29 November 2014

Predictable consequences

From Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians, p. 24
...social psychologists found long ago that people who are prejudiced against one group are usually prejudiced against a whole lot more as well. Prejudice has little to do with the groups it targets, and a lot to do with the personality of the holder. Want to guess who has such wide-ranging prejudices? Authoritarian followers dislike so many kinds of people, I have called them “equal opportunity bigots.” They will not win the gold medal in the Prejudice Olympics (we’ll find out who does in a later chapter), but high RWAs will definitely be on the podium.
 Author Peter Watts on RequiresHate/Benjanun Sriduangkaew
   The fact that RH occasionally went after the Bakkers and Bacigalupis of the world let her claim that she was Speaking Truth To Power, but in fact People of Color were four times more likely to be targeted than us privileged white boys.  Four times more likely to be hounded across every social media site they appeared at over months, sometimes years. More likely to be told that they should have acid thrown in their faces, or raped by dogs, or have their hands cut off.  A lot more likely to be considered insufficiently Asian, or “white on the inside”.  

25 November 2014

HERE ARE MY OPINIONS, SHOUTED AT YOU TWITTER STYLE

1) The next time you encounter a police officer, you should say "I'm sorry officer, but if I were not a white person you would probably search and arrest me on some trumped-up charge, so I'm going to voluntarily strip-search myself then voluntarily serve a long prison sentence forfeiting many of my rights as a citizen and my future economic prospects because that's only fair."

If this sounds like a thing you would do, you probably think "white privilege" is a useful way of thinking about the world.

2) A century ago the left broadly operated under the idea that "the good life" should be open to everyone regardless of birth. Now the left mirrors the conservative pathology that somebody somewhere may be getting something they didn't earn.

3) If CNN wants you to talk about something, you'll probably be talking about the wrong thing.

4) If you want to talk about systems of power, have an explanation for where they come from and how you would get rid of them. Leave the Illuminati/lizard people stuff at home.

5) If you believe white people are some manifestation of unique evil otherwise unseen in world history, congratulations, you're a white supremacist. Sign up today for your robe and pointy hat. You don't disagree that the unique ingenuity of the "white race" led to its current hegemony, just with its moral value