Fahckmylife's Blog
Crap adult, OK human.

Something occurred to me amidst cans (after the fourth or fifth I usually get my best ideas) last night watching shite reality TV.  We live in hysterical times.  Crazy hysterical times.

Think about it.  We live at a time when Trump can openly rile up a idocracy in the States, where exiting the EU has validated previously muted racist sentiments, where a guy gets six months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman and has Facebook groups supporting him and his loss of career, where white shooters are mentally disturbed and anyone else is terrorist, where we have a Government that are in power by default, where Luas strikers who are unionised and trying to do better for themselves are demonised by the public and people in receipt of social welfare are considered spongers despite the amount of money proportionally that bankers have cost the country.  On the flipside of that, there is now this new perceived culture of everything causing offense, ‘safe spaces’, giving awards for the mundane to children and a massive schism between the majority of social or political streams on the left bickering over smaller details rather than cohesively uniting.   Society seems to be verging on turning itself into a giant meme of extremities, everything completely black and white, to the point that opening Facebook or the majority of social media can and often does contribute to inducing a sense of dread and anxiety.  It seems in such an age of information that there has never been so much ignorance and divisiveness focusing on the individual and ‘what about me?!’ rather than creating a situation where everyone benefits and everyone is heard, particularly those that haven’t been heard before.

At the moment I personally think this concept of a ‘culture of offense’ is really interesting .  I’m quite torn by this one to be honest.  On one hand, minorities and people who have been systemically oppressed are standing up for themselves but then on the other hand it seems that simply disagreeing on something that is not toxic or malignant is offensive.  Then we’re told by the least oppressed in society that we are all too offended – generally by middle/upper class, white men like Stephen Fry – that we’re all getting too offended, simply because from their myopic perspective we shouldn’t be upset.  A lot of kids are raised differently than we were and have way thinner skins, all rewarded for the mediocre and not taught how to be competitive.  Weirdly isolated at times, and replacing physical social interaction with social media, how are the next generations actually going to function when people disagree?  In fairness, I’m very conflicted by this.  It think it’s brilliant that people are given voices and the means to tell their stories from their perspective as surely a large part of using this valuable information is to learn and develop a better understanding and more compassion in general.  At the same time it just feels like our culture is overly sensitive or crude and conservative with both sides (although the left I’d argue are considerably more articulate generally) resorting to similar tactics and there is no in between.   I think an adequate example of this is the idea the argument between various religions and atheism.  Fair play, believe either, I’d say I’m agnostic  but the very aspects that many male atheists  criticise in organised religion and the way in which they do it make them no better in several other respects.  There is a certain superiority involved in it.

The internet has amplified all of this seven fold and created mass hysteria it seems, although even saying this ironically seems to perpetuate this ideology, where flippant ill thought out arguments are made as if the world needs to hear them.  The individual and the idea of sharing your opinion on irrelevant things is crazy.  There is a massive emphasis on provoking and being controversial, people setting up troll accounts and bullying as if the world needs less compassion.  I personally would hate to start out as a comedian or musician now, particularly as a woman and see a vicious amount of comments under my YouTube videos relating to my appearance versus my talents.  Yet people feel the need to do this.  Neck beared guys sitting in their mothers basements?  12 year olds?  Who knows but the internet gives each of these people a chance to say whatever they want and I don’t think it’s overly sensitive to be concerned about this.  Can you imagine the hate mail that you would get for simply presenting your thoughts on feminism?  We’ve all heard the stories and although I’ve been continuously trolled and received vicious messages and the like, for a variety of reasons, a simple ‘I don’t agree with you’ or a coherent mature discussion would go a lot further, no?  And if you’re simply being controversial for the sake of it – maybe you need to get out more?

I have a massive issue with the term ‘egalitarianism’.  Controversial as that may be to many of you, I think it sweeps issues under the carpet.  When an individual tries to talk about their own personal experience of oppression, using the term ‘egalitarian’ derails the conversation.  It tells people to ‘shut up’ we’re all equal. Whilst I agree intersectional third wave feminism can be a fecking minefield, I am not going to speak for someone about their experiences, or quieten, or tell them how to react.  I will listen and I won’t tell them how they should feel. There is space for everyone but bringing the conversation back to your own grouping isn’t conducive to learning, is it?  You should not only hear what people say but listen to experiences of others outside of your own limited range and take it on board.  It’s like when the fact that men get raped as well is brought up when female rape statistics are brought up.  This really does my head in for two reasons, the fact that most of these are carried out by men anyway and the fact that the people who bring these statistics up generally don’t give a fuck about men that were raped either.   I realise that many straight white middle class men, probably feel threatened or annoyed by this perception of constantly feeling attacked, perhaps because they feel that they have been laden with this guilt or burden that they have no part of, but seriously dudes getting defensive just means that you can’t see how society has been structured around your needs and the specific needs of others should also be addressed.  We’re not a society of victims, although it can seem like it’s verging on that, but these are things that need to be dealt with to create a true egalitarian society.  That would be lovely, right?

I think people need to ask themselves sometimes ‘what difference does this make to me?’ about lots of stuff.  A lot of middle class people seem to think that they are burdened by people on social welfare, and although there obviously are people who take advantage of the system, what personal difference does it make to them?  And if we were to focus on anything surely it would be something like banking, that proportionally took way more away for the ‘tax payer.’  Fuck the fact that you pay tax in thinking that you have a choice about where it goes.  We never did.  Stop blaming those that are financially less well off when there are bigger fish to fry and politicians spending imaginary money on things we don’t need and selling off what little assets we have.  It’s divisive and making people scapegoats.  Don’t want an abortion – don’t get one – if you don’t have a uterus you should probably be quiet.  Why do you care how much the Luas drivers make?  Instead of worrying about irrelevant things that really have nothing to do with you we should all be focusing on changing things for the better and not getting worked up over a gorilla getting shot in a zoo (I hate zoos anyway) and blaming their parents from the comfort of your own home.  Divisiveness is not cool and shifts the narrative away from real things.  Everything  does not need your opinion.  Shut up and look at what is important.