Zenlitened
Zenlitened's JournalWe'll know for sure DU accepts subtle racism...
...if you are allowed back after your latest suspension.
Self-proclaimed ally insists he knows better...
...refuses to concede value in POVs based on lived experience...
...derails discussion with procedural minutia about "how the world really works"...
...projects his faults onto others in the discussion...
...and eventually declares himself the tragically put-upon victim of the very group of people with whom he claims to ally.
Yep, I think we've about covered it all here.
Bye now, I'm through.
Hiding behind (and, frankly, distorting) Freedom To Marry's strategy...
... doesn't make you any less wrong. And using them to make smarmy implications about the LGBT group, that's just lower than low.
You can shout "nuh uh! nuh uh! nuh uh!" as much as you want (or as much as the group hosts will permit) but the plain fact is you're out of your depth on this subject. As is shown by, among other examples, your repeated efforts to redefine the notion of "states' rights."
When I'm out of my depth on a topic, and people are kind enough to point this out to me, I try to hear what they're saying. I find that hectoring and haranguing marginalized people who have good reason to know better than I do... well, it doesn't really accomplish anything, except to add to their burden.
Let me say this plainly: You're not acting like much of an ally here. You seem to be putting your loyalty to Pres. Carter ahead of -- way ahead of -- the concerns, experiences and hard-earned insights of people who live with the reality of discrimination every day. Whose entire life trajectories have been affected by the bias against them. And who, as an inevitable consequence of living one more minute, one more hour, have been fighting this fight in ways large and small literally for decades.
So, no, your link to Freedom To Marry doesn't impress me. It merely suggests that you're willing to use any- and everyone in service of... what, exactly? The gubernatorial aspirations of the grandson of someone you happen to like? The electoral odds-making around the Georgia statehouse? The care and feeding of your own ego?
How ridiculous, how wrong. No one's "stomping on Carter" here. People are pointing out shortcomings in the words he spoke, the idea he expressed. The idea that voters in Texas should be free to -- have the right to -- exclude lesbian and gay couples from marriage. An idea that has caused very real harm to generations of people in every state of the nation.
I'm sorry if their objections don't suit your political calculus at the moment, but... well, no, I'm really not very sorry at all. This is about so much more than election-year intrigue, or some drawing-room debate on the mechanisms of government. This is about real people living real lives, and I think you've done them a terrible disservice with your antics here today.
I'm reminded of the phrase...
..."stupid people think everyone is as stupid as they are."
These absurd little people who pronounce themselves allies even as they dismiss, contradict, explain at, berate and outright abuse us... are you freakin' kidding?
WE SEE YOU, OKAY? You're not fooling anyone... except maybe your own ridiculous selves.
I mean, that's what makes it all so puke-inducingly galling. As opposed to "merely" ignorant, petulant and pathetic.
So 
for shining sunlight on this latest example of these peewee-league performance artists. The sooner they all find new hobbies, or maybe even learn to function in this thing called society... well, the sooner the better.
Aristotle is credited with saying...
..."It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
I'd suggest a corollary exists: that the inability to accept ideas that challenge -- and even demonstrably refute -- our own opinions is the sign of a constrained intellect.
It is the worst sort of cognitive failure, I'd argue, one that destroys all credibility in the individual over time.
When the facts are at odds with our opinions, what do we do? That's the true measure of a mind. And a useful gauge of our character, as well.
I feel kind of the same way about the phrase "gender wars."
Now that's a made-up term designed to silence conversation.
Seems to pop up whenever women discuss our life experiences and relative positions in the world.
Good news: You can take a breather and stop worrying.
Because it turns out no one is expecting you to solve all the problems. Heck, you're not expected to solve ANY of them. No one is.
You see, solving big problems is a group project and lots of other people want to pitch in too, some of them neither white nor male. Imagine that!
Sure, it would be great if you wanted to pitch in as well, but that's entirely your choice.
If it all seems too daunting, or if working in big and often unstructured groups is not your thing... well fine. Not a problem.
Other folks are happy to get on with the project, and ask only that you avoid interrupting their work.
I couldn't say where they've come from, but yes I'd agree...
... DU seems to be crawling with conservatives, more so than I remember from years ago. And it's incredibly obvious even from just a casual scan of the site.
Lots of the sort of ugly-minded thinking that, to me, marks the right wing: arrogant, uncaring, dismissive, incurious. Simmering with resentment, soaked in privilege.
I'm certain their "objections" are not genuine at all.
I'm certain that this all a tactic they deploy: Phony Outrage.
Newt Gingrich built his whole career on this kind of shit back in the 1990s.
Screeching and squawking, boo hoo hoo-ing over every little thing.
Blowing even the most minor comment massively out of proportion.
Squealing "it's reprehensible!!!" and demanding constant apologies.
The goal: Knock your opponent back on his heels, get him reacting to nonsense instead of pressing his own attack.
Sidetrack the conversation, get people all riled-up and arguing over anything but the hard truths we as a people have to face, the important decisions we need to make.
Gingrich injected this toxic technique into our national discourse decades ago. And he's still at it now.
I'm convinced there's no "why" to this latest criticism of Pres. Obama, because there's no sincerity to it at all.
It's just intended to fuck things up. That's what they do.
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Gender: FemaleHometown: Massachusetts
Home country: USA
Member since: Fri Dec 3, 2004, 02:09 PM
Number of posts: 9,488
