Thread by @NewtonMark

Hi, everyone.

Just briefly: Speaking as a man here. Cis, hetero, one Y chromosome, he/him pronouns, the kind of person the Daily Telegraph knows is male.

Li'l secret: (whisper) We all know sexism is bad. All of us. No mystery, no drama, we know it's shit. /1

We even see systemic sexism, the kind that's built into the fabric of society and which well-regarded feminists say is hidden, but needs to be exposed. It mostly doesn't really need to be exposed, that's giving us too much benefit of the doubt.

We already see it. /2

That means you don't have to treat us as if we're making good-faith efforts when we behave like shit and express mea culpa afterwards. You don't have to send us on training courses. There's no debate about how we'd be different if only we knew.

Because we know. All of us. /3

That means the language and thrust of the "debate" (ugh) should change.

We aren't vicious violent misogynists because we don't know any better. We're vicious violent misogynists because we have power, and you don't. We can get away with it, you can't. /4

That's what's so great about the last six weeks: Power has not been getting away with it. The PM is trying his best to avoid or minimize consequences so that power can get away with it, which is why there have been no sackings or prosecutions, but the tide is turning. /5

"Prime Minister, where have you been?" is giving him too much credit. He was right in the middle of it, seeing it, doing it, knowing it. Drag him mercilessly, you don't need to indulge his lies about not knowing. You don't have to indulge any of us. /6

An argument about how maybe he doesn't know and should be taught shifts responsibility onto the teachers. Diffuses anger by relocating it away from its real target. We don't even know who the teachers are, but it's apparently they have a role in fixing this?

C'mon. /7

If you move past that and assume we all know, then you can say, "He's a grown-ass adult who knows exactly what he's doing and did it anyway. Now we need to talk about consequences."

Completely different discussion, right? /8

Don't treat us like we don't know. Don't go, "He's trying his best, he just doesn't know what to do," because he knows. We all know. He just doesn't want to do it and he has power so he gets to choose. Attack that relentlessly.

Power. It always comes back to power. /end