Dear Stupid People,

I know I shouldn't let other people's idiocy bother me so much, but there comes a point where I can no longer just watch another human being say really, really, really, REALLY moronic things without keeping my mouth shut and saying something about it.

This thing about people making up brand new “gender identities” that are unconnected to anything in reality has reached epic proportions of dumb.

Seriously.

Have you heard about this shit?

From what I can tell, it all started with people who were honestly suffering trying to get together to help each other get through things, and to help those of us lucky to not have their problems understand what they were going through. Unfortunately, what it has evolved into is a clown-show. Its now a complete joke. Its an echo-chamber where people whose only real shared problem could be charitably described – and recognized as such by anyone with a working brain – as “social ineptitude.”

These sad people sit in on discussions of equal rights for homosexuals and transgendered people, learning the lingo and the common arguments and that that carefully garnered intel and turn it to their own purposes. They quote famous human rights activists way, way out of context to add that elusive whiff of legitimacy to a situation that couldn't be less legitimate if its parents hadn't been married when it was born. They act as if their “fight for equality” was morally and factually equal to the fight to end racism, transphobia, homophobia, class discrimination, or sexism. They worm their way into discussions of actual, real issues and then cleverly turn statements that were originally designed to protect true victims who are at risk of losing their jobs and lives to their own benefit.

I'm talking about the so-called “otherkin” and “otakukin.”

In case you're unaware, otherkin and otakukin are people who “identify” as animals or anime characters, respectively.

No, really. They do that.

No, I'm not joking. I promise, I'm not joking. This is actually a thing.

They really do “identify” as animals and anime characters.

Now, I'm a pretty open-minded guy. My basic philosophy is that you can do, say, or believe what you want as long as what you are doing, saying, and believing doesn't hurt anyone else and as long as you aren't shoving your actions, statements, and beliefs in other people's faces when they don't want you to do so. But this shit is just too stupid for me to let go.

According to these people, the lack of widespread acceptance of “otherkin” and “otakukin” is contributing to an environment of mass oppression. Mass oppression? Really? So these people are losing their jobs and being beaten up and murdered and raped because they think they're a chinchilla trapped in a human body? Because they think they are actually the human incarnation of Shinji Ikari? No? None of that is actually happening? No one's actually being killed or beaten or forced out of their jobs? Then what, I ask, is actually going on that could possibly qualify as “mass oppression?”

What's that you say? People are listening to these people say that they are actually animals or anime characters and are laughing at them instead of just accepting it? People are being mean on the internet and not just believing these people out of hand? That's your so-called “mass oppression?”

Are you kidding me, here?

In addition to these weirdos, a new form of personal delusion has popped up onto the landscape. You've all no doubt heard of transgender, but have you heard of transabled? How about transethnic?

No?

Well, if you've got a few hours free and a lot of booze handy, try googling the term “transabled oppression” or “transethnic oppression” and then sit back and prepare to be entertained.

Transabled people are – apparently – disabled people who were unfortunate enough to be born in perfectly functional bodies. They “identity” as being blind, deaf, paraplegic, quadriplegic, and so on despite not having been any of those things a day in their lives. They talk a lot about how hard it is to go through life in a perfectly healthy body.

Transethnic people, on the other hand, are basically people who “identify” as being part of a different ethnicity. In the 90s we called people like that “weeaboos,” except these jokers take it up to 11. The weeaboos just acted like they weren't white or Asian or whatever. These people really do believe they are truly of another ethnicity.

Quick digression: I thought that “transethnicity” was a sick joke until a friend sent me a link to a blog by a white man who “identifies” as a black woman. He apparently claims that he is “oppressed” by other black women who have the gall to actually question his self-proclaimed “identity”.

And then there's the “demi-sexuals.” Apparently, these are people who are sexually attracted to people they are in love with. Yeah, really. They claim that this is a real sexual orientation and that they are being oppressed. How are they being oppressed? I have no idea.

I find the very idea of these people offensive. I feel that they are mocking the very real pain and the very real struggle of disabled people and ethnic minorities to find an equal place in our society. And the greedy appropriation of the “trans experience” just so they can claim to be marginalized is disgusting to me. What these people claim to “suffer” is nothing compared to what actual trans people go through on a daily basis. They are not going to be denied a job, they are not going to be denied housing, they are not going to be forced to be who they aren't, they are not going to be subject to violence because they are “transfat” or “transblind” or “transasian” of whatever.

“Trans” is short for “transitioning.” These people aren't transitioning. They're appropriating.

These yahoos have even come up with a special term for those of us who have too much common sense and too much compassion for the struggle of real transgender people to buy into their nonsense. They call us “singlets.” Apparently, all of us who walk around refusing to buy into their nonsense enjoy “cisprivilege.” People who are actually disabled apparently enjoy “cisability privilege”, while actually people of color enjoy “cisethnic privilege.”

Well isn't that special.

This might be the height of arrogant bullshit. These people just need to stop. Right now. Just stop. If they had any real idea how hard it was to live with a disability, to be denied employment or housing because of their gender identity, to be treated as less than human because of their skin color, would they really be clamoring to be a part of it?

As a straight white man who “identifies” as the gender he was born into I can't speak for those groups, but I can tell you that living with a disability is hard! I'm in pain pretty much 24-7-365. I have vertigo spells of various intensity every ten or twelve minutes, some of which last just moments, while others last minutes. I have trouble walking, tire easily, and sometimes can't remember what I want to remember. And I got off lucky! This is not something that should be reduced to a punchline so that someone can pretend that they are oppressed.

As for the so-called “demi-sexuals”, you assholes need to stop blogging about coming out as demi-sexual to your parents as if it was such a fucking hardship. Do you really believe that, in a heteronormative world, that your mom and dad are going to have a hissy fit because you enjoy the most normal, vanilla form of sexual attraction on the planet? Really? You're not oppressed, you're vanilla. I don't remember ever seeing a news article about a “demi-sexual” who was murdered for being “demi,” or thrown out of their apartment, or fired from their job.

And finally, let me direct my eye to you people who claim to be “transfat”. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. I don't care if you weigh a thousand tons on the inside, on the outside you're still just a skinny asshole. You still get to walk into any clothing store you want and buy your clothes with ease. You can go into a restaurant to eat without having people snicker over your size and how much you're eating. You can go to a grocery store without people staring at what's in your cart and making jokes. When you go to a doctor, you don't have him constantly warning you of the heart attack you're going to have at any moment even if everything else about you is healthy and normal.

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

I wish these people were a put on. I really do. But the more I read about these idiots, the more I realize that they are deadly serious. It disgusts me to a point that its impossible for me to actually describe. Being marginalized because of a disability or your sexuality or your ethnicity is horrible and affects your life in real and painful ways.

Again, I can't speak for people of color or the transgedered, but I can tell you that “disabled” is not just a label you wear for shits and giggles. Its something you struggle with from the moment you open your eyes in the morning until the moment you fall asleep at night. It means that you often die earlier from the stress of just living than you might if you were healthy. This isn't some cutesy game where you pretend to be suffering, claiming to be oppressed and engaging in fake outrage over how the rest of the world refuses to accept you.

Stop. Just stop.

Definitions

I've got a question I need answered.  To whit:  why aren't you supposed to ever apply the standard social-justice terminology to traditionally oppressed groups?


Seriously, doing this freaks people out.  You want to make a Social Justice Warrior completely lose their shit all over you, suggest that (for example) women enjoy privilege.  Try it, I dare you.  I double dare you.


I recently had a Social Justice Warrior tell me that when people talk about "privilege" they aren't telling the people who have it that they should feel guilty or ashamed of themselves.  Privilege, she said, means "making my fears, concerns, and troubles less important than your annoyance over me talking about my experiences."  If this definition is for real, then that sounds like something that a woman can do just as well as a man.


Let me give you a for instance.


I've heard a lot of men talk about how scared they are of living their lives alone, but how simultaneously they are utterly terrified of asking women out because -- let's be honest -- there are horrible consequences to getting the entire "dating" thing wrong.  I understand their pain, and most men I know also understand their pain.  Dating is scary.  Men are expected to do all the heavy lifting.  They are supposed to ask the woman out, choose an activity for the date the woman would be interested in, pay for everything, and all the while act in such a way that's appealing but not threatening just so there's a chance at a second date.


But I've also heard women say that these men's feelings aren't about fear and loneliness, but rather about how the men in question think they own womens' bodies and that they are owed sex by women and that the real problem isn't fear of rejection.  Instead, if you can't get a date its because you're a misogynistic creep who secretly hates women because women won't give them sex.  Now, call me crazy, but that sounds precisely like the women who say this are making the fears, concerns, and troubles of these men less important than the womens' annoyance over the men talking about their experiences..


I'm not sure if that definition is for real.  Could be.  Might not be.  There have to be as many totally innocuous and unobjectionable definitions of "privilege" as there are people in this country.  But every one of these definitions shares something in common:  if you take them at their face value, the possibility of a woman showing privilege to a man is so certain that its not even worth arguing over.  But if you ever mention this possibility, then you've earned yourself a one-way trip to a condescending lecture about how the idea of female privilege is insane.  You'll immediately be painted with the "woman-hating misogynist" brush while you are told just how absolutely wrong and dangerous you are for even thinking the phrase "female privilege", because all "female privilege" really is, is a condition common to misogynists known as "whiney male syndrome."  Because mentioning "female privilege" is a form of victim blaming, don't you know.  If you're lucky, you'll even have someone tell you that you, your neck beard, and your fedora deserve to die in a fire.


The entire subject is the proverbial exposed nerve of the Social Justice movement.


For further confirmation of the idea that privilege is being used as a weapon, watch the ongoing knife-fight between different social justice groups as they debate, with almost berserk ferocity, which groups do or do not have privilege over other groups.


If you really want to have some fun, ask a Social Justice Warrior whether transwomen have male privilege.  From what I have garnered, the argument goes something like this:  transwomen are more privileged than cis women because they have male privilege carried over from that time in their lives when they presented as a man.  And they also simultaneously apparently have less privilege than cis women because they are transexual.  Depending on who you ask, of course.  (There is a similar argument going on involving transmen.)


The important thing to notice while watching these fights is that every individual group is trying their hardest to prove that they absolutely and without a doubt are less privileged than any of the other groups.  And the transwoman argument is one of thousands of similar vicious, destructive fights going on right now in which everyone involved is insisting that they are the least privileged individual on the planet as if their lives depended on it.


Again, if the concept of privilege is all about how you shouldn't be making someone else's fears, concerns, and troubles less important than your annoyance over them talking about their experiences. -- but definitely not something you should feel shame or guilt over -- why are all the groups who participate in these arguments so desperate to prove that, whatever else, they don't have privilege at all?


The very same thing happens when the subject isn't social justice, but rather racism.  We all know that everyone is a little bit racist in some way or another, because racism is holding an unconscious bias against one ethnic group or another and everyone -- and I mean everyone -- holds these biases.  The point is to acknowledge them, be aware of them, and always resist acting on them.  Its understandable if you don't like people from Group X -- just don't let that dislike affect your treatment of them.


People of color are, naturally, part of the "everyone" I mentioned, and they use the same sort of in-group identification as every other group of humans on the planet.  But they can't be racist.  I know this because I've been told repeatedly by people who say things like, "When white people complain about racism, they're actually just complaining about losing their white privilege."  I've also been told that anyone who points out that a person of color is being racist "doesn't understand the term."


Generally, the term "institutional racism" will be trotted out.  If a person of color attacks a white person solely because the victim is white, that might be unfortunate, it might even be motivated by hatred, but it will not be an act of racism because racism has to be "institutional" to be real.


I can't argue with these people.  Literally.  When I try I find myself so gobstopped that I cannot be rational.  Look:  there is no disputing the definition of words.  If you say racism is actually a rare type of fairy who lives under toadstools, drinks the morning dew for breakfast, and farts rainbows, then all I can do is point you to the dictionary and tell you that, sorry, but the rest of the world disagrees with you.  I've had people tell me that "the dictionary is wrong" and how "no one uses the word racism correctly."


Sorry, but as Huey Long said, "That's the biggest pile of hog turds I've ever seen in my life."


Think about it.  The definition of the word found in all major dictionaries, the overwhelming majority of common usages of the word, and pretty much every sociologist on the planet all define the word "racism" the same way, but here comes the Social Justice Warrior who insists with amazing conviction that the way those dictionaries and most people, and all those sociologists define the word are wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong and that the word must be defined specifically in a way that excludes all ethnic groups save one:  white people!


No.  One cannot change the definitions of words just to make those words fit your dogma.  If your dogma doesn't fit the definitions, then your dogma is horse shit.


Why are they so insistent anyway?  Why is it required that you include the word "institutional" when you talk about racism, instead of just use the original, commonly used definition?  Why can't people who want to talk about the inherent structural racism of society make up their own word, thus ending the confusion?  Why not just admit that the entire argument is pointless and that we -- by which I mean all human beings -- should try not being dicks to one another for once regardless of which word you use to describe being mean to one another?


And how come this sort of bullshit redefinition happens with every single Social Justice buzzword?  Why is the internet clogged with blog posts and magazine articles and think pieces proclaiming that black people simply cannot be racist against white people, or why women cannot have privilege?  That there is no such thing as cisphobia, and that you should be ashamed to even think the word misandry.  This phenomenon is utterly unique to the realm of social justice, as far as I know.


Why?


We shouldn't be arguing over what words mean.  Its stupid.  We should be trying to solve the problems the words were coined to describe in the first place.  If we did that, we might actually get something done for a change.