Thursday, September 22, 2016

Regressive Progressivism: It's Okay When We Do It

A couple of years ago, an analogy was created. It was poorly thought out, yet was immediately embraced by the Regressive Left. It was a reaction to #NotAllMen (which had a valid point, considering the hashtag itself was a reaction to broad generalizations that allegedly scary and misogynistic statistics disproved), and was shared far and wide. And when people replaced a few words here and there to show criticism of the analogy, they were branded with various 'ists' in response. I share the analogy in its most prime form, below :



Just this week, one of the Trump kids (I can't keep them straight, nor do I care to) shared a similar analogy, which caused immediate backlash and uproar amongst that same Regressive Left which embraced the very same analogy when it used a different candy and a different group of people. 

Now, both images are simultaneously right and wrong. Within every group, there are troublesome people. No group anywhere, is without its bad apples, be it men, women, white, black, gun owners, gamers, feminists, atheists, Muslims, Christians, sport fans, police, or protesters. But the problem is, when you avoid or stigmatize an entire group because of those few people, you hurt a lot more and you shut yourself off from new experience. Interacting with any other human being comes with a risk, both to yourself and to that person.

To that extent, forget the fact that 10% of the candy is poison. 100% of the candy carries with it a risk of some sort of injury to yourself. Are you willing to shut yourself off from the experience of eating it because someone you don't know told you there's a risk? Of course there's a risk; life is a risk.

To address the first image: It's not okay when you do it.

To address the second: It's not okay when you do it, either.

To everyone getting outraged over the second one, I'd ask where you were when the first one was posted two years ago, but I know where you were: Justifying it. making jokes about male tears, mocking fee-fees. I'd ask you not to get self-righteous when people bring this up to you, but it's too late.

And finally, to Stephen Colbert: I tell you, sir, There are skittles that come in brown. 

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