Everybody talking abt not being able to talk about #Franken w/nuance ...
Here:
— Boorish behavior ≠ full-on predator
— K-Gill is a consistent pol who did her conscience & I respect that sh**
— "Due process" is for courts
— Every1 says it sucks, even if they think it was right
AND (and this is truly the most important thing that I could possibly convey): A white man not getting what he wants is not a tragedy.
I don't even mean to be harsh. But our culture is hardwired to believe that if a man (usually white, usually wealthy, usually powerful) ...
... does not get what he wants, then somewhere, in some way, an injustice has occurred, and we work backwards from there. This is not the case.
Similar to (please put politics aside right here, because it is not the point I'm making, do not try to make it the point I'm making) Brett Kavanaugh, Brock Turner, or even the enduring myth of blue balls, we have been conditioned.
We are told that if a man does not get something that he wants, that he has been "railroaded" in some sense.
In K-Gill's case, we all know she wanted to be prez for a long time. So let's make opportunism the case. That's a valid question, I guess.
Why do all these I-regret-its receive INFINITELY less heat than she continues to for perceived "political opportunism?" They could have left her alone, the sole senator calling for his resignation.
But they didn't. What of their motives, their ambitions, their personal images that they wanted to protect by being on the perceived "right side" of things, until they saw the tide turn and play the "I regret it" card?
Many argue that Franken had no choice but to resign, that he was "railroaded." But it takes multiple people for a railroading to occur.
I don't see one Dem taking a scintilla of the kinda heat K-Gill has to answer for, even though their votes are equal, and they voted for him to leave.
Did THEY have a choice? If we're saying that Franken didn't have a choice bc he was confronted by his colleagues, and those colleagues didn't have a choice bc Gillibrand was the first, we're saying no Dem in Congress but K-Gill has agency.
To be polite, that seems untenable. And unfair.
And for what it's worth, and bear with me here: There is no reason to believe in the utter uniqueness of Al Franken. Nothing to do with being a bad senator, person, husband, human, what have you. Seriously, nothing at all.
There's just no reason to believe that his skills or presence denoted an inviolable irreplaceability. And if we're talking about messaging and the #MeToo movement (fraught political territory, I'm aware) ... I actually think that's kind of great.
I don't want men to even believe that there exists a level of skill, acclaim, or value that justifies certain actions, a lá "They're too important to this film production, so we'll let it slide" or even the more personal, "He's my boy, so I gotta support him"
The irony is that K-Gill's actions were quite consistent with what feminists have long argued for: a more detailed and nuanced view of sexual relations and power dynamics between men and women, rather than "Well, there's rape, and there's not rape."
Think back to that Babe article on Aziz Ansari. I can't count the amount of feminists I read on this very website praising it because it highlighted different levels of harassment or coercion or power that are culturally learned, and not entirely the product of nefarious men.
At that time, the argument seemed to be that not every man has to be Bill Cosby to have or be a problem. That some of the ways men behave are problematic and they should be called out on them, even if they are far less egregious than straight up sexual assault.
The idea was that this muddied space is where we can truly open up about power and the abuse thereof, and we can understand more stratified levels of wrongdoing, something between "Put him in jail" or "That's fine."
And what I hear when I hear talk of kneecapping or railroading, is a solid sub-group of people plaintively asking K-Gill something many women have told me they've heard in response to actually speaking up about varying levels of harassment they've experienced:
"Why couldn't you just let this slide?"
I don't think it's a fair question, and I don't think it's a question she should have to answer.
If this was a cynical ploy for popularity, as the going theory contends, it is not going well for her. The fact that it's not leads me to believe that either wasn't her goal or she VIOLENTLY misread the room.
And more to the point: Al Franken is fine. In fact, in the wake of this, he's easily earned more credibility and respect from many who would have otherwise been only tangentially aware of his accomplishments.
He clearly has the respect of his colleagues. He has a platform to speak out about issues he cares about. What happened was that he lost a job he was passionate about because of behavior that was deemed unacceptable.
And I'm really not even trying to burn down Al Franken right now. Like I said, everyone involved, K-Gill included, say this situation sucks, but that doesn't mean she regrets having done what she thought was right.
And I do believe that when we talk about male entitlement, this is what we're talking about — the belief that a woman "standing in the way" of something that a man wants has done something wrong.
A transference of responsibility from the person who engaged in certain acts deemed unacceptable to the person that pointed them out.
I'm just having a hard time figuring out exactly what she did wrong in this situation, given that sexual assault has been her marquee issue for a long time, and her colleagues agreed with her when they were not forced to.
And I feel disheartened because so many of the same people that I have seen make these specific arguments when discussing abuse of power, harassment, sexual assault, etc, have casually slid them to the side in favor of blaming K-Gill ...
... for doing the same exact kinds of things we ask more people to do in advocacy for women who suffer widely varying kinds of harassment.
So to recap: The situation does suck, and everyone thinks so.
The mechanisms of white supremacy can be repeated within many structures, organizations, institutions, & political parties.
So a lotta you that rip POC for being "mouthpieces" for the Far Left™ also enjoy serving as mouthpieces for the white liberals whose acceptance you crave.
It's easy to tear each other apart, & that's why I'm interested in doing it to all of you or none of you, because this "pick me" behavior only ensures you gain clout w/ your crew, not that we address the underlying machinations of the Machine we're supposed to be Raging Against.
From all these different vectors, all I see is people of color baited into petty games for stupid prizes by people who hold them in utter contempt, and eat everything while they kill each other for scraps. I'm not interested.
So people are acting like the distinction is between the police we have now & police controlled only by the elites and the rich, when the history of the police was literally chasing down the enslaved with dogs — in other words, protecting and recovering the property of the rich.
And though the rich can expect to have their interests more zealously guarded, normies like Amy Cooper still get a hit of juice from being plugged into the Machine™ & will lay its full might upon you, feeling either deputized to act themselves or supported enough to be defended.
For the sake of simplicity, every argument has three easy prongs: ethos, pathos, & logos.
It is baffling to me in this day & age people think that ethos does not matter, & I'm going to watch two hours of this one economist who agrees with you about eugenics or whatever.
This is one of the primary reasons our media ecosystem rarely tells the truth — they cannot withstand the pressure of being called close-minded by people who refuse to attempt anything even approximating "moderate," "centrist," or "middle ground" positions.
I'm not smart because I've read every study on the planet or personally know their methodology — that's not smart.
There is too much information in the world and there always has been for that to be an efficient way to use one's mind or time.
I'd like to zoom in on a distinction I make w/ random, frightened Karens & the police (same thing, really, just with authority): I believe them. I believe they have these irrational fears. I believe it literally physiologically affects them.
The question is not about Amy Cooper's fears in the park that day (your feelings) — it is about what she chose to do with those fears (the facts that don't care about them).
The explicit argument being made is not about her fear, but that her fear justifies her actions.
I've been around the block long enough to know the survival of one's family is, for many, NEVER enough to justify slinging dope on the corner.
Or that Ahmad Arbury was responsible for his own murder after going berserk on 3 white, armed men who surrounded him with pickup trucks.
If billionaires going to space was for the collective benefit of expanded imagination & not, as it seemed, a GIGANTIC waste of f***in' money, I'm sick of asking for a president & being thrown in the sanitarium.
Look, I don't think presidents are magic. But even if you can't get it done, I don't think you're a very good politician if your public posture isn't *looking* like it.
Bernie doesn't get HALF the things done his ppl think, but they THINK it bc he runs his mouth. YOU CAN, TOO.
Liberals ADORE the argument of soft power because it allows them to square the evident inaction of a government not doing nearly enough for the people who voted for it with their deepest desire to believe that it is.
Pro Tip: The Room *isn't* making it happen. *We* have to.
Si vous envisagez de voyager ou de vivre à #Maroc, mais que vous avez l'audace de le faire en noir, lisez ceci en premier:
Le 21 mars 2019, vers 19 h 45, j'ai quitté mon appartement à Rabat, au Maroc, pour acheter du vin avant la fermeture du magasin. Je suis passé par mon colocataire sur le chemin et lui ai dit que je reviendrais. Je ne suis pas revenu.
Quand j'ai atteint un rond-point dans la rue, un homme étrange m'a répété "Bonjour". Beaucoup de gens vendent constamment des choses ici, alors je l'ai ignoré. Mais il s'est approché et a finalement attrapé mon épaule, puis ma poitrine.