leftist boxing rules

MeMyselfAndIAgaintU · 2019-08-14T15:42:43+00:00

Usually proponents of intersectionality counter this by saying "we are not enforcing or inventing hierarchies, we are observing, naming and tearing down the existing ones". Presumably, the rules about punching up and punching down along the axes of oppression are only a temporary measure until we reach a utopian state where egalitaranism is reached. The problem is, at what point is this state reached, and how will this be decided?

Imagine a young boy growing up in today's climate. Presumably, because he's so young, he hasn't yet had time to contribute meaningfully to the oppression of women. Yet he grows up internalizing these notions that one of his female peers saying "men are trash" is much less offensive and more excusable than a male peer making a much milder comment expressing annoyance at women/girls, because of the historical oppression of women. Seeing this as a double standard can in itself be labelled as a misogynist act.

In practise, the role prescribed to the boy (let's call it "allyship") bears an uncanny resemblance to the traditional role of chivalry.

I've observed that this part is where those fully in favor of intersectionality theory and those critical of it really tend to butt heads and misunderstand each other. People who buy into intersectionality theory cannot understand how others see its implications as absurd, because categorizing people based on axes of (historical) oppression is the central assumption of the ideology - it's seen as self-evidently true, and people who don't accept this truth are seen in the same light as Flat Earthers (and I say this as someone who accepts that some groups of people ON AGGREGATE tend to be better or worse off than other groups of people - which does not necessarily justify rigid rules about punching up vs. punching down).

magus678 · 2019-08-14T15:53:49+00:00

I'd call it less orthodoxy and more rhetoric. It isn't a position in the intellectual sense, it is a technique to get those who "don't get it" to stop talking.

mewacketergi · 2019-08-14T21:21:38+00:00

I think you are over-estimating the rigorousness of their approach. They don't care.

It doesn't have to be logically consistent to "work" and do what they want it to do, and whatever you throw at them intellectually, they will shug off and justify themselves with the same sort of faith-based, uncritical thinking Orthodox Jews use to justify hiring another person to start a fire for them on Shabbath, when it would be a sin to do it on their own. (No particular reason to use Jews here, but this example jumped at me from Richard Feynman's wonderful autobiogrphy I re-read recently.)

So on the ground level, using the sort of sophistication their activists have, this kind of thinking tends to be just "I'm allowed to do a bad thing, but you can't hit me back, because reasons". Critical Theory isn't at all friendly towards critical thinking, even if they named themselves with a similar word.

Edit: Consistency and integrity is usually taken to mean "following your principles even when right this minute, doing so would be inconvenient for you". And I just don't see any intersectionalists having integrity in application of their stated principles.

highmrk · 2019-08-22T16:58:37+00:00

There definitely is a difference between jokes and systemic oppression (though the former can certainly be part of the latter).

But more importantly, who gives a shit? Just make the joke and be sure you can withstand the heat. Besides, making insensitive jokes is on the come up in the left anyways, so you should be fine.

Title	leftist boxing rules
Author	MeMyselfAndIAgaintU
Upvotes	13
Comments	10
Date	August 14, 2019 1:55 PM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/cqa09n/leftist_boxing_rules/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/leftist-boxing-rules.1204838 https://theredarchive.com/post/1204838

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