsky's terms, help "manufacture consent." Nevermind Fox News remains the most popular 24 hr. news channel. Nevermind all of that -- they're underdogs, dammit!

It'd be nice, refreshing, if someone started arguing from a position other than that of underdog. Instead of "I'm aggrieved," and "How dare you?," perhaps run with, "Well, I'm right and you're wrong, and it has nothing to do with power inequities..." It'd be a lot more productive if people from both sides stopped calling the other side an oppressor and started critiquing the other side as simply wrong on the merits. Objectively. This occurs in a number of places, of course. But unfortunately it doesn't seem to get nearly as many eyeballs as articles where the authors, opportunists that they are, frame things as the Rebels vs. the Empire.

I actually read her piece, so trying to pretend that it's all "I'm aggrieved" and "How dare you?" won't work with me. That kind of nonsense will only work with people who already agree with you and want to get all aggrieved about the woke people telling them they can't say things. Save it for them. You don't seem to be able to hear people to your left on this issue -- you just pretend they are crazy and aggrieved to excuse the fact that you don't want to listen to or engage with them.