On “toxic feminism”
▻http://crommunist.com/2014/01/30/on-toxic-feminism-the-nation-and-the-people
If we can agree that there is no such thing as an objective arbiter of “the real issue”, then we are at sea when it comes to deciding whether or not a given criticism is fair. After all, if you think that I am saying something misogynistic and I don’t see the misogyny, do we just “agree to disagree” ? In the absence of an empirical test, I have two options: I can either accept the possibility that the person making the accusation sees/understands something that I don’t, or I can brand the criticism as “unfair”. What I have to decide in that moment is as follows: who is more likely to have imperfect information ? Is it more likely that I have said something that is at least partially occluded by my relevant privilege, or that the other person is making a false argument ?
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A longstanding tactic that is used to dismiss the legitimate grievances of members of minority groups: that they are “too angry”. That if they exercised more “restraint” then their arguments would become more persuasive and more valid. It is very directly a demand that those who are the victims of oppression be more accommodating and sensitive to the needs of the oppressor.
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It is a further perversion to be told that the issues that affect you aren’t “the real issues” because they affect people who are not representative of the majority