Areloch said:
Touch difficult to debate on if something should be happening or not if some people disagree with the definition of the thing being discussed.
Then, as I said, there's really nothing to discuss.
Everything is censorship, and people are screaming that all censorship is wrong. What am I supposed to do with that?
Mikeybb said:
True.
Like I said.
Naive, but maybe a bit hopeful.
Believe me, the last part is a surprise to me too.
I'll have to excuse myself from the thread anyway.
I've got a lot of hot deals on bridge ownerships and some pretty amazing offers from foreign monarchs to sort through in my inbox now.
It shouldn't surprise you. This is what happens when you give hate a bullhorn. If the majority of people are good, then they are the kind of good that allows evil to win by inaction. They are the white moderates Martin Luther King chastised.
Violence targeting Muslims is up in America since the Paris terrorist attacks. When people point out that Muslims aren't the big threat, they are called Islamophiles or accused of cowtowing to Islam or wanting themselves to usher in Sharia law. As an atheist, it gets tiresome to be told I love Allah simply because I think things like profiling and violence are bad things.
The irony is that the big champions tend to be guys like Trump and Christie, blowhards who will talk tough and then cry about how they're not treated fairly. They will shut down free speech. And bridges. I don't want to delve too far into politics, but they're often the easiest examples because people know them.
Actually, that sort of dovetails into the next comment I wanted to address:
sageoftruth said:
As a result, those who protest against safe spaces probably don't even realize that they already have safe spaces of their own, thus making everything look unbalanced to them.
This seemed worth focusing on. And pardon me if I missed any other salient points, but I have been tired as hell for the last couple of days and no amount of sleep seems to do anything.
But the thing here is pretty important. Majority groups are often very sheltered to the point that even mild criticism can set off some pretty bad responses. As such, minority groups getting the same treatment are often framed as special privileges, or "censorship."
Straight White dudes in this culture are so used to being the only voice, the only people considered, that anything less than that is considered an attack. Or censorship. That I might get the same protections as someone who is part of the majority is considered a major offense. Because rights and treatment are a zero-sum game or something.
Except they kind of are, because any advancement of my rights, any consideration of me, any treatment that the majority already gets, is taken as such an attack. Any minority, really. Saying that black lives matter is a slight against white people. There is a constant need to make everything about the majority, to the point that that means if the only way to insert yourself into the narrative is to be the bad guy, then it will be done. And the most biting irony is how many Trumps there are: shit-talking self-proclaimed tough guys who take offense at even manufactured slights. People who tell others to not be so thin-skinned when they are some of the most brittle, fragile human beings I have ever encountered.
I get to watch white people who have not only argued with the cops, but yelled at them and laid hands on them tell black people to just obey the police and nothing bad will happen. I get to watch people I know have smoked pot say that it's justified in shooting a black suspect because there are pictures on social media of him posing with a bong or something.
If I sound even slightly upset when I talk about the fact that I was a couple of heartbeats from being raped for who I am, or the times I was nearly killed, I am "salty" and "thin skinned" and whatnot. Even on this site, which has a whole subforum dedicated to a manufactured outrage. Or hell, instances where people have unironically called The Big Bang Theory "nerd blackface." Yup. I can't get upset about nearly dying without being accused of being sensitive or thin-skinned, but apparently, a TV show not being all that funny is srs business enough that we need to take the outrage around it with dire concern. Fuck, I can't even be taken seriously on LGBT portrayals in media, even though it's the same thing. TBBT is mean to nerds? Tantrum. Some show portrays transwomen as child molesters? Eh. Grow thicker skin.
And that does extend to other media as well. People getting pissed off at a black guy or a woman in Star Wars. People upset that JJ Abrams--who no longer has a say in the franchise--insisting that gays will probably eventually show up in Star Wars. People basically upset because a small chunk of popular media isn't explicitly and exclusively for them anymore.
Meanwhile, I have a knife scar that's been itching all day. It's kind of old and faded and the itching may be psychosomatic. The problem is, even being aware of it is a reminder of when I was stabbed. For being a "******." And I have to count myself as lucky, because a lot of people like me don't survive these attacks, let alone several.
But there I go, being too sensitive again. When there are serious issues out there. Like whether or not Sheldon is racist against nerds.
I know a lot of people are set off by the term "privilege," but I think the right to be set off is perhaps one of the major privileges of being a majority. The right to have temper tantrums over the most trivial of things, unchallenged, while dismissing minorities for the same or worse.
)? What happens to real flesh and blood people when these children take their delusions into politics, management, healthcare?