PSA spurred by a frightening article I just read (Meet The Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web’, NYT): If you are finding yrself drawn to Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Joe Rogan, Dave Rubin, Eric Weinstein, Ben Shapiro, Douglas Murray etc etc etc, if you are taking comfort and feeling smart regurgitating their rhetoric as you play devil’s advocate and derail otherwise potentially interesting conversations… take a breath and consider the possibility that these verbose, rich & powerful White men and their growing virus of cheerleaders are nothing but one more ugly reaction to historically marginalized voices beginning to gain ground. They play fast and loose with weaponized language (‘free speech’ etc) and willfully obfuscate simple common-sense truth. For instance: they suggest that it’s actually women oppressing men. They suggest would-be-provocative ideas like IQ being different based on genetics (as if the measure of intelligence itself isn’t inherently biased and flawed). They toss out generalized statistics about Muslims being terrorists and then hide in their own vague viciousness. They pretend they’re allies to marginalized communities as they attack them. They lie regularly, and when they are questioned in even/especially the most basic ways, presented with clear evidence of their dishonesty and willful ignorance, they bob and weave and talk in circles until you’re exhausted — and then they claim victory over another ‘SJW’ (which, along with terms like ‘snowflake’ etc, is just the latest way of saying ‘n****r-lover’). They are a home for angry, scared people that have very little to actually be angry or scared about. They are nothing new or interesting. They are one shape of the reflexive dying gasps of tired, weakening systems of oppression (White Supremacy & Patriarchy). They are Trump and Alex Jones on Adderall with better impulse control, armed with fancy vocabulary, costumed in the cool assuredness that entitlement breeds. They are the fragile tantrums of dominant culture that is being questioned and exposed. What they are not is what they keep screaming from the rooftops that they are: renegades, free thinkers, vanguards, rebels, persecuted (talk about Orwellian) etc. They are not an antidote to the mainstream. They are just another devious sales device for the splintering, scared status quo.
My fellow White ppl, and men, and CIS ppl, and ‘straight’ ppl: please listen to the voices of Black & Brown ppl, women, LGBTQIA ppl — James Baldwin, Bell Hooks, Ijeoma Oluo, Marvin K. White, Scott Woods, Brittney C Cooper, Ph.D., on and on — not to feel cool or play token games, but to feel the healthy discomfort that actual diversity of thought and experience can bring. These are the voices that have been silenced for centuries. It is easily measurable and observable. They are telling stories valuable to all of us. They are telling stories of learning to love ourselves and each other without the comfort of being considered normal, equal etc. These are voices worth amplifying, articles worth sharing, ideas worth enjoying. They are speaking freedom, not selling fear.
