{"id":11430,"date":"2016-03-30T13:40:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T20:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=11430"},"modified":"2016-03-30T13:40:33","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T20:40:33","slug":"the-self-admitted-irrationality-of-social-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2016\/03\/30\/the-self-admitted-irrationality-of-social-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Self Admitted Irrationality of Social Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

     The website “Everyday Feminism” is well known as a black whole of insanity that sucks in all sentient thought and pukes out the Hawking Radiation (apologies to Hawking) of Social Justice.<\/p>\n

     However it is not everyday that they outright admit their irrationality, and revel in it.<\/p>\n

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     Not so long ago, they published an article titles “3 Reasons It’s Irrational to Demand ‘Rationalism’ in Social Justice Activism<\/a>“.\u00a0 Honestly, this article does not deserve a thorough fisking.\u00a0 Some drive-by (zOMfG!!1! CULTERAL APPROPRIATION!!1!) commentary, OTOH…<\/p>\n

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“The scenario is always the same: I say we should abolish prisons, police, and the American settler state \u2014 someone tells me I\u2019m irrational.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     You are irrational.<\/p>\n

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“I say we need decolonization of the land \u2014 someone tells me I\u2019m not being realistic.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Realistic?\u00a0 That statement has no basis in reality…<\/p>\n

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“Whenever I hear this, I stop and think about the world we\u2019d live in if previous European colonizers were berated with the same rhetoric about rationalism as we abolitionists are today.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Abolition of what?\u00a0 Reality?\u00a0 Rationality? Sanity?<\/p>\n

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“Would it have been enough to stop them in their tracks?<\/p>\n

“What if someone had told them that the creation of the American nation-state of settler-colonizers who displace and murder the Indigenous inhabitants \u2014 and the development of the white supremacist, anti-Black, capitalist, cisheteropatriarchy \u2014 was a project too hefty to accomplish?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Because the Aztecs, who happily oppressed other peoples and literally ripped hearts from still living human beings were necessarily queer genderless trannies!<\/p>\n

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“What if those imperialism-driven Europeans, all passionate and roused about Manifest Destiny, were encouraged to stop and reconsider whether their violent plans were rational?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Because only White people have taken land from other peoples… *cough*cough*Aztecs*couch*Incas*cough*Mongols*cough*<\/p>\n

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“We might possibly have a world that isn\u2019t filled to the brim with oppression.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Because the Inca’s oppression of the “sexually liberated” Moche wasn’t oppression, because axiomatically only eeevil White people can be oppressors?<\/p>\n

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“There may not have been the centuries-long (and still ongoing) ravaging of every continent and the development of anti-Black chattel slavery.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Pro-tip: The slave trade from Africa was just as bad, if not worse<\/a>, than it was with any European nation…<\/p>\n

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“We many never have had the tentacles of the white supremacist patriarchy spanning the entire globe, regulating gender along a binary and fostering rape culture.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Substitute the words “white supremacist patriarchy” with “elders of zion” and you start to grok this authors worldview…<\/p>\n

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“We may never have had carceral forms of justice that render certain people disposable.<\/p>\n

“And the Earth\u2019s lands, skies, and water definitely wouldn\u2019t be irrevocably devastated.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Save us anti-Patriarchical Feminist Tumblr Witches<\/a>!!1!<\/p>\n

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“But it makes sense why many of those who are committed to social justice subscribe to the same language of rationalism as their oppressors. Marginalized folks are taught from infancy that they need to behave in a respectable manner to be treated with decency. We face so much violence, to the point where the violence becomes the norm and our resistance is what feels extreme.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Because increasingly acting like a loonie is sooo helpful for dialog…<\/p>\n

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“We\u2019re painted as aggressors even when we are consistently the victims. The media treats Black victims worse than white killers. People see trans and gender non-conforming people in bathrooms as threats rather than as targets of abuse.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     At least according the narrative of morally impure oppressors and morally pure victims…<\/p>\n

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“When we are told repeatedly that everything we do is an attack, we internalize the idea that we need to quiet ourselves, to take up less space. And so we begin to limit ourselves to tactics of resistance that are easy to digest \u2014 and we create those limits under the guise of being rational.<\/p>\n

“Not only is this urge to be rational holding us back, it unintentionally validates the logic of white supremacy as natural and positions the desire to fight oppression as excessive and outrageous.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     So, admitting that Western Civilization is rational and this author is not… oh no, not the briar patch, br’er gender confused author!!1!<\/p>\n

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“For those of us who are trying to burn the colonial project to the ground and build a new world, we have to stop placing limits on ourselves in a world that is already at our throats.<\/p>\n

“Abolitionists, those who are invested in abolishing police, prisons, the settler colonial nation-state, cannot afford to be held back by what is deemed rational. In fact, rationalism has no place in abolitionism.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Irony: The concept of the “new world” is a “colonial” point of view.\u00a0 And what, dare it be asked, is the alternative to a lack of police and prisons?\u00a0 Perhaps mob justice lead by Social Justice Warriors?<\/p>\n

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“This is not to say that there are many roles to be filled among those who resist, none of which should be placed in a hierarchy of value. People come from different places of knowledge, ability, and history which makes each person equipped to participate (if they so choose) based on their unique position in society.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Except when applying “intersectionality”, right?<\/p>\n

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“But when those who are the loudest, the most disruptive \u2014 the ones who want to destroy America and all of the oppression it has brought into the world \u2014 are being silenced even by others in social justice groups, that is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

“Pushing the boundaries of how we can shape our resistance beyond what\u2019s rational is urgent and necessary.<\/p>\n

“And here are three reasons why.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     But wasn’t rationality, and thus reason, a form of oppression?<\/p>\n

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“1. Being Rational Has No Inherent Value<\/p>\n

“When I talk about abolition, whether that be of prisons, immigrant detainment centers, the police, or the government, I am instantly derailed by strangers and even friends. They tell me that it isn\u2019t rational.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     That is because you are an irrational twat.<\/p>\n

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“They say this as if everyone seeks to be rational, as if prisons, themselves \u2014 which have grown more than 400 percent since 1970 and which has predominantly impacted communities of color, especially Black and Indigenous communities \u2014 are rational. As if being rational has indisputable value.<\/p>\n

“At first, I took their reactions to heart. I thought maybe being rational really is necessary if I wanted to achieve my goals of eradicating oppression.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     Assumes that increase in imprisonment caused more crimes.\u00a0 Pro-tip: Arresting criminals and locking them away in jail will reduce the prevalence of crime.<\/p>\n

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“If I\u2019m not rational, then I must not be thinking correctly, which makes me incompetent and unqualified to even have political opinions.<\/p>\n

“Or so I thought.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     For that brief moment, you thought correct.\u00a0 It is what alcoholics call “a moment of clarity”.<\/p>\n

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“The truth is, this constant emphasis on rationalism is a load of toxic garbage (and this is me being gentle with my words). It reeks of the rancid odor that develops when we squeeze our vast imaginations into tiny boxes labeled ‘pragmatic,’ ‘rational,’ and ‘reasonable.’ Being rational can often mean being willing to accept some aspects of oppression and watering down my politics.<\/p>\n

“In fact, by American standards, my very existence is irrational. For many, I simply do not exist as a queer, Vietnamese femme who is neither a man or a woman. Living in my body, wading through my truths, is not a rational act. And I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     That is because you do not exist as a being who is neither a man nor a woman (unless you can demonstrate rare medical conditions).<\/p>\n

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“Based on my experiences as a marginalized person, being rational just means going easy on my oppressors.<\/p>\n

“The narrow bit of room that rationalism gave me wasn\u2019t enough for me to envision new possibilities for my gender, to escape the confines of impending manhood. It wasn\u2019t enough for me to understand my personhood as infinitely more complicated than the models of personhood fed to me by white cis people.<\/p>\n

“From my vantage point, rationalism \u2014 or whatever you want to name it \u2014 did more harm than good.<\/p>\n

“Some of us place so much value on being rational that we\u2019re unable to recognize that when someone tells you to be rational, they may just be telling you that their ideas weigh more than yours.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     That’s because ideas based on reality do weigh more than irrational insanity.<\/p>\n

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“The rhetoric of rationalism can be used as a seemingly benign disguise for social control.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n