Check Your Privilege!

[soh45400]

People on this site keep telling men to check their privilege and feel guilty yet you do nothing about it aside from shouting at other men to make yourself feel better instead of changing anything.
If Xbox puts on a permanent ban system for swearing and abuse, I bet Escapist would be in a uproar as it has been before.

You post all this on Escapist yet it only has two main female contributes, Lisa Foiles and Andrea Rene, aside from Loading Ready Run. And there is no focus on games that women would actually like while constantly criticizing games that men like and are made for men. Another woman came and actually gave womanly reviews on Escapist in the Bad Marriage Movie Reviews thing and Escapist threw her out after some criticism yet kept on Jim Sterling even after he received much worse when he first came here. And it as a genuinely feminine point of view instead of a tomboyish view, which was refreshing here especially when it gave a man's point of view on the same movie.

Giant banners for stuff like Titanfall but almost nothing for Wolf Among Us, Broken Sword, Jurassic Park The Game, Siberia, Mobius. Not a single mention of Nancy Drew games or even Yahtzee's own games. Games that are made for women are not as violent. I live with three sisters, I know they don't like that kind of stuff but love Subway Surfers, Candy Crush, Sims, Super Mario World, Back to the Future game and stuff like that. NONE of these games receive any attention on the Escapist compared to heavily advertised AAA titles.

 

[Ice Car]

54 out of 100.

Huh, I was expecting it to be higher.

Huh, I got exactly the same, and was expecting it to be higher too.

Though then again, I left several fields blank because they don't apply to me.

Since this is essentially a topic about privilege, I might as well contribute to discussion in some way. I find the concept of privilege to be inhibitive to rational discourse and discussion, and completely pointless. Everybody understands the concept of privilege to some degree, whether in name or not, or consciously so. It's a very simple concept, and it undermines people's own intelligence by assuming people don't know about it, or even need to "check their privilege."

When I get into an argument, I don't want to have to explain to people that I'm not white and that I'm a minority, or that I belong to the lower-middle class to somehow validate my own point. It's ridiculous how privilege is so often considered the basis for dismissing an argument, on tumblr especially. I've seen phrases along the lines of "you're cishet and white, you have all this privilege and you have no right to """"speak over people of color""""" so fucking often it sickens me. Being comfortable in your own skin and being white does not automatically make you a privileged individual you fucking retard, there are numerous other factors that go into defining someone's "privilege."

Oh, whoops, silly me, how ableist of me to call someone a retard! I should have called them trash instead, though golly me, that might be offensive to garbage men all over the world! I should stop being such an oppressive piece of shit.

And even independent of all of that is that it's something you can't even control to begin with. I want people to stop telling me to "check my damn privilege" like it's something I chose for myself, or I'm doing it out of spite for others. You're white, and have privilege, what do they expect you to do? Dye your skin black so you can "experience all this oppression for yourself,"? You're comfortable in your own skin, what do they want you to do, start kissing people of your own gender in a vain attempt to become openly gay, and thus also oppressed? You have the privilege of belonging to the upper class, and having more privilege than someone in the lower class, what do they want you to do? Give away all your money to the poor? Is it suddenly your obligation to give away all of your fucking money at the behest of some random jackoff on the internet? As much as I admire people who donate to charity and use their money to bring happiness to others, you're not required or obligated to give back to the poor. It's your own money, that you earned with your two hands, and because there are people less fortunate than you, does not mean that you are required to do so, or that if you don't, you're a terrible person on that basis alone.

If you even so much as bring up the word privilege in an argument as a valid point of some sort, you immediately lose all your credibility to me. Privilege is not something within your control, and shunning these people and demanding that these people give back to the unprivileged ON THAT BASIS ALONE, and NOT ON THEIR OWN ACTIONS AS AN INDIVIDUAL, makes YOU the very fucking bigot you claim to be against.

God knows if I said this on tumblr I'd probably get slammed for this and called a white person posing as people of color, and that I'm scum trash cishet white garbage that needs to check his privilege. I've found that just saying you're a person of color and disagreeing somehow makes you a poser. God forbid people have dissenting opinions right?

Sorry for the rant, it's just been something that's been in the back of my head for a while. Tumblr social justice just annoys me so damn much. I don't mind people caring about others enough to try and censor the internet, but mind that last part of that sentence. "censor the internet". It's a ridiculous notion right off the bat, and I've seen people alienate themselves from so many celebrities and make issues out of nothing, it just keeps them from enjoying so many things and isolates them from the joys of the world because "x person said a bigoted thing this one time in an interview," or "he said that the gays are terrible in a tweet from 2009, it is now currently 2014 and he has become a proponent of gay rights, this still matters and it is impossible for people to change for the better, i woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and i'm taking it out on the internet haha"

it's a toxic environment grounded in good intentions. It's a sad contradiction/paradox of sorts.

 

[Ice Car]

I like how you didn't even pretend to care that you were being ableist and discriminatory. This really isn't about you, get over yourself.

Are you talking to me?

 

[Ice Car]

I like how you didn't even pretend to care that you were being ableist and discriminatory. This really isn't about you, get over yourself.

Are you talking to me?

Yes.
I'll care about whether or not I'm offending you when I'm talking about your family, or a movie, or that trip you just took.
I'll care about whether or not I'm alienating you from the cause once we're liberated or at least have the voice we need.
But when I'm talking about liberation and politics and calling people out on their shit, I don't really care, my concern isn't with you.

I never said I was offended or felt by anything the social justice community said, lol, and to begin with, this was an aimless rant without any target. I don't really care if nobody cares, let alone you.

In any case, would you care to elaborate on how I was being ableist of discriminatory? Please point out to me the specific areas where I said such things.

 

[Ice Car]

I never said I was offended or felt by anything the social justice community said, lol, and to begin with, this was an aimless rant without any target. I don't really care if nobody cares, let alone you.

I don't really care who your post was or wasn't directed at, you clearly have issues with people poitning out or asking you to realize your privilege.

In any case, would you care to elaborate on how I was being ableist of discriminatory? Please point out to me the specific areas where I said such things.

Seriously?

Being comfortable in your own skin and being white does not automatically make you a privileged individual you fucking retard, there are numerous other factors that go into defining someone's "privilege."

Oh, whoops, silly me, how ableist of me to call someone a retard! I should have called them trash instead, though golly me, that might be offensive to garbage men all over the world! I should stop being such an oppressive piece of shit.

Oh, that one? I knew someone would eventually, completely unironically, "call me out" on that one.

I use the word to describe people who are dumb. That's it. No underlying discriminator behavior or feelings towards people who are mentally ill. I've been friends with a lot of people are are mentally ill and they're just fine.

Please just cut the crap with this "ableist" bullshit. If I'm not calling someone who's mentally ill a "retard" then why does it matter? This is coming from someone with numerous mental disabilities by the way, someone who's attended speech therapy and been in special ed for the entirety of my grade school years. Your turn.

Oh shoot, am I suddenly a poser right now? Someone who pretended to mentally ill to get it easier? Am I "appropriating mentally ill people for my own benefit?"

hm

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Straight, white, male, atheist.

You live with 45 out of 100 points of privilege.

Because all that privilege talk is nonsense. Life doesn't care about statistics, your life can still suck even if you're in the "best category".

 

[Ice Car]

Oh, that one? I knew someone would eventually unironically call me out on that one.

I use the word to describe people who are dumb. That's it. No underlying discriminator behavior or feelings towards people who are mentally ill. I've been friends with a lot of people are are mentally ill and they're just fine.

Please just cut the crap with this "ableist" bullshit. If I'm not calling someone who's mentally ill a "retard" then why does it matter? This is coming from someone with numerous mental disabilities by the way.

Using oppressive language against people who aren't being oppressed by it doesn't magically strip the word of its meaning or power. I'll cut the ableist bullshit when people stop being ableist, deal with it.
Want to call your friend a ******? Homophobic.
Want to call your friend a *****? Sexist.
Want to call your friend a ******? Racist.
Want to call your friend a retard? Ableist.

Oppressive words are oppressive not matter how you use them.

So, calling my close friend, who is straight, a ******, as a joke, means I am homophobic? It is completely impossible for me to use these words and not be a homophobic, sexist, racist, ableist, piece of shit, am I correct in that assumption? Are people who have mental disabilities all over the world crying about how some random user on the Escapist said the word "retard" as an insult? Is the oppression too much for you to handle? :^)

I have never once called someone who is mentally ill a retard. I only call people who are stupid or ignorant, retards. This is such a non-issue because literally the only people who are going to be offended by this are people who I'm not even fucking referring to.

 

[EvilMaggot]

77/100 not really shocked tbh.. i live in Denmark, which was awarded the happiest country in the world some years back xD

 

[Ice Car]

So, calling my close friend, who is straight, a ******, as a joke, means I am homophobic?

No, it means that what you're doing is homophobic.

It is completely impossible for me to use these words and not be a homophobic, sexist, racist, ableist, piece of shit, am I correct in that assumption?

It's impossible to use them without it being homophobic etc.

Are people who have mental disabilities all over the world crying about how some random user on the Escapist said the word "retard" as an insult? Is the oppression too much for you to handle? :^)

I don't think they really care about what you have to say. I'm simply telling you the reality of your word usage. If it's too much to handle you can cry your liberal self to sleep.

Read my edit. I edit my posts a lot right after posting them. It's a bad habit I should probably stop.

Also, please explain how the mere usage of language suddenly makes me afraid of homosexuals, or think of them as less of a human being? I'll use whatever damn words I want as long as I'm not calling someone who's actually gay "a ******," or someone who has autism "a retard."

I've been taught from a young age to treat everybody the same, but I've also learned while growing up that words do not only have one meaning or method of usage. Why is this so hard for people to grasp?

The internet is such a big place, that no matter where you make your statement, someone outside of the target of your words is going to see it, and take offense to it. That much is a given. The result from the internet being so big and having such a diverse userbase is that someone, somewhere, is going to find anything and everything on the internet offensive in some way. If I used the word "retard" in a sentence in the same way with my friends in real life, they would literally not give a shit, and I would use it because I know they do not take offense to it. Trying to protect everybody and determine anything that could be considered remotely offensive, as offensive, is going to make a lot of things seem offensive to you.

I don't use it when talking to people who are autistic though. Why? Because they take offense to it. I tailor my language to the audience I'm speaking to, and the audience I'm speaking to are not people who are mentally ill, but people who are fucking dumb as shit.

I literally don't know how much more clearly I could spell this out.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

To fail to understand that the oppressed hating their oppressors is a natural and often justified position is ignorant. What you're actually complaining about is people not being nice enough for you. It is not an oppressed person's job to educate their oppressor, do you feel offended by someone's tone? Deal with it, oppressed people have been dealing with your shit their whole lives. Also, being able to have a reliable internet connection is usually a sign of class privilege, though there are plenty of homeless who can access it if they have a wi-fi ready device.

Wow, this stuff right there. I'm always amazed how many people who "fight for justice" can't see how hateful and bigot they sound when they splurt that nonsense.
Generalizations and prejudice condenced in one hate-oozing post. How could anyone be ever offended by someone claiming he's a giant asshole just for being white.

 

[Ice Car]

To fail to understand that the oppressed hating their oppressors is a natural and often justified position is ignorant. What you're actually complaining about is people not being nice enough for you. It is not an oppressed person's job to educate their oppressor, do you feel offended by someone's tone? Deal with it, oppressed people have been dealing with your shit their whole lives. Also, being able to have a reliable internet connection is usually a sign of class privilege, though there are plenty of homeless who can access it if they have a wi-fi ready device.

Wow, this stuff right there. I'm always amazed how many people who "fight for justice" can't see how hateful and bigot they sound when they splurt that nonsense.
Generalizations and prejudice condenced in one hate-oozing post. How could anyone be ever offended by someone claiming he's a giant asshole just for being white.

Careful now, you might get called a privileged scumlord if you keep that up! All these white tears!

Everybody knows that it's completely impossible for people who are oppressed to be bigoted! That would be ridiculous!

 

[K12]

In my experience women are often far more wary of being out at night on their own and may be in harms way less often than a fairly big young male who can handle himself getting mugged by a gang of 5 guys with knives.

Oh yeah, let me tell you. As a slightly larger than averaged sized young male, I can totally take on five guys with knives by myself.

Are you an idiot? This is what people like me are talking about when we talk about people not taking issues that affect men seriously. You're HONESTLY trying to claim that men don't need to worry about violent crime because apparently most of us can take on five guys with knives by ourselves. Yeah, maybe if you're fucking Bruce Lee, you can do that. The average guy on the street can't. You're now bending reality to try and make it fit your claims, meaning your claims don't have a leg to stand on to begin with.

Yeah that's obviously what I meant... I am saying that a man against 5 guys with a knife will obviously lose, that was kind of my whole. A man who can generally handle himself may be more likely to be in a position where he is up against five guys with a knife because he may take more risks (on the basis that minor threats are less of an issue and therefore the overall risk to him is less than for a woman who has no confidence in fighting off anyone)

Such as this little gem:"The reason that men get attacked more often is not necessarily to do with being more often targeted but may be a case of being in dangerous situations."

No, the reason that men get attacked (for non-sexual crimes, at any rate) more often is because of this mindset that some, typically less couth, individuals have where while violence against women is a travesty, violence against men is perfectly acceptable. So if a gang of muggers is looking for a target, there's a solid chance their victim will be male out of some reservation against mugging a woman. You're trying to make it where if men are the victims of a crime, it's somehow our fault. You're really no different here than the people who claim that if women get raped, it was their fault for wearing skimpy clothing. Disgusting.

I think there should be a rule about deleting part of comment when you're attacking it.

The part you deleted from my comment:

It's also worth saying that perpetrators of all violent crimes are predominantly male. There is a difference between member of a group attacking a member of the same group compared to a member of a social group attacking members of a different social group.

(btw I hope this won't be interpreted as me saying "the men deserve it for taking risks", I am simply saying that higher assaults and muggings on men might not be because they are more often targeted)"

I think it's clear that I was not blaming men for being attacked. Merely saying that the "men are more often victims of assault and mugging -> men are victimised" is too simplistic and may not actually be the explanation. For what it's worth I think that the "fair game" hypothesis does form part of the explanation but probably not all of it.

 

[K12]

Oh, that one? I knew someone would eventually unironically call me out on that one.

I use the word to describe people who are dumb. That's it. No underlying discriminator behavior or feelings towards people who are mentally ill. I've been friends with a lot of people are are mentally ill and they're just fine.

Please just cut the crap with this "ableist" bullshit. If I'm not calling someone who's mentally ill a "retard" then why does it matter? This is coming from someone with numerous mental disabilities by the way.

Using oppressive language against people who aren't being oppressed by it doesn't magically strip the word of its meaning or power. I'll cut the ableist bullshit when people stop being ableist, deal with it.
Want to call your friend a ******? Homophobic.
Want to call your friend a *****? Sexist.
Want to call your friend a ******? Racist.
Want to call your friend a retard? Ableist.

Oppressive words are oppressive not matter how you use them.

Don't you consider the de-stigmatisation of words as a significant point along the road to de-stigmatisation of their targets?

I, for one, feel extremely uncomfortable using the N-word (I didn't even type it here) but I have often used the word "dyke" when talking to a lesbian friend of mine. She uses it too and calls me a "filthy breeder" (a phrase I absolutely love by the way) and there is clearly no animosity over this situation for either of us. Neither are homo/heterophobic and we are both saying it in the knowledge that neither of us hates the other.

Would you ban people from saying the word "sinister" because it comes from the notion that left-handed people are evil (look it up). This all smacks of genetic fallacy to me. Language evolves, the meaning and connotations of words are not fixed.

Have you seen the South Park episode on the word "******" by the way? I'm British and "Fag" means cigarette to me and my Dad uses it to mean "irritating task" (e.g. carrying these boxes up the stairs is a real Fag) although I think he is the only person I have ever heard who uses it this way.

I think there's a continuum on these matters and people should set their own limits and do their best to respect the limits of the people they are currently with but I think the "you said X therefore you are a Y" is kinda silly.