Facebook Follies of Friends and Families

[frunk]

I assume the image is some sort of meme, but I don't get it at all.

[Valmy]

Even the memes I do get I never understand what the hell they have to do with the text.

[Razgovory]

Wait, George W. Bush was a business man.  So was Hoover.  I don't think Hoover was elected to any office until he ran for the Presidency.

[Admiral Yi]

Bush Sr., JC, Truman, plenty of presidents were in business.

[Razgovory]

Bush Sr., JC, Truman, plenty of presidents were in business.

Oh, Yeah.  Forgot that Carter had a peanut farm and Truman was a haberdasher.

[Barrister]

Bush Sr., JC, Truman, plenty of presidents were in business.

Oh, Yeah.  Forgot that Carter had a peanut farm and Truman was a haberdasher.

Haberdasher is such an awesome word.

[merithyn]

It is almost a slur the way it is used. "White dudes" is never used as a positive. It is definitely used to dehumanize and demonize.

That's the point.

White men in the US have, for the entirety of modern history, used terms like "black boy", "white bitch", "sissy boy", etc., to dehumanize POC, LGBTQ, and women. When they've been asked not to do that, they cried FREE SPEECH! and political correctedness going too far. Now, it's being used against them for the first time in a similar slur... and white men don't like it much.

Rough, ain't it?

[Valmy]

It is almost a slur the way it is used. "White dudes" is never used as a positive. It is definitely used to dehumanize and demonize.

That's the point.

White men in the US have, for the entirety of modern history, used terms like "black boy", "white bitch", "sissy boy", etc., to dehumanize POC, LGBTQ, and women. When they've been asked not to do that, they cried FREE SPEECH! and political correctedness going too far. Now, it's being used against them for the first time in a similar slur... and white men don't like it much.

Rough, ain't it?

I am sure a great many people have used a great many of slurs over the many eras of history.

I didn't realize that was something we should emulate.

But I see that was the intention, I was not aware that was the intention.

[merithyn]

I am sure a great many people have used a great many of slurs over the many eras of history.

I didn't realize that was something we should emulate.

But I see that was the intention, I was not aware that was the intention.

Of course it isn't. But asking white men to stop their crap hasn't worked. Instead, it's created a battle cry for the stubborn majority that Political Correctness is to blame for curbing their tongue. Those evil Liberal Free Speech deniers!

But this? Guys aren't liking it much. They're getting upset. They're feeling the pinch of their very being suddenly being a negative, a slur. Things they have absolutely no control over is being mocked and spat on.. And yeah... it sucks. It's awful. It absolutely shouldn't be happening.

Maybe the guys should have listened when we said stop it.

[The Brain]

The white guys?

[Malthus]

I am sure a great many people have used a great many of slurs over the many eras of history.

I didn't realize that was something we should emulate.

But I see that was the intention, I was not aware that was the intention.

Of course it isn't. But asking white men to stop their crap hasn't worked. Instead, it's created a battle cry for the stubborn majority that Political Correctness is to blame for curbing their tongue. Those evil Liberal Free Speech deniers!

But this? Guys aren't liking it much. They're getting upset. They're feeling the pinch of their very being suddenly being a negative, a slur. Things they have absolutely no control over is being mocked and spat on.. And yeah... it sucks. It's awful. It absolutely shouldn't be happening.

Maybe the guys should have listened when we said stop it.

It is a constant mystery to me why so many people, left and right, are so certain that the great liberal experiment in encouraging civility has been an abject failure and we should abandon it.

Given that the victims of a naked, uncivil factional struggle are likely to be those with the least power in our society - and we are constantly told (and it makes sense) that white men have the most power - it would seem to be a bad idea to normalize incivility. Unless of course you happen to wish to support the cause of the continued dominance of white men.

[Admiral Yi]

Of course it isn't. But asking white men to stop their crap hasn't worked. Instead, it's created a battle cry for the stubborn majority that Political Correctness is to blame for curbing their tongue. Those evil Liberal Free Speech deniers!

But this? Guys aren't liking it much. They're getting upset. They're feeling the pinch of their very being suddenly being a negative, a slur. Things they have absolutely no control over is being mocked and spat on.. And yeah... it sucks. It's awful. It absolutely shouldn't be happening.

Maybe the guys should have listened when we said stop it.

The problem that I have, and that others seem to as well, as that "white men," "they" and "the guys" paints everyone with the same brush.

I would prefer a world in which your beef is with those people that do things that offend you, not with people who belong to the same group as people who offend you.

[merithyn]

Of course it isn't. But asking white men to stop their crap hasn't worked. Instead, it's created a battle cry for the stubborn majority that Political Correctness is to blame for curbing their tongue. Those evil Liberal Free Speech deniers!

But this? Guys aren't liking it much. They're getting upset. They're feeling the pinch of their very being suddenly being a negative, a slur. Things they have absolutely no control over is being mocked and spat on.. And yeah... it sucks. It's awful. It absolutely shouldn't be happening.

Maybe the guys should have listened when we said stop it.

The problem that I have, and that others seem to as well, as that "white men," "they" and "the guys" paints everyone with the same brush.

I would prefer a world in which your beef is with those people that do things that offend you, not with people who belong to the same group as people who offend you.

Yeah, me too. Sure would be nice to not have to carry an entire gender on my back.

[Oexmelin]

I would prefer a world in which your beef is with those people that do things that offend you, not with people who belong to the same group as people who offend you.

How do you address collective imbalances of power? When, say, some people insist that their behavior is perfectly reasonable, and that you are the one manufacturing offense? 

[Admiral Yi]

How do you address collective imbalances of power? When, say, some people insist that their behavior is perfectly reasonable, and that you are the one manufacturing offense?

How is that an imbalance of power, collective or otherwise?  I would describe that as a difference of opinion.