"People have a right to their opinion!"
Yes, it's true, people do. But the people who actually point out that they have this right are almost always bigots who are trying to silence criticism of their views; only rarely is this employed as a just defense against someone who is advocating punishing people's opinions. If the right to an opinion is the only way you can defend your position from attack, you shouldn't be arguing your position in the first place. What really enrages me, of course, is that they're appealing to a right we all recognize, one that is hopefully enshrined as a part of democratic society, to silence the opinions of others, and to make their (again, usually, but not always, bigoted) opinions unassailable.
"Feminists hate men!" (or anything to that effect)
This is a nasty case of pop cultural osmosis; I honestly don't think anybody saying this has read the work of a single feminist, let alone even a handful. Off the top of my head, neither Martha Nussbaum nor Camille Paglia are in any meaningful way stridently anti-male - unless, of course, you consider rape and sexual harassment to be core aspects of being a man. Sure, there are some feminist twits out there (Naomi Wolf, I am looking at you), but it astounds and shames me how many people just buy into this cultural assumption without second thought.
"I could beat the crap out of you!" (when feeling their argument is threatened)
Right, go all Stone Age on me. Because, again, it's true - a lot of the people who boast this probably could beat and kill me. And they would, in effect, win their argument. It just angers me that we continue to live with people who prefer physical violence over reasoned argument.
Yes, it's true, people do. But the people who actually point out that they have this right are almost always bigots who are trying to silence criticism of their views; only rarely is this employed as a just defense against someone who is advocating punishing people's opinions. If the right to an opinion is the only way you can defend your position from attack, you shouldn't be arguing your position in the first place. What really enrages me, of course, is that they're appealing to a right we all recognize, one that is hopefully enshrined as a part of democratic society, to silence the opinions of others, and to make their (again, usually, but not always, bigoted) opinions unassailable.
"Feminists hate men!" (or anything to that effect)
This is a nasty case of pop cultural osmosis; I honestly don't think anybody saying this has read the work of a single feminist, let alone even a handful. Off the top of my head, neither Martha Nussbaum nor Camille Paglia are in any meaningful way stridently anti-male - unless, of course, you consider rape and sexual harassment to be core aspects of being a man. Sure, there are some feminist twits out there (Naomi Wolf, I am looking at you), but it astounds and shames me how many people just buy into this cultural assumption without second thought.
"I could beat the crap out of you!" (when feeling their argument is threatened)
Right, go all Stone Age on me. Because, again, it's true - a lot of the people who boast this probably could beat and kill me. And they would, in effect, win their argument. It just angers me that we continue to live with people who prefer physical violence over reasoned argument.
