Being anti social justice warrior is a catalyst for bullying behavior

[EruptedCarcassBloat]

So I've been seeing a lot of these sort of "anti politically correct" people within the atheist community itself. Often they're against feminists and "social justice warriors" in particular. It's peculiar to me that this phenomena is so popular, because it seems to operate under the moniker of being a skeptical point of view. These points of view though are actually so counter productive, but it really had me thinking about it for a long time before I came to this final conclusion. This is part of the reason there is a cultural phenomenon of people throwing around the words "politically correct" and "social justice warrior" as a derogatory term. 

Perhaps none of you interact with people like that, but there's people out there who think this way in large numbers, just look at the rise of Donald Trump. There's been a documented phenomenon in public schools, where bullying is on the rise because of people like Donald Trump's anti "politically correct" rhetoric. This is the tactic that these people use, they mock people in order to make their points, they try to make you cringe at the people they make their videos about. Just look at atheist channels on youtube, their videos aren't really focused on being informative, the general attitude in the videos is a derisive, mocking attitude. 

What this attitude of mocking people does is normalize bullying behavior in cultures. It's one of the reasons why I have seen people use the word autism, I was diagnosed with aspergers, and then am told that I am being an "sjw" when I tell them that it's offensive to me. And look at the people actually making these youtube videos, they probably make a lot of money off of it, people like The Amazing Atheist and Sargon of Akkad actually make a living off of it. There's people who are profiting off of hate mongering, fear mongering, and making a living off of mocking and bullying people's vulnerabilities; normalizing that behavior.

There's a great debate that exists on the internet of a prominent anti social justice warrior commentator called Sargon of Akkad, between someone who actually studied feminism and is a feminist. I forget exactly what the video was called, but she points out how all his arguments are basically just internet sensationalism which has nothing to do with what feminism is actually all about. These tactics are really no different from the reasoning that someone would use to condone any sort of hate speech. Instead of trying to understand the thing they deride, they mock it. This leads to a culture of bullies, a culture which, instead of being sensitive to other points of view, mocks and ridicules. With no good logic besides hostile polarizing attitudes.

[Arkilogue]

Helpful or not I see it as a very natural reaction to the "special snowflake" identity politics crowd that demand everyone respect their invented gender flavor of the month and drop eggshells on sidewalk like the flower girl at a wedding.

Some people try and tip toe around them all to signal how virtuous they are, others stomp them with glee or malice saying, "these egg shells are stupid egotistic drama and you don't need them." Other's are doing their own dance and crush them without intention.

Stacking all this identity crap under and into the ego makes it a towering unstable teeter-totter, prone to collapse at the slightest nudge or be blown over in the mildest of winds. It becomes a weakness of self rather than a strength.

There is little to no lasting value in what we think of our personal self/ego, it's a dead end. What you actually become and create by your actions in the world is everything. Those are the ripples left in the water when your hand leaves.

[EruptedCarcassBloat]

Helpful or not I see it as a very natural reaction to the "special snowflake" identity politics crowd that demand everyone respect their invented gender flavor of the month and drop eggshells on sidewalk like the flower girl at a wedding.

Some people try and tip toe around them all to signal how virtuous they are, others stomp them with glee or malice saying, "these egg shells are stupid egotistic drama and you don't need them." Other's are doing their own dance and crush them without intention.

Stacking all this identity crap under and into the ego makes it a towering unstable teeter-totter, prone to collapse at the slightest nudge or be blown over in the mildest of winds. It becomes a weakness of self rather than a strength.

There is little to no lasting value in what we think of our personal self/ego, it's a dead end. What you actually become and create by your actions in the world is everything. Those are the ripples left in the water when your hand leaves.

Respecting people's gender identity isn't a problem though.

[Arkilogue]

Respecting people's gender identity isn't a problem though.

What if they're a gender terrorist?

[EruptedCarcassBloat]

Respecting people's gender identity isn't a problem though.

What if they're a gender terrorist?

I'm sorry, I thought we were having a serious discussion.

[thesummerqueen]

You'll find that a lot of humanity suffers from the delusion that *sounding* quick witted is the same as *being* quick witted.

A shit ton of atheists think that Christopher Hitchens is the fucking bomb, but Hitch wasn't amazing because of his abilities in philosophy or science. He was a journalist - a damn good story-teller. He knew politics and history like they were child's play. And yet, instead of reaching out for something more substantial, like logic and science, a lot of people are content to pass around his 'Hitchslaps' as if knowing it makes them somehow morally and intellectually superior.

To an extent I get this - I certainly post Lewis Black where applicable. But it masks a need to actually know more about the topic you're deriding.

You won't convince those people that they need to actually learn about the plight of minorities, the disadvantaged, or feminism. For one, it can be overwhelming to realize that there's a world of knowledge behind whatever it is you're making fun of...the insults are far easier to learn than the reasons why you should defend a thing. They will fall back into insulting it just as soon as they realize how profoundly out of their depth they are.

[The Grand Nudger]

Hitchens was a superbly proficient communicator of unoriginal ideas, himself. He said nothing that another man, thousands of years earlier, hadn't already gone on record as saying.

[EruptedCarcassBloat]

That's right. The attitude they feel they have is being against being"overly sensitive", but what it really is is normalizing ignorance, making looking down on others acceptable. Instead of trying to understand people, just mock them and insult them and act like it's your right. I've seen people even use 1984 as an argument against just being polite and not using ignorant insults against vulnerable groups of people. It's an attitude that fosters ignorance and hate.

[Regina]

Helpful or not I see it as a very natural reaction to the "special snowflake" identity politics crowd that demand everyone respect their invented gender flavor of the month and drop eggshells on sidewalk like the flower girl at a wedding.

Some people try and tip toe around them all to signal how virtuous they are, others stomp them with glee or malice saying, "these egg shells are stupid egotistic drama and you don't need them." Other's are doing their own dance and crush them without intention.

Stacking all this identity crap under and into the ego makes it a towering unstable teeter-totter, prone to collapse at the slightest nudge or be blown over in the mildest of winds. It becomes a weakness of self rather than a strength.

There is little to no lasting value in what we think of our personal self/ego, it's a dead end. What you actually become and create by your actions in the world is everything. Those are the ripples left in the water when your hand leaves.

This, absolutely. Quoted for truth.

I think the problem is we live in a culture now where everything is so (no pun intended) black and white. It's either/or, you're with us or against us, you're for or against.

It's not that cut-and-dry in reality.

With this internet culture, you can have people (like myself very often) who are very traditionally leftist and liberal on most of their principles, being dragged on the internet just because they have an opinion which is not quite as far-left as the SJW types want it to be, or because they feel like calling out ridiculous illogical arguments when they see them. Can you expect this internet "Social justice!!!" movement to be well liked by the mainstream? I'm not surprised it gets the backlash it does.

Take your "gender flavour of the month" comment, it's true. If I call out the petty attention-seeking teen angst of a 14 year old calling themselves a "demigendered pansexual androromantic" (because simply being "gay" or "genderqueer" is clearly too passé these days), I'll be told I'm anti-LGBT despite being part of the so-called "LGBT community" myself. It's ridiculous.

And I do find the "triggered" memes funny, I'm sorry I'm not a robot with no sense of humour.

[account_inactive]

Oh dear.