From Cannibalism Among The Oppressed by Jim Goad:
Intersectionality, because it is by definition an insane if unfalsifiable notion, has gained traction in the so-called social sciences. In Sweden (of course), you can get a master’s degree in it. Never have so few used so many words to say so little. Intersectionality’s proponents prattle on about standpoint epistemology and interlocking matrices of oppression, about how intercategorical approaches are needed to determine how essentialist identities foster stereotyping, about how power carries gendered connotations and has androcentric biases that promote racialized belonging, and about how straight white males suck.
This is one of the reasons I sort of hope for a wholesale economic collapse—because people who talk like this will not have jobs.
The concept of intersectionality is also related to the “progressive stack,” which assumes that white males at all times bear noxious degrees of unearned power, which is why they have to get to the back of the line and let all the legless black lesbians speak first.
So much for transcending labels and viewing one another as individuals. These people want to institutionalize such labels. They balk at the concept of “assigned identity,” yet they also seem unable to live without it. So many of these multitudinous oppressed “identities” seem like nothing more than cheap cloaks to mask nakedly annoying personalities. People with bad personalities seem to have a built-in defense mechanism that makes them believe you actually hate them for any other possible reason besides their bad personalities. With all the banter about oppression, it’s hard to think of anything that stifles free speech and free expression more than such strident humorlessness.
As an unapologetic white male and therefore a designated cultural pariah, I take a sort of emperor’s glee in the gladiatorial spectacle of these special-interest ninnies eating each other. But it’s different from lions eating Christians. It’s more like Christians eating Christians.
I’m guessing that Mr. Goad is something of an acquired taste. The article starts with this description of the recent kerfluffle between Michelle Obama and a lesbian heckler:
When big-bootied FLOTUS Michelle Obama was heckled last week by a grizzled lesbian activist who sort of resembles Glenn Beck with AIDS, the entire progressive coalition nearly came crashing to the ground.
Mrs. Obama was speaking about somethin’-somethin’ black when the activist interrupted her to start screaming about somethin’-somethin’ gay, at which point Obama left the podium to confront the woman. Video documentation of the event is scant, so it’s unclear whether Obama did that black-lady thing where they wag their finger and swivel their head.
Some people try to be politically correct at all times. They make me sick. I try to push the limits of humor right up to the point of offensiveness, occasionally going to far. Other writers just ignore the limits and try to be as provocative and offensive as possible, going for cheap laughs by shocking people. Bill Maher and Howard Stern are examples of “shock comics”.
But some people use politically incorrect humor as a blunt instrument to get your attention because they really do have a worthwhile message. You can make a lot of enemies that way.
I’m not recommending Mr. Goad, but I will certainly be reading more of his work. Sadly, it seems that many of his readers don’t get it.
Tell me what you think.
The Crawdad Hole 
I think it’s refreshing when people speak their mind. Even if they do have biases and prejudices, I’d rather hear them upfront anyway. I’d much prefer an outright racist or sexist to the soft bigotry of low expectations or the subtlety of repressed hatred, cloaked in political correctness. Yuck!
As to intersectionality, I hate that shit. Also, since leaving the left, I now hate the entire concept of “identity.” What a bunch of self absorbed crap. People constantly defining themselves and slapping on random labels, as if these things have any meaning at all. I can’t even attend public meetings anymore because somebody is going to stand up and declare themselves a bisexual vegan environmentalist and I’m go to scream, “Who the F- cares??!
My daughter will be attending a Catholic high school next year. One of the interesting things about the school is that they don’t allow identity groups. A parent had asked about gay families at the school and the admissions director said, “Well, we believe in tolerance of difference and full inclusion of all families who come here. But we don’t have identity groups based on culture, race, or sexual identity–only on interest. If we’re all here together, than we’re all here together and we need to learn to how to be a successful community without leaving people out.”
That question was important for our family. And I really liked that answer. I think it shows, and expects from the kids and families, a certain kind of maturity that is refreshing.
That sounds like a fabulous attitude to have. No segregation!
I know. He said they want kids working their stuff out together in community, not sequestered by themselves.
I’m not really sold on the value of diversity.
What is better for black kids – to go to a neighborhood school that is predominantly black or to spend an hour or more each day riding buses to “desegregated” schools? (Let’s assume the same amount of money is spent on both schools)
The original desegregation cases dealt with situations were blacks and whites were not allowed to attend the same schools, regardless of where they lived.
I know I
probablywould have done better in HS if I went to a boys-only school. I failed freshman algebra because a cheerleader (Susie Sanders) sat across from me.I think diversity is fine, but I don’t think we should teach it as its own subject, codify it, and glorify it. There is a better way. Respect each individual and help them reach their full potential. That may be simplistic, but some practical simplification could go a long way in our schools and workplaces.
Oh, my kid went to an all girls middle school–it was great! Now going coed. She’s good in math–hope that will get her through despite the boy-rich environment!
I love that about Catholic schools. They aren’t perfect but I found them to be the best I could find. They do an amazing job on 80% of kids and they admit they can’t deal with the low or high end of the curve.
I think this school may be the only one in our area without identity clubs. Another child in my family went for a while to a school that was all about identity politics. I was shocked when I saw the school and all the “we are oppressed” details up on the walls disguised as history. Her parents moved her out of the school because they thought it was too negative and she was being harmed rather than helped. Now she’s thriving in another high school that isn’t preaching discontent all the time.
I took the time to read his dictionary. He’s equally offensive to all but white conservative males so I would assume that’s his particular group. If I were a white conservative male, I might feel like the world was trying to stack the deck against me, too. I laughed at all but his definitions that were directed at my particular group – “the women who have never invented anything or fought in any wars”. Then I laughed at him instead of with him. It’s good to look at how other people view one’s own group, and if it can be done with humor so much the better. I’ll give some of his other stuff a read because it does give one insight – with a chuckle.
I suppose this thread gives me an excuse to post my review of the new Darkover book (remember Marion Zimmer Bradley? she’s dead – this is her “apprentice’s” work)
LOL, do you do that too? Throw books at the wall? I’ve gotten very touchy about buzzwords and indoctrination. Don’t preach, moralize, or lecture me, damnit, I’ll form my own opinions!
My other pet peeve are art titles that are five paragraphs long. Geesh, don’t make me look at your purple dot on a black background and read about how it expresses your feelings about global warming, sustainability, and human beings dancing in harmony, because I will vomit all over my shoes!
I have two categories for books I don’t finished: Dropped and Thrown-Against-The-Wall.
Dropped means I just lost interest, not my cuppa tea, bad writing, etc.
T-A-T-W means “goddamnit, I can’t believe I wasted my time on this POS crap that is part of what is wrong about the country/world/humanity.” 😀
The only thing that prevented me from physically throwing this one against the wall was that it’s a library book.
Ohhhh you have no idea… Ok you might .
BUT the assigned identity /gender thing has gone so far , that in some circles and this includes a very large annual women’s gathering ; women who want to have a women only gathering , cannot , because Men Who Identify As Women but still have all of the accoutrements of manhood .insist that they be included . They insist up to and including breaking into these gatherings , bullying women who want to have these types of events , and ostracizing any women who attempt to do so or resist the new definitions.
The infighting and gender bending includes redefining women BORN as women and who still identify as women , as Cis-gendered , as opposed to trans-gendered , So ,we cannot just identify ourselves as human or women , we are supposed to use these kinds of definitions
From Wiki
So please , let the politically incorrect humor begin !!!!!
The solution: non-discrimnatory Bobbit shears.
If a “trans-gendered woman” registered for an event as a woman, showed up dressed and groomed like a woman, took her place at the table and behaved like a woman, who would know she was different from any other woman there? We even pee behind a closed door in a ladies’ bathroom. Unless you’re there to focus attention on yourself instead of on the issues of the conference, of course.
I confess to not really understanding the whole transgender thing. What part of life can I not participate in based on my sex that I could participate in if I had my body altered so that I couldn’t do the one thing that makes me the gender I am and still not be able to the thing that the other sex can do?
who would know she was different from any other woman there?
Damned adams apple gives it away every time.
If I was looking for it, I might notice, but she could probably pass as a woman with me. My husband worked with a guy named “Jim” who became a woman named “Jan”. There were several years between the time I met him as Jim until I met her as Jan. I thought they were related to each other, but I had to be slammed over the head before I caught on. They worked together at two different places, and no one at the second place knew about Jan’s former life except my husband who kept the secret well. But both “Jim and Jan” were unhappy people. Not sure if becoming a woman was all it was cracked up to be.
Some of these events are clothing optional , and some rituals skyclad , or naked , Even some events that are for women traumatized by men , like healing circles for rape victims have been breached . Groups for women who have issues from childhood , now have to identify themselves as women “born and raised as women”?
But beyond that , why do I need to redefine myself as a “cis-woman” because of a very small number of people with gender identity issues .
Never having attended a “clothing optional” women’s event, that thought never crossed my mind. I was thinking of the annual conference of the Girl Scouts. lol But no, those of us born women have a right to be just “women”. The transgendered are a very, very small minority.
“If a “trans-gendered woman” registered for an event as a woman, showed up dressed and groomed like a woman, took her place at the table and behaved like a woman, who would know she was different from any other woman there? …”
Precisely, who would know and who would care? Unfortunately, that rarely happens. When everything is all about “identity,” declaring who you are and demanding your ” intersectionality rights” becomes the prime directive.
That’s ridiculous. I have nothing against trans women but the marginalization of born women is thoroughly disgusting and, IMO, only spotlights that the trans women were born men.
Anyone who has a Y chromosome needs to be left out of “women’s groups, women’s sports and women’s bathrooms.
Stolen from the overnight thread at ace, a really interesting article from Harpers Mag 1941.
It’s a bit long but fascinating read, and quite applicable today.
http://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/
Wow. That could have been written today.
Everything is reactionary anymore. Especially the people running around pointing out how everyone in that other group is reactionary. They are reactionary too. But then, so are the people they are pointing at. We need to get a better handle on society (picture me guffawing at the hubris). Let us write a dissertation on the unconscious privilege of navel lint.
Funny is funny, even when the person might be kind of a dick. Humorless scolds bore me, and make me long for someone to skewer them, even if it’s the aforementioned dick.
Human beings are basically ridiculous. The most ridiculous human beings are the ones who have zero sense of their own ridiculousness. This is true of both the weeping Jerry Falwell and the righteous bisexual vegan environmentalist legless hermaphrodite of color.
Politics has become shockingly puritanical. All the labeled-group Pharisees are vigilant about transgression, and spend hours and write lengthy tomes on ever more precise interpretations of the Holy Multicultural Inclusiveness Writ.
Where is the Movement Jesus who will point out to them the obvious difference between gnats and camels? Who will say, “Y’all are crazy far down the mote-in-your-brothers-eye rabbit hole.” and “Yo, it’s simple – be kind to one another.” Also (and probably irrelevant to this discussion), “Dude, we need some damn wine up in this wedding.” I like that one.
Humor is subversive, and cleansing (even when it’s dirty. Or privileged.). Always has been. Thus I denounce myself as kind-of-a-dick.
Humor is everything.
Kid #1 told me a few months ago – “Mom, I know why you get bored with some shows – it’s because they don;t have any humor, right?”
She was right and I didn’t even realize it.
LOL
Rand Paul op ed today
There is a new movie coming out this week.
LOL, I remember reading that a while ago.
Seriously though, I don’t care for the Dark Knight angsty-type superhero movies. No humor. Th eSuperman movie seems to be another one of these.
I like the Iron Man, Avenger ones – funny & lots of things blow up.
LOL, I read that, too.
Political correctness has really destroyed our superheroes. Part of their charm was about their imperfections and self depreciating humor. Today Batman is just terminally depressed and brooding, James Bond can no longer be sexist, and I’m not sure Superman even likes girls.
It always strikes me how similar PC thought is to uber-religious thought, and to similar effect.
Art/movies/books that portray humanity as you think it ought to be, rather than how it is, are BOOOOORRRING. Villains that always carefully conform to the stereotypes of people-we-assume-will-be-evil are not scary, they are pedestrian.
Note to the PC Prog writers out there: Making all your villains a corporate military polluting monster, a hypocritical religionist, a greedy Republican businessman, etc, is not cutting edge. It was cutting edge in 1943. Now it’s a big fucking yawn.
Cutting edge is saying things that are not allowed to be said. The definitions of what that is have changed, and you idiots didn’t even notice. This is why your movies and books and comics suck – you refuse to see who is, in reality, The Man.
Want to be edgy? Make your next comic or blockbuster film have a villain who is a environmental zealot trying to take us all back to mud huts, or a lefty who wants to rule the world to save people from themselves. Make him creepily sincere about it, too, and you’ve got a villain to make the audience uncomfortable, not yawning.
I wish they would apply a little political correctness to images of women in media. Movie women are still providers of sex for the male characters, tit and ass for the male audience or victims to rescue.
Not sure if my tweet gets my question across.
For Prism supporters: How do we know PRISM data is secure from “tweaking”?
A pair of boobs, talking about boobs:
This generation has learned that T&A sells, so why not use boobs to promote their favorite teams.
Colleges are brands. Sometimes they even have classes. – very true, and hearing them say it actually that made the video worth watching imo.
Kind of ironic, I used to like Bill Maher when he was doing Politically Incorrect. I’ve never liked political correctness, even when I was a lefty. Now Bill Maher serves the establishment so obnoxiously, I can’t even stand him.
“progressive stack, which assumes that white males at all times bear noxious degrees of unearned power, which is why they have to get to the back of the line and let all the legless black lesbians speak first.”
I do notice what this guy is talking about and from watching people I think that most white males are just more resilient than other groups and they are more tenacious and they don’t notice the other stuff in life that is going on around them they just focus on their goal which often leads to positions of power. And there is a downside to this behavior too, it looks to me like they often don’t perceive the richness of life around them but they are really good at acquiring power.
Sarah Murnaghan is getting a lung transplant today. (fingers crossed)
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/22570994/family-sarah-murnaghan-undergoing-lung-transplant
Um, you’re a racist, homophobic douchebag. That was easy.
Did you think that up all by yourself?
you know it had to have help. obots are thinking challenged
Behold, the incisive arguments of the Obot, and be afraid!
This is my cowed face: 😀
George Carlin has always been one of my favorite comedians. He could get his point across and make you think and laugh at the same time. In a way he was ahead of his time.
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/06/12/flashback-joe-biden-says-dont-trust-a-president-who-spies-on-americans/
joey gaffes in the that was then and this is now catagory
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/06/12/house-members-remain-concerned-after-fbinsa-briefing-on-prism/
house members still concerned after NSA breifing on prism
OT Respite AKA music break , a new composition by my Scottish composer friend Stuart Mitchell called ” Footprints On The Moon “part of a score for the movie “Grounded”
http://www.reverbnation.com/stuartmitchell#
FEMA turns down Texas town that was leveled by granary explosion. says disaster not big enough to warrant help.
it was good enough for backtrack to use as a photo op and promise them help.
http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/06/12/levin-who%E2%80%99s-done-more-damage-nation-edward-snowden-or-barack-obama
backtrack
CBS poll contradicts WaPo/Pew poll
58% Americans dsiapprove of NSA spying on Americans
http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/12/CBS-Poll-58-Disapprove-of-Collecting-Phone-Record-of-Ordinary-Americans
and also
LOL
When Mr. Goad brought his white penis into discussion, I had to stop reading. Good heavens, I sure hope it’s not white, and the poor man is just colorblind or something. Yech. Of course that got me wondering about albinos…
Albinos are beyond the pale. 😛
And circulatory impairments.
Leprosy.
Leave it to a New Mexico Republican to add to the scandals!
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/12/former-congresswoman-rakes-in-450k-from-federally-funded-laboratories/
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/06/obama-administration-is-collecting-billions-of-us-communications-every-week-but-cant-find-6-million-illegal-immigrants/
selective spying maybe?
GOP women are getting tired of this shit:
So mockworthy
got twitchied
TCH Lawyers, pls tell me I’m wrong:
I think it has and still is 🙄
“”What we learned in there,” Sanchez said, “is significantly more than what is out in the media today.”
Lawmakers are barred from revealing the classified information they receive in intelligence briefings, and Sanchez was careful not to specify what members might have learned about the NSA’s work. ”
http://thehill.com/video/house/305047-dem-rep-lawmakers-learned-significantly-more-about-surveillance-programs-in-nsa-briefing
****
“Lawmakers are barred from revealing….”
Of all the members of Congress, is there no one who will test the “speech and debate” clause??
Gathering all the electronic data of Americans is just the tip of the iceberg?
honk
What’s nuts to me about those gag rules is this:
We are being told that the programs are fine, because we can trust Congress (who has been briefed) to oversee them.
But, the govt finds it necessary to bind those SAME Congresspersons with a gag rule, because the ones we can trust to oversee are not to be trusted with what to say/not say to the public.
Which is it? Is Congress trustworthy, or not? Because what my govt is telling me is that I have to trust Congress, but they don’t trust those weasels for a skinny minute.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/scarborough-clashes-with-matthews-tears-into-critics-who-deemed-bush-devil-for-programs-obama-expanded/
joe scarborough clashes with tweety tingles
This man, Allan Savory, once bought into a lie that everyone accepted blindly. This lie resulted in something horrible happening, which he supported at the time. But now he has a mission. A simple and beautiful mission: SAVE. THE. PLANET. He’s going to do it, too. Watch and be in awe
This guy has been bitterly complaining in more and more desperate tone for days now. It’s almost laughable, how pissy he is, and getting more and more strident at trying to bludgeon the R flock back into the fold.
The old guard neocons are VERY alarmed at the massive growth of civil liberties sentiment among conservatives, especially younger conservatives. Very.