Category: philosophy

bookmark_border“Hell, yeah! Let’s put up statues of Hitler and Putin!”

Posted on by Marissa

Yup, let’s only allow statues that you personally like to exist!

Let’s only allow statues that reflect the views, perspectives, and stories of the majority! Clearly, that’s what it means to be diverse and inclusive!

Also, restoring a statue that was removed is totally the same thing as building a new statue!

Sounds logical.

Not. 

Plus, what would be wrong with putting up statues of Hitler and Putin, anyways? Hitler and Putin are historical figures (the latter is still alive, so maybe not technically a historical figure yet) that both you and the majority of people happen not to like.
But how well-liked or popular a person is, has nothing to do with whether they are good or bad.

You consider your own personal dislike of a historical figure as obvious proof that it would be ridiculous to put up a statue of them. In other words, you act as if your own personal likes and dislikes are the sole determinant of goodness and badness, and you treat this as obviously true. When in reality, this isn’t true at all, let alone obviously so. Your personal likes and dislikes might match up perfectly with the majority’s, because you have no capacity for independent thought, but this doesn’t make them any more legitimate than anyone else’s. Minority views and perspectives are just as legitimate, and just as deserving of being reflected in statues and public art, as yours are. 

“Hell, yeah! Let’s put up statues of Hitler and Putin!”

Um, yeah. And that’s bad, how?

Translation: “Hell yeah! Let’s put up statues of people that I don’t like!”

As if it the existence of views and perspectives other than your own, is somehow ridiculous. As if it’s ridiculous for statues to exist that honor anyone but bland, mundane people that the majority approves of. Completely ignoring the fact that this not only defeats the entire purpose of statues but also creates a world in which life isn’t worth living. 

You think that you’re so smart, you think that you’ve somehow defeated the argument for restoring the memorial at Arlington National Cemetery with this purported “gotcha” comment. But your comment isn’t the hot take that you think it is. In reality, all that your comment demonstrates is your own mindless intolerance and moral bankruptcy. 

“Hell yeah! Let’s create a world in which everything that makes life worth living has been destroyed!”

Sounds really great.

Not.

bookmark_borderRebutting a despicable social media post re: Ashli Babbitt

Posted on by Marissa

Thank you to Defiant L’s for highlighting the below social media post by an absolutely despicable person:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Defiant L’s (@defiant.ls)

Translation: “The only thing that upsets me about what happened to Ashli Babbitt, a person who is different from me…” Or: “The only thing that upsets me about what happened to Ashli Babbitt, a person who is different from the majority…”

The fact that a person would post something like this is horrible for self-evident reasons, but the poster’s decision to refer to Ashli as a “domestic terrorist” merits mentioning specifically, because it demonstrates the mindless and aggressive intolerance that is so common among people today.

God forbid that a person who is different from me have the audacity to exist, is the mentality of this poster. God forbid that a person who is different from me – gasp! – express their beliefs. God forbid that people – the horror! – participate in a protest that I don’t support. This poster and those who share his ideology believe it to be so self-evident that being different from them, different from the majority, is bad, that they use the entire concept of being different as a pejorative. But this is not true at all, let alone self-evidently so. Being different from the majority is a good thing that should be rewarded and celebrated, not criticized, not insulted, and certainly not punished with death as it was for Ashli Babbitt.

Dear person who made this despicable post: Ashli Babbitt did absolutely nothing wrong. Her only “crime” was being different from you, and different from the majority. You have no right to criticize her, let alone insult her as cruelly and sadistically as you chose to do. You have no right to express, as you chose to do, that it is somehow a good thing for her to have received the death penalty. As an autistic person who has always had difficulty fitting in, your stance on Ashli Babbitt is a personal attack on me.

“i said what i said,” you gloat, as if mindless conformity, aggressive intolerance, vicious cruelty, and complete moral bankruptcy are somehow things to be proud of. (Apparently, capitalization is as foreign a concept to you as morality is, but that’s a whole different issue.)

You are a mindless conformist, a bully, and a bigot. That is infinitely worse than being a domestic terrorist. For you to call on others to “be a good person” is an egregious act of hypocrisy. Because you are as far from a good person as it is possible to be.

bookmark_border“Belongs in the dumpster of history”

Posted on by Marissa

“Belongs in the dumpster of history,” you wrote, under a picture of one of the few things in the world that is beautiful and meaningful.

Yup, the idea that people who are different from you might actually have the right to exist “belongs in the dumpster of history.” Sounds reasonable. Makes perfect sense. Not. 

How could you see something magical, one of the few sources of happiness and joy that actually exist, and think that it belongs in a metaphorical “dumpster”?

But then I realized. You’ve never had to deal with the pain, the shame, of not fitting in. Of not being able to make friends. Of having everything you say, everything you wear, everything you do, criticized. Of being told that if only you changed the way you talked, dressed, stood, sat, moved, felt, thought, spent your time, then you would be healthy, and people would like you. You were never bullied and had your parents respond by telling you that you should stop wearing dresses and stop wearing your hair in pigtails, because then people would be less likely to bully you.

You’re not different. You don’t think for yourself. You follow social norms. You have friends. You fit in. You’re a bland, mundane person who is just like everyone else. 

You’ve never suffered. You’ve never felt pain. 

In fact, you’re not really a person at all, because if you were, you would have a soul, and if you had a soul, then you too would be filled with awe and wonder at the statue that is being built, rather than claiming that it belongs in a metaphorical “dumpster.”

You’re a lump of flesh and blood with no soul, no mind, and no capacity for independent thought. 

God forbid that people who are different from you exist. 

God forbid that people who are different from you be honored with monuments. 

Can’t have that. Can’t have any diversity allowed to exist in the world. Can’t have anything that actually makes life worth living. 

Clearly, in your eyes, only people like you have the right to exist, and anyone who is different deserves to be put into a metaphorical “dumpster.”

Without the Confederacy, history is bland and mundane, just a long tale of mindless, conformist people who are all the same, who all think the same, and who all do the same things. And what is the point of that? What is the point of studying that, honoring that, being interested in that? What is the point of living at all?

There is none.

The Confederacy is my special interest. The Confederacy is what makes my life worth living. The Confederacy is magical to me. It is the most beautiful thing in the world, and nothing else can compare. How could you, how dare you, how could you possibly consider my special interest to be something that belongs in a dumpster? 

in conclusion, I hope that you die a slow and painful death, and that once you’re gone no one remembers you. That’s what you deserve for being a mindless bully. That’s what you deserve for having the cruelty, nastiness, and utter moral bankruptcy to claim that my special interest “belongs in the dumpster of history.” In reality, you are the one who belongs in the dumpster of history. You have no empathy, no character, no mind, no capacity for independent thought, and no soul.

bookmark_border“If you plan to make content that isn’t the exact same content that I would make…. just don’t”

Posted on by Marissa

I recently came across a social media post that said the following:

“If you plan to make content on the distinctions between ODD and PDA* but gloss over the racial disparities and intersectional factors, just don’t.”

My response: Excuse me? Who the heck are you to tell me what type of content I can and cannot make?

The author of the post describes themselves as black, “moderate support needs,” and “agender and queer.” Perhaps belonging to demographic categories that qualify them as more “oppressed” than others gives this person a sense of moral superiority. Perhaps their membership in these socially favored demographic categories makes this person feel that they are in a position to determine what others are and are not allowed to do.

Guess what? If someone wishes to make content about the distinctions between ODD and PDA without going into the alleged racial disparities and intersectional factors, they have every right to do so. As a white, high-functioning, asexual autistic person, I have the right to voice my opinion just as much as you do. You have no right to tell other people what type of content they can and cannot make.

* ODD is the abbreviation for “oppositional defiant disorder,” and PDA is the abbreviation for “pathological demand avoidance,” two mental health conditions that share some similarities.

bookmark_borderFour years ago today

Posted on by Marissa

Four years ago today, after spending months lauding, worshipping, and deifying the perpetrators of riots in which the people I love were murdered, society decided to erupt in an orgy of vicious condemnation of a group of people like me who had the audacity to actually hold a protest expressing our views.

For the entire late spring and summer of 2020, in nearly every city and state, intolerant bullies held violent and hateful demonstrations during which they demanded that members of the majority never again have to encounter a person who is different from the norm, that people like me be obliterated from existence, that the only perspective acknowledged be their own, that all voices other than theirs be silenced. My “friends” responded to this by unanimously flooding social media with mindless expressions of solidarity with the bullies. Politicians responded by effusively praising the bullies, groveling at their feet, and falling all over each other in their eagerness to fulfill the bullies’ demands. Our country’s public art, public spaces, place names, and calendars were redone to ensure that people like me could no longer feel included, to erase every possible trace of non-majority perspectives, stories, and viewpoints.

On January 6, 2021, people like me protested. We were hurt and angry at the way that we had been treated, as anyone with even half a brain would be in our situation. After being subjected to months of the cruelest and most appalling treatment imaginable, finally we fought back. Our hurt and anger were 100% justified, as were all of our actions. My “friends” responded to this by expressing their disgust and complaining that it made them sick to their stomachs to see people like me standing up for ourselves and expressing our views. The pro-bullying activists who up until that point had been masquerading as the news media responded by viciously attacking and condemning us in the harshest terms imaginable. Live on air, the disgraceful excuses for human beings who called themselves political commentators called us idiots, morons, “traitors,” white supremacists, and worse.

Four years ago today, one of the people like me who participated in the protest, Ashli Babbitt, was murdered. And society responded not by criticizing the person who murdered her, but by condemning and ridiculing her for having participated in the protest in the first place. Society reacted by blaming her for her own murder.

Today, Donald Trump will be certified as president. Nothing can bring Ashli Babbitt back, but this day gives me a small bit of satisfaction. Nothing can truly undo the atrocity that was perpetrated against people like me four years ago, but this day does undo it a little bit. This day gives me, and all people like me, a victory. Because what the participants in the protest were trying to achieve four years ago, has actually happened. Donald Trump is going to be president. Today, people like me have won. And the mindless and intolerant society that decided to sadistically attack, condemn, shame, insult, and murder us, merely for expressing views that are different from those of the majority, lost.

To say that it serves them right, would be an understatement.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Rogan O’Handley (@dc_draino)

Rest in peace, Air Force Veteran Ashli Babbitt.

Say Her Name.

bookmark_border“It’s important to lead your life in such a way…”

Posted on by Marissa

“It’s important to lead your life in such a way that when you’re gunned down in public by an anonymous hitman on a New York City street the country at large doesn’t react like the Ewoks watching the second Death Star explode.”

So said an Instagram post that I recently came across.

Translation: It’s important to live your life so that the majority of people approve of you. 

This sentiment makes no logical sense. What is popular versus unpopular has nothing to do with what is right versus wrong. A person could live their life in a way that is 100% right and be disliked by everyone (and therefore have their death celebrated in the way that the author of the post describes), and a person could live their life in a way that is 100% wrong and be universally liked. What the country at large thinks has nothing to do with what is actually true. The majority of the population could have correct ideas about right and wrong, or they could have completely wrong ones.

What the author of the post is saying is that if a person is unpopular, then they must be bad. And that is not only logically incorrect, but also deeply hurtful to every person who is, or has ever been, unpopular. This is a category that includes myself, as an autistic person who has always had difficulty making friends and fitting in with my peers. The author of the post is saying that if a person’s death is celebrated, then that reflects negatively on the person who died. When in reality, it reflects negatively on the people doing the celebrating. 

This post is also deeply hurtful to Brian Thompson, the health insurance CEO who was murdered, as well as anyone who loved or cared about him, because the post implies that he deserved to be murdered. It implies that he, and not his murderer, is responsible for his death. It implies that the public’s celebration of his death reflects negatively on Thompson, when in reality, it reflects negatively on the people who are celebrating. 

The post should read: “It’s important to lead your life in such a way that you don’t murder innocent people.” Or: “It’s important to lead your life in such a way that you don’t sadistically and cruelly celebrate the deaths of innocent people.” Or even better: “It’s important to lead your life in such a way that you don’t make idiotic, mean-spirited posts that are both hurtful and logically incorrect.”

Someone left the following comment on the post: “It’s Christmas season, so what’s a better way to celebrate that to scrooge a bunch of rich people and show them that if they continue to live as they are, people will celebrate their deaths?”

I don’t know exactly what it means to “scrooge” someone (I know who Scrooge is, but I’ve never heard his name used as a verb). Regardless, this comment has the same logical and moral problems as the original post. It implies, erroneously, that the public’s celebration of a person’s death reflects negatively on the person who died, when in reality it reflects negatively on the people celebrating. And it condemns rich people in their entirety, which is cruel, mean-spirited, and bigoted because whether a person is rich or poor has nothing to do with whether they are good or bad. 

So yeah, great job by both the original poster and the commenter… NOT. If you were attempting to be nasty, logically incoherent, and classist bullies, then congratulations! You succeeded.