This is NOT about the evils of straight, white, men, BUT, it is about the reality of one gay man.

[DeadLetterOffice]

78. Thanks for a thoughful post.

I've been noticing that many of us here have stopped "talking to" one another and have moved to "talking at," or even more often "talking past." It's a shame, because we all have such interesting and unique viewpoints and experiences, and instead of finding the common threads we are picking apart the differences and turning them into canyons.

Different people have different experiences of oppression, exclusion, being defined as 'other' or 'them.' But instead of saying "I so get what you mean, and it sucks!" there are some who need to say "You think you're oppressed, come live my life, I'll show you oppression!"

I'm not sure why we do this, but it seems clear to me that the only ones who benefit from such an oppression competition are those who are truly in power -- the rich, well-connected, megalomaniacs who would be perfectly content to watch the rest of us sink while they sit high above and laugh.

It makes me sad.

(Your anniversary, however, makes me happy. Yay for you!)