Here Be Stuff

I've seen so many people talk about how certain types of discrimination exist specifically and deliberately to uphold capitalism or something, and most of the time they're just... things that happened. Bad habits we got into as a society, long before anyone alive today was born.

Like, the root of anti-black racism was not an accident. It was economically convenient for major powers in Europe to have a group of people they could exploit for slave labor and a continent that could be looted for valuables by nations that were trying to become global empires. That's not accidental, even if it wasn't a conspiracy. No one sat down at a table and plotted it out illuminati-style, but pretending that these systems popped up "accidentally", a "bad habit" that occurred through no one's fault, is really, entirely incorrect.

Political leaders have exploited pre-existing biases for deliberate ends since the dawn of recorded history, whether they are consciously aware of what they're doing or not. And those pre-existing biases also did not develop "accidentally", but due to culture clashes (a culture with a cannibalism taboo interacting with a culture without one, for example), zenophobia, greedy political leaders, propaganda, confirmation bias, and other aspects of human psychology and culture.

What I was trying to say, fundamentally, is that many things that were deliberate once are not deliberate anymore. That's what I meant by 'bad habits' - things may have started because of deliberate choices (generally bad ones, but not always; see the top comment for a good example of this), but that context has been lost, and now, a lot of the time, we just do things because 'that's how things are done.'

I initially wrote this because I'm Jewish, and I was tired of seeing people talk about shadowy elites making decisions that hurt all of us in secret back rooms like they weren't parroting Nazi talking points. I was tired of seeing people practically quoting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion without seeming to realize that's what they were doing. Oppression is a many-layered beast, and some things are very much deliberate, but I think there are fewer of those than people are comfortable with. There is very rarely a single enemy, or even a small group of enemies, that you can pinpoint as the source of oppression - that's why we talk about systems of oppression in the first place.

Would getting rid of billionaires help the world economy begin to recover from the stagnancy and poverty it's been falling into over the years? Absolutely. Would it solve racism, since racism and classism are intimately tied - and, as you pointed out, since slavery, one of the forces that still echoes through and drives antiblack racism to this day, was itself initially driven by economic decisions? Absolutely not, and the idea that it would is one I've seen far too often. Racism is deeply entrenched in our society, legally and socially as well as economically. People are not going to forget their prejudice just because they're able to feed themselves and keep a roof over their heads. The laws that continue to oppress people of color and even force them into modern-day slavery are not going to rewrite themselves. Because at this point, that's 'just the way things are done.'

I do think we broadly agree! It's completely true that systems of oppression can't be dissolved simply by finding the "right person" or "right group of people" to target. Even when there are genuinely dangerous, bigoted people who are driving oppressive systems (see billionaires, or the leaders of certain political administrations) removing them from power wouldn't solve anything overnight.

And on top of that, there is always a danger of misattributing the people who actually need to be removed from positions of power and punching down the social pecking order instead of punching up. Many people who get into conspiracy theories start out by recognizing that there is real systemic inequality in the world, only to have that genuine frustration with those-in-power be diverted onto completely innocent groups who have little to no systematic privilege to begin with, much less a secret council sinisterly controlling the world. (The most obvious example being antisemitic conspiracy theories, though you can also see similar beliefs among anti-trans bigots.) It’s always easier to punch down than up, and bullying those with less power than you have yourself is seductively satisfying.

There are no grand conspiracies orchestrated by a shadowy organization outside the public eye. In contrast, most of the most dangerous people in the world are extremely public--your Donald Trumps, your Jeff Bezoses. And much of the work of upholding systems of oppression doesn't even come from them, but from ordinary people who, without any initial malicious intent at all, imitate the systems they were born into. The people who refuse to vote or vote for candidates who promise them easy cathartic solutions to complex issues, who give into suspicion of their neighbors, who repeat bigoted stereotypes without considering their ramifications. I might not call it "accidental", per se, but I would say that a lot of bigotry is thoughtless.

Which might sound bleak on the surface, but the truth is that people, en masse, are often much easier to convince to leave their bigotries behind than you might expect. Education, empathy, diverse communities, the chance to live alongside people who are different from us--these are all valuable tools in dismantling oppressive systems. Perhaps the most valuable ones we have.

does not want to be a dull

husk of a human.

Voss spent 25 years as a hostage negotiator, meaning that his job was to talk to guys on the phone who had literal guns to innocent people's heads. He KNOWS how to compassionately de-escalate a conflict and have productive, constructive conversations with people who are highly activated and reactive.

And there is an additional problem, which is that leftists are often uncomfortable being authorities themselves and acting like it. (Not saying this was true of any previous posters! It is simply a common Thing.) Leftists like being inclusive and being relaxed on rules. But the only way to make a truly safe space is to protect it, and that means having someone who is willing to say “no.” People feel safe when leadership has their back.

Sometimes you have to tell that woman that if she keeps picking fights she won’t have any allies to fight them. Sometimes you have to tell that guy that no, really, you have to shower sometimes, and the Stink Cloud is why people don’t want to hang out with you.

Four hours in he breaks down and says "okay so, this would all point to actual pop rock artist Lestat De Lioncourt being a real vampire, and Kate pointed out he was playing in my town a couple weeks from when we were covering all this. So I called and asked him for an interview to see if I couldnt get a better feel for what was going on"

And body autonomy does include things that you don’t personally like either. I was prompted to write this post after a series of bad takes from progressives, but one of them was re-hashing the Sabrina Carpenter album cover drama with “I don’t think it’s conservative of me to think that the album cover is a bad look when we’ve seen images of women being abused in this way” because I do actually think you’ve failed to understand feminism by projecting your morals onto a woman who was consensually expressing her own autonomy just because she expressed it in a way that you didn’t like or that made you uncomfortable.

Body autonomy also means unhealthy choices. Body autonomy also means regret rates. Body autonomy also means freedom of sexuality. Body autonomy also means mutilation. If you believe body autonomy has limitations and exceptions, then your feminism is most likely surface level.