Hello my fellow Ultra Normative Dudes*, this moment in history can feel like an overwhelming time because everything — race, gender, sexuality, class — feels like it's blowing up and we have to do a bunch of Processing Of Big Issues every 30 minutes. That is correct!
https://twitter.com/kamigarcia/status/1272950538703945732
It is correct because those different axis have been pretty consistently trash-firey for a lot of people for a long time, but the cultural value of Keepin' The Normalcy Flowin' has always been high, and they were encouraged to Keep It To Themselves Or Be Branded Troublemakers.
Sometimes somebody (or a cluster of somebodys!) would stand up and say, "You know what, this thing is bullshit" and there would be a cultural moment and we (Ultra Normative Dudes) would get big eyes and say, "Holy shit, that's awful. Wow."
But now it feels like the floodgates are open, right? It's not just one hashtag! It's like, a new thing every week. A new group of people saying, "You know what, this awful thing we've had to stay tight-lipped about to keep our jobs or our health or whatever, it's bullshit."
And it is bullshit. It's complete bullshit. It is exhausting for us Ultra Normative Dudes because for the most part the "bill" of having to think about the bullshit every day when we wake up or walk outside or go to work or try to get groceries? We haven't had to deal with it.
I mean, we COULD if we WANTED to but nobody was MAKING us and we could just go about our day if it got to be too much. It was just a matter of stopping listening to the angry person or muting the hashtag or saying, "Whew, that is awful and exhausting. I paypal'd some to help."
But the bullshit still keeps accruing when we aren't looking at it, and interest piles up, and the people who HAVE to pay their bill every day because the abusive bullshit is dumping straight on them? This moment seems to indicate a critical mass saying, "Yeah, fuck THAT."
And suddenly Ultra Normative Dudes like us have to deal with a new revelation of really awful Bullshit around every corner, in every subculture we're part of, in every niche community we go to for refuge.
The only solution is to listen to the people saying, "That's it, this is enough" and listen to how they say these places and spaces can be made better and cleaned out. Because if we just say, "Wow, that IS awful" and then take a breather before the next one?
The bullshit keeps adding up. And interest keeps accruing. And the people who don't have the luxury of closing the tab and going off to somewhere Without All These Problems™? They're going to keep getting ground down by it while we "recharge" and "focus on work" or whatever.
It's overwhelming right now *because we haven't paid the bullshit bill*
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