(I actually based this post on a video I saw online: It’s less than 20 minutes long, but I believe that this 15 year old talk by philosopher Daniel Denett, entitled “Dangerous Memes” is a strong candidate for the most important video on YouTube this millennium. The full video can be seen here: [https://youtu.be/KzGjEkp772s) He uses a particularly striking image of a parasitic-mind controlling fungus in ants)

We understand things like mushrooms, bacteria, clams, flowers and apes to belong to one definition: life. This is because, even though there really is a vast difference between all these things, they have some features in common. Among the most fundamental is the ability to keep the defined species existing: to reproduce. It is worth taking into account the fact that living things are not alone in this, and there is another thing that “wants” to keep itself defined in the same manner that a bacteria species ”wants” itself to stay defined: ideas. And like bacteria, ideas will use ANY means necessary to keep themselves going, no matter who gets hurt. (I actually am of the opinion we need to invent a new word for “wants” when used in reference to non-conscious beings like bacteria and ideas).

Now, what has this got to do with feminism? Well, if we see feminism as an idea that “wants“ to keep itself alive, to keep people identifying with itself, then suddenly a lot of things that don’t make sense do.

Why do feminists constantly use the motte-and-bailey of ”feminism is just about equal rights and if you're not a feminist you’re a bigot?” Because pretty much everyone agrees with equal rights, people will be more likely to take this label when exposed to this argument. If they tried to get more specific than that, the idea wouldn’t be able to replicate nearly as strongly. Trying to argue that feminism isn't about equality is rather like trying to tell a mushroom it shouldn’t produce quite as many spores: if a certain adaptation increases chances of replication, then the idea will do it.

My most serious and earnest philosophy is this: imagine your mind is an ecosystem, like a forest, and the ideas are living things contained within that forest. You of course need living things to make a forest what it is, like birds and trees and flowers, and killing the living things would destroy the forest. But remember, ecosystems are vulnerable to invasive species. These are species that come in, from outside the forest, and reproduce so successfully that they strangle the life out of the forest. They kill, replace or infect every living thing that grows there until the forest is overtaken. This is bad enough, but if the invader takes over the forest and spreads into other forests, you’ve got a full-on pandemic on your hands. So, and I mean this utterly seriously, if you are ever exposed to an idea that COMPELS you to spread it, that forces you to view everyone who doesn’t share this label/idea as morally evil or dangerous, regardless of the actual actions of those people, then do NOT take on the idea yourself. Do not let people shame you into it, do not identify with it and CERTAINLY don’t try and forcefully spread it: “Who knows upon what soil they fed, Their hungry, thirsty roots?”