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Attention, racist bigot: maybe stop generalizing about, criticizing, and insulting people based on their race. Just a thought.
Category: philosophy
bookmark_border“To ban guns because the criminals use them…”
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No one’s rights or liberties should ever, ever depend on the conduct of other people.
No one should ever have their rights or liberties taken away because of the actions of others.
To do so is to punish one person for the actions of another. And punishing people for the actions of others is never, ever okay.
bookmark_border“No kings in America…”
No kings in America…
But yes to mandatory medical procedures.
Yes to society collectively making decisions about which risks people should be allowed to take, rather than people making decisions about risk for themselves.
No kings in America…
But yes to viciously tearing down statues of those who fought for the losing side of a war.
Yes to obliterating all representation of people who are different from the norm, in our public spaces, in our society, in art and culture.
No kings in America…
But yes to the criminalization of political dissent.
Yes to demanding unquestioning, unthinking submission.
Yes to mindless compliance with social norms.
Yes to morally condemning the entire concept of rebellion, of revolution, of resistance to authority.
Yes to using the terms “insurrectionist” and “traitor” as pejoratives, as if the concept of resisting authority is so self-evidently shameful and bad that it ought to be used as an insult.
No kings in America…
But yes to tyranny, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism.
That is the message of the “No Kings Day” protests.
bookmark_border“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide…”
“…is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” – Edward Snowden
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Source here
bookmark_borderSociety cannot be trusted to make personal decisions for individiuals…
Just wanted to share this excellent post from scientist and libertarian activist Dr. Mary Ruwart:
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Source here
bookmark_border“Heroes of what, exactly?”
“Heroes of what, exactly?”
This is a comment that I saw on a post with a cool graphic depicting Confederate soldiers of various ranks and wearing various uniforms, with the caption “our heroes.”
This comment is yet another example of the bigotry, intolerance, and idiocy of “woke” ideology.
“Heroes of what, exactly?”
My first thought in response to this comment is… what does that even mean? I wasn’t aware that a person needed to be a hero of something in order to be a hero. I wasn’t aware that the term “heroes” required such a specifier in order to make sense. What exactly does it mean to be a hero of something?
It’s probably pointless of me to even ask these questions, because this comment isn’t really an attempt to make a logical and reasoned argument, but rather a mindless act of aggression for the sake of aggression. It’s an attempt to attack, to dominate, to question for the sake of questioning. Seemingly, this commenter thinks that he’s making an incisive and salient point, that being a mean bully somehow demonstrates his cleverness, that failing to answer the question to his satisfaction (or at all) somehow makes Confederate supporters look foolish and stupid. He seems to be saying “gotcha!”… as if our inability to specify what Confederate soldiers are heroes of, somehow proves wrong our assertion that they are heroes.
In reality, it’s the commenter himself who looks foolish and stupid.
In reality, all that is demonstrated by this thoughtless and incoherent comment is the fact that the commenter is a mean and aggressive bully.
We consider Confederate soldiers to be our heroes, and we have every right to do so. People don’t need to be heroes of anything in order to be heroes.
An additional observation that demonstrates the bigotry, intolerance, and idiocy of “woke” ideology: I left a comment on the original post expressing agreement and stating, “their lives mattered.” Several people chose to react to my comment with the “laughing face” emoji. The fact that every person’s life matters should be so obvious that it shouldn’t even need to be stated. Yet several people chose to express the opinion, not only that the lives of others don’t matter, but that the very idea that the lives of others might matter, is laughable. In other words, to these people, the possibility that people who are different from them might actually have value, is considered ridiculous.
What kind of person laughs at the idea that other people’s lives mattered? What kind of person ridicules the possibility that those who are different from them might actually have value? An intolerant bully and bigot with no mind and no soul.
In conclusion, Confederate soldiers are heroes, and their lives mattered. Period. Full stop. End of story.
bookmark_border“Conservatives are arming teenagers”
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Um, yes. And this is bad, how?
Conservatives support – gasp! – actually respecting teenagers’ fundamental rights.
Again, how exactly is this bad?
Contrary to what “March For Our Lives” seems to be implying, it actually is fine for people’s fundamental rights to be respected. In fact, it’s the only thing that is.
Plus, this might be nitpicky, but it doesn’t really make sense to capitalize, and thereby place emphasis on, the words “DECADES-OLD.” The age of a law has nothing to do with whether it is good or bad. A law that violates people’s rights existed for decades. And? How exactly does that make it bad for said law to be overturned?
The only bad thing about this situation is the fact that a law which violates people’s rights existed for as long as it did.
Allowing people to actually have their fundamental rights respected is not only fine; it’s a basic moral obligation.
bookmark_borderHaving a different opinion does not make someone “delusional” or “out of touch with reality”
“Just came to the comments section to see whether MAGA is as delusional and out of touch with reality as ever before. I was not disappointed.”
Yes, because for people to have different viewpoints, ideas, and perspectives than you, is totally the same thing as being delusional and out of touch with reality.
Obviously, your own personal viewpoint is the sole barometer of objective truth.
Thanks for this bigoted, intolerant, and mindless comment.
Well done!
Not.
bookmark_border“Must be really important to celebrate slave owners and traitors”
Um, yeah, it is actually really important for people who are different from the norm to be allowed to exist.
It is actually really important not to inflict excruciating, unbearable pain on innocent people.
It is actually really important to, like, not destroy everything that makes life worth living.
I’m not sure why this is such a difficult concept to grasp.
Thanks, Michael Fix, for this moronic, thoughtless, mean-spirited, idiotic, morally bankrupt, and senseless comment. Much appreciated.
bookmark_borderReflections on five years of excruciating, unbearable pain (and a bully who finds this entire situation funny)
Excruciating pain coursing through my entire body.
Rage and grief combined in a tsunami of anguish.
Agony more severe than what the pervious version of myself even believed it was possible for a person to experience.
My chest feels like it’s being crushed in a vice, my stomach feels like it’s filled with rocks, my soul feels as if it’s being eviscerated.
Again and again, I’ve tried to find words strong enough to capture these feelings. Although I consider myself a good writer, with a large vocabulary, again and again I fail.
I could scream at the top of my lungs until my throat bled and my voice became hoarse, I could punch and kick until every object in my house was destroyed and my hands and feet were shattered into a million pieces, and it still wouldn’t be enough to express the pain that I feel inside.
Images of horror seared forever into my consciousness.
Hideous, gaping wounds that will never heal.
What was once a normal city square with a war memorial a century old, a war memorial that had never hurt anyone, now turned into something profoundly dark, contaminated, evil. An abomination.
Just one example among dozens, hundreds, all combining to fundamentally change the world from good to bad.
Actions that should never have taken place, leaving permanent scars on the landscape.
Actions so horrifying, so repulsive, so reprehensible, that a part of my brain cannot fully comprehend that they actually happened. Perhaps it never will.
One sickening act after another. Display after display of vicious intolerance. All part of a slow, inexorable chipping away at beauty, at happiness, at goodness. All part of an effort to destroy me, to destroy people like me, everywhere. All part of a brutal campaign to obliterate from the world everything that makes life worth living.
A city, a state, a country, an entire world transformed so that only people who are like the majority can feel welcome there. Only those who fit in, only those who obey authority, only those who conform to social norms, allowed to exist.
More times than I can count, I’ve considered suicide. Death has often seemed preferable to continuing on into a bleak future, slogging through day after day of a meaningless and miserable existence.
Five years of this agonizing pain. This weekend, in fact, marks the anniversary. A holiday that most people associate with cookouts, beach days, or remembering our soldiers, is forever associated with genocide for me. (Many will argue that this word is too strong, but I believe it is entirely appropriate.)
To someone named Gerard, this entire situation is funny.
The situation that I’ve described above is humorous, amusing, entertaining, even hilarious to him.
Clearly, Gerard has never experienced pain, and has never experienced suffering. If he had, he would not consider the pain and suffering of other people to be funny.
Seeing symbols of yourself, symbols of inclusion, symbols of your right to exist, smashed to pieces with sledgehammers as a mob rejoices and a brass band plays. Knowing that the bullies who want to eradicate you from existence will never be punished, will never be held accountable, will never even be criticized by anyone but yourself, will forever be perceived as holding the moral high ground in the eyes of society.
This is something that Gerard has never experienced, but I have.
There are no words that can fully describe what this does to a person, the pain that it inflicts, how profoundly it changes a person, forever.
Gerard’s jeering, cruel laughing face emoji does not reflect negatively on me; it reflects negatively on him. Gerard lacks empathy, he lacks morality, he lacks logic, and I would go so far as to argue that he lacks both a mind and a soul. Gerard does not hold the moral high ground. I do.