More Boring Rhetorical Tics the Left Needs to Retire

(Consider this a continuation of the post here.)

5. Incel

Ever since Elliot Rodger, SJW's have been using this slur to insult every man who dares to disagree with their opinions on pop culture. But like "alt-right," "incel" describes a fringe group of radicals with a clear ideology. Actual incels believe they are failing in the dating rat race because women are shallow bitches who just want attractive "chads" with money and fast cars. People who hate The Last Jedi or Captain Marvel, on the other hand, are often happily attached men with kids -- or, shocker of shockers, they're women.

Sorry to be crude, but last time I checked, I had tits and a vag. And yet - and yet! - when I went to see Captain Marvel, I found it to be, at best, an aggressively average hodgepodge of ideas that could've been good if their treatment had been more than cursory. Carol's discovering that she's been fighting on the wrong side of an intergalactic war all this time, for example, could've led to some intense guilt and soul searching that would've made her interesting as a character; instead, the twist in question is just thrown in there without any exploration of its implications. Similarly, the movie never really gives you a chance to appreciate the past relationship between Carol and Mar-Vell; thus, when Mar-Vell dies, there's no emotional impact.

When it comes to recent female-led superhero movies, I believe Wonder Woman is far superior to Captain Marvel. Not that Wonder Woman is perfect, mind you; I do think the development of the romance between Diana and Trevor is oddly abrupt. But on the whole, Wonder Woman is a more unified, more epic story. Hell, even Wonder Woman's score leaves Captain Marvel's 90's nostalgia in the dust.

So, SJW's: Given that I fiercely disagree with you and yet cannot, by definition, be an incel, isn't it possible that those hated men on YouTube also don't like the things that you like for perfectly valid reasons that have nothing to do with sexual frustration and misogyny?

6. Educate Yourself

Whenever an SJW makes an over-the-top claim that, say, they "struggle to survive" every day in a country that's irredeemably -ist and filled with -ism, their favorite way to worm out of explaining what they mean is to spit that their doubters are not entitled to their "emotional labor" and that, instead, said skeptics should "educate themselves." What a diabolically clever way to render their worldview impervious to critique!

Of course, we should never feel guilty for asking for evidence whenever one of these ideologues alleges something extraordinary. We should never feel guilty because most of their assertions are patently ridiculous. It's reasonable to say, for instance, that police officers are more suspicious of black men for reasons that are complex and generally not conscious and that perhaps this should be mitigated by better training or more community involvement. It is not reasonable, however, to say that, in 2019, racist police are routinely gunning innocent black men down in the streets and that therefore all black men should be in constant fear for their lives. It's horrific whenever a genuinely innocent black man is killed by the cops, but it turns out such cases are pretty rare -- so rare, in fact, that the Washington Post has to add clearly justified killings to its database to maintain the left's preferred narrative.

We lead remarkably comfortable, safe lives here in the United States; vanishingly few of us are actually "struggling to survive" in any real sense. Does that mean there aren't still ways we can improve? Of course not. But if you're a well-dressed, well-groomed college student with an iPhone, I consider it my right to question you when you scream that you feel endangered -- and if all you can do is condescendingly tell me to "educate myself," I'm going to dismiss you as delusional. I'm not obligated to believe you're oppressed simply because you say so.

7. White Privilege/Systemic White Supremacy

Since #MyWhitePrivilege is trending on Twitter this weekend, let's talk about why the left's obsession with this concept is both aggravating and unhelpful.

First of all, many supposed "white privileges" don't even exist. Nude bras and Band-Aids don't match my almost translucent Northern European skin tone. And I hate to break it to you, but unless you're named "Mike Smith" or something, whiteness won't necessarily protect you from the horror of having your name mispronounced. Trust me: When I was growing up, my last name (whose first syllable rhymes with "cow") became "Saunders", "Sounders", or "Sooders" during many a roll-call. I shudder to think what might've happened if I were Polish or Czech!

Secondly, "white privilege" is often better described as majority privilege. If you are one of the few people of color in a majority white society, then yes: often times, you will be the only non-white individual in the room and you will feel like the odd man out. But most of the time, this imbalance is not malicious, and your feeling of "otherness" is not being purposefully imposed upon you; it's just the result of a combination of raw chance and your own insecurity. How do I know this? Because, thanks to the unique demographics of my neighborhood, I've been the only white person in the room many times and have also experienced that sense of being on display as some sort of exotic specimen. Don't worry: the feeling eventually goes away if you don't dwell on it.

Then, of course, there are the "white privileges" that are really just indicators that you're rich. Yes, some white people have gotten off lightly for criminal behavior that would guarantee prison time for others. But as Jussie Smollett has taught us, you don't have to be white to escape sixteen felony charges despite the overwhelming evidence arrayed against you; you just have to have connections. By the same token, the fact that a white kid can slip into an Ivy League school despite less-than-stellar credentials as long as his parents pull out their checkbook and make a phone call is also not evidence of his "white privilege"; an equally white coal-miner's son in West Virginia certainly can't pull off the same cheat.

And lastly, there are the "privileges" that are the consequences of people's good choices. I had no control over the fact that my parents were happily married and invested in the education of their two children, so yes, in that sense, I suppose I am privileged. But that doesn't have anything to do with my being white. As it turns out, Asians have even lower unmarried birthrates than whites, and they're kicking our asses when it comes to median income and educational attainment. Are Asians the beneficiaries of "white privilege" and "white supremacy"? That's a bizarre proposition in light of the Chinese Exclusion Act, "yellow peril," and the Japanese internment.

I'm not suggesting here that there aren't some lingering racial issues that require thoughtful response (see my comment above regarding police bias). What I am suggesting is that SJW's radically oversimplify what's happening instead of examining the complex truth and crafting reality-based solutions.

Of course, clinging to a simple, univariate explanation for apparent racial disparities makes it a hell of a lot easier to gin up conflict and seize power for yourself.