Grumpy Thoughts, 8th Edition

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I think one reason why so many people are confused about Joker is that they've swallowed the nonsense idea that victims can't ever be terrible people. But our society as a whole needs to get over this mental block before it completely warps our ability to tell right from wrong. Just because you have a legitimate grievance - or several - doesn't mean you should have carte blanche to act like an asshole. Do you want mass graves? Because that's how you get mass graves.

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Special privileges are wrong no matter which way they cut; the rules should be the same for everyone. There is room for discussion regarding what, precisely, is moral, meritorious behavior -- but once the standards have been established, we shouldn't be exempting entire classes of people to settle cosmic scores. That's a good way to perpetuate resentment, not peace. It's also a good way to keep certain groups from achieving their full human potential; after all, why bother to put forth your maximum effort if people are just going to set stuff aside for you?

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Over the past several years, I've been sorely tempted to write a post entitled "If You're a Writer, You Should Write All-White, All-Straight, All-Male Casts." I don't genuinely believe this, of course. That's why I haven't indulged the impulse: because I'm sure some idiot would skim until offended and completely miss the actual argument. But, as I was discussing over chat with my brother the other day, the fact remains that the SJW-left has created a perverse media universe in which you can't do anything truly interesting with characters who aren't straight, white men without being bombarded with worthless, harassing criticism and threats of "cancellation" -- which means if you want to write characters who are fully-realized, flawed human beings, you basically have to avoid "diversity" entirely. (Which, of course, risks worthless, harassing criticism of another type. You can't win!)

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Thus, in the writing world, as in many spheres, SJW tactics actually achieve the opposite of their intended effect (unless the intended effect is simply division and chaos, which is not outside the realm of possibility). You can't actually have real diversity if you set out to terrify anyone who tries to incorporate it.

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As my parents will no doubt tell you, I'm a contrary and cross-grained character. If you tell me not to push the shiny, jolly, candy-like button, I'm going to push it eventually. And I believe many of my fellow Americans are just. like. me. So if you try to control us? I don't think that's going to work out well for you. As a matter of fact, I think that's going backfire spectacularly.

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Sure: tell us we can't practice our religion or raise our children as we see fit. Tell us you're coming for the arms we have a right to bear. Tell us you're going to mandate certain kinds of speech -- and that you're going to outlaw others. But please ask yourself:

There aren't many people who actually like the guy. I personally think he's a blowhard. But I'll vote for him - and enthusiastically too! - if it means keeping petty tyrants out of power.

Grumpy Thoughts, 7th Edition

First, before the grumpiness:

Happy Easter to my Christian friends -- and chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach to the Jews!

Now let the perturbed muttering commence.

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I hope everyone who's reading this is praying for the victims of the terror attacks in Sri Lanka. That the perpetrators chose to murder innocents who were gathered to worship the risen Christ just further highlights, for me, the fallen nature of our world -- and the need for the Crucifixion.

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To Macron and the rest of the French government:

From what I hear, your countrymen are already very upset with you. If you ruin a central landmark of the French nation (and of Christianity) by adding glass or any other modern bullshit, you will only make things worse.

We have complete 3D models of Notre Dame before the fire. You don't need a redesign competition. You don't need an architect. What you need are skilled tradesmen who can repair what was damaged and restore the cathedral to its former glory.

Sincerely,
Me

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So apparently, library collections are evil now because they're just so hu-white. Clearly, what we need to do is throw out all those dusty tomes to make way for the "marginalized." After all, it's not as if old books can teach us anything of universal importance.

SIGH.

Ideas don't have skin colors, you unbelievably racist buffoons. To be sure, it's true that, for a good chunk of our history, certain races were barred from full participation in our educational institutions and consequently don't appear often in the products of our intellectual patrimony. But once upon a time, prominent people-of-color still claimed so-called "white ideas" as their own; indeed, they were rightfully angered to be denied access to those ideas. W.E.B. Dubois, a firm African-American critic of the U.S. and a leftist, once famously wrote:

"I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed Earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?"

Though Dubois struggled mightily with the dual consciousness brought on by his second-class status, you can see here that he still considered the works of Shakespeare and the others to be his by birthright. Why? Perhaps because we all have a common humanity that these writers, in their brilliance, brought to the fore.

If you want more people-of-color to be represented in our libraries - a worthwhile goal, I think - don't start by tearing down what's already there. Instead, tell kids in minority communities that "white" books belong to them too -- that conversing with "dead white men" does not make them any less authentically themselves. Allow them to plunge into a knowledge-rich curriculum that interrogates whether certain notions are true or false -- not whether certain notions are advanced by writers of the proper shade. Do this and you will equip these kids to enter university as skilled, confident scholars ready to go toe-to-toe with their white peers. Do this and you will see the demographics of library collections and journal citations organically shift.

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And lastly, a Twitter thread:

I would like to echo the frustration I've seen in my TL regarding the equation of "strong woman" with sassy bitch. BRITTLE women are bitchy. Strong women can assert themselves w/o resorting to rudeness, and they generally don't get in a lather over minor insults.

— Stephanie Souders (@TheRightGeek) April 19, 2019

Grumpy Thoughts, 6th Edition (Language Warning!)

• So apparently, white women are now designated targets of the disgusting left because we don't all vote Democrat. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here wondering why we and we alone are expected to bend the knee to people who deny our agency and declare us "handmaidens of our patriarchal husbands." Come to think of it, I'm also wondering why we're expected to vote for people who insult our husbands, fathers, and brothers, branding them the source of all that's wrong with the world. And further, why should we vote for anyone whose policies, in our opinion, are bad for America just because we don't have whips available to make a public show of our penance? Seriously: Fuck. You. I'm not going to debase myself that way. I didn't do anything wrong. My brother didn't do anything wrong. My dad didn't do anything wrong. As far as I know, none of my ancestors participated in slavery or Jim Crow -- but even if they had, family members living today are not guilty by association. Guilt is not collective, you unbelievable douche-canoes.
• It's not in any woman's interest to vote for politicians who wish to scuttle border control, meritocracy, free speech, freedom of religion, and/or due process in the name of "social justice." Nor is it in any woman's interest to vote for politicians who insist we must have the right to murder our children on the taxpayer's dime in order to be full participants in the American economy. These are just some of the major convictions that drove my votes in the midterms, and I refuse to apologize for said convictions just because some racists on the internet command it. I don't need to "do better." I need you to take a gander at my two middle fingers. 
• As a white woman living in a brown neighborhood whose clientele are predominantly brown, I understand that people-of-color face very real challenges that need to be addressed through community action and, in some cases, smart public policy. But when I look around, I feel compelled to ask what the Democrat Party has done to deserve the near 100% loyalty of certain minority populations. The evidence makes it pretty clear: Democrat strongholds are terrible places for people-of-color to live. So frankly, if I'm going to vote with my brown brothers and sisters in mind - and how do you know I don't think about that already, you condescending would-be mind-readers? - I'm still not going to vote the way you want me to. I'm not going to vote for objective failures just because they talk a good game; I'm going to vote to try something different.
• Everything the leftist zeitgeist preaches is counter-productive. Every damn thing. In shitting all over colorblindness as a social ideal, it is actually intensifying racial hatreds. In seeking to protect kids from the "trauma" of math failure or public speaking, it is making young people more anxious and less "college and career ready," to use the technocrats' buzzwords. In demanding that men take sole responsibility for protecting the virtue of women, it trains women to be helpless or, in some cases, actively cruel. So when I voted, I voted against that zeitgeist. What we need instead is a radical reorientation of our public policy -- one that recognizes and works with the human nature that actually exists. 

Grumpy Thoughts, 5th Edition

• While at Dragon Con this year, I learned of a conspiracy that has been busily dragging said con for its decision to remain apolitical. Apparently, Dragon Con is the "con of choice for Nazis"  now simply because it won't deplatform popular libertarian authors who've made the mistake of being outspoken about their beliefs. The conspirators claim, of course, that they just want to protect people from "harassers," but aside from a salty comment one of their targets made on a panel twelve years ago, they have zero evidence that said authors are genuine threats to con attendees. No: What this is really about is power. The ringleader of this conspiracy and her followers want the power to shut down anyone who might contradict the SJW worldview. Hopefully, Dragon Con continues to tell them to pound sand.
• In the world of comics, meanwhile, Peter Simeti of Alterna Comics is being relentlessly bullied for being pleasant to all of his paying customers, including those who follow the leading voices of #Comicsgate. How dare he! Clearly, we should punish the guy by buying a crap ton of Alterna titles. They're only $1.50 each, so acquiring the entire catalog wouldn't actually hurt your pocketbook all that much.
• What the two situations above have in common is this: Screaming social justice harpies have decided that anyone who is connected six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon style to critics of identity politics should be punished until they bend the knee. Well, screw that fascistic nonsense, I say. If anyone tries to shame you just because you won't unperson people who aren't radical leftists, raise two middle fingers in proud defiance and tell that individual to go straight to hell.
• Speaking of leftists trying to control us, that's the problem I have with militant trans activists and their pronoun obsession. He/him and she/her are used when you're talking about someone, not when you're talking to him or her. So basically, when a special snowflake demands to be referred to as e/eir or whatever, that person is trying to dictate how we all should converse even when he or she is not in the room. That's not okay. You have a right not to be mistreated based on how you choose to express yourself, but you do not have a right to impose your preferred mode of expression on others.
• You also don't have a right to silence researchers who are asking questions that challenge your ideology, nor do you have a right to cover up uncomfortable truths that do the same. Indeed, stopping such conversations before they even get off the ground is incredibly dangerous. People who have been denied the opportunity to discuss what they see right in front of their eyes will latch on to anyone who is willing to tell the truth. Do you want those truth tellers to be dispassionate scientists and thoughtful intellectuals? Then I suggest not pushing certain subjects out of the realm of "respectable" debate. Otherwise, people will gravitate to any crackpot who's willing to give voice to their resentments. 

Okay, so that was a bit disjointed. I may expand the above into lengthier posts at a later date once I get back into the writing groove. In the meantime, I hope you've enjoyed that little hodgepodge of things that have occupied my mind this week.

It's great to be back!

Grumpy Thoughts, 4th Edition

• I happen to think it's bad when a Republican politician assaults a reporter. I also happen to think it's bad when leftwing activists respond to the imminent speech of a controversial guest by breaking windows, lighting fires, and bashing potential attendees with bike locks. Unfortunately, there are a shockingly high number of people out there who seem incapable of holding both thoughts in their heads simultaneously. It's not okay to hit people you don't like unless they hit you first. And no, words are not violence and not grounds for a beating. Jesus H. Christ!
• Just in case I haven't made it clear before, I think the whole concept of "cultural appropriation" is bullshit. Like many leftwing enthusiasms (see my previous post), it posits a zero-sum game where one does not exist. If I use African mythology in one of my stories, that doesn't stop an African writer from doing the same. If I decide to open a Mexican restaurant, that doesn't mean a Mexican can't open his own. In neither scenario have I actually "stolen" anything; in a free market economy, the African or the Mexican are still 100% free to sell the products of their own cultures and reap the benefits even if I too am competing in that market. On the other hand, if we seal off each individual ethnicity in its own hermetic bubble, Africans and Mexicans will lose customers and, consequently, needed profits -- which will surely make things worse, not better, for those minority groups. How do I know this? Well, when was the last time you've heard of a fully segregated, supposedly "self-sufficient" community becoming wealthy and enjoying a first-world standard of living?
• The people who insist that traditional math is racist and/or sexist are making this female math teacher scream -- and aren't helping. Seriously, they aren't. Math is the language of science, and science is the reason we have airplanes, dishwashers, antibiotics, and every other modern-day convenience that has granted us more free time and longer, healthier lives. Do you really want to lock minorities and women out of STEM and the possibly lucrative careers therein? Because if you stick members of "disadvantaged" groups in mathematics courses that waste time on social justice politics, you will render them unable to study science for the rest of their lives. Want true racial and gender equality? Teach the tables, not critical theory. (Please, please, please teach the tables. I'm begging you. If you don't, only rich kids with tutors and/or extremely competitive parents will learn them.)
• Lastly, a general note to the left: Your double standards suck, and frankly, a lot of people are tired of abiding by them. If you don't police your own people and quit that shit, more and more folks on the right are going to start punching back. Trust me: I know people who are itching for an excuse to start crunching "commie skulls." Don't give it to them; you won't like the result.

Grumpy Thoughts: The Diversity Edition

Let's be frank: In some sense, this post remixes things I've covered here, here, and here. But since people are once again claiming that we readers who declare ourselves "human wave"/"superversive"/"pulp revolutionaries"/[insert anti-establishment SFF label here] are "bigoted" and consequently "hostile to diversity," I don't really feel the need to say anything especially new in response.

1. We are not hostile to "diversity." If you actually take the time to read the authors we anti-establishment types enjoy, you will find that "straight white men in rocket ships" is not really an accurate description of their work. These books abound with characters of color, strong female characters, queer characters, etc. 
2. We are hostile to a particular ideology that wears the innocuous ideal of "diversity" as a skin suit while preaching something else entirely. Said ideology refuses to acknowledge that we are individuals, preferring instead to carve us up into superficial collectives that share disadvantage -- or that share "privilege." Said ideology then attempts, in top-down fashion, to redistribute prestige to those collectives who, its adherents feel, have been especially victimized by "the system" and to shame and suppress those collectives who, in these adherents' estimation, are to blame for the suffering of the former.
3. We hate the ideology described above because it justifies bullying. At base, this ideology denies that different subgroups of the human race can ever find common ground through relationships and dialogue. Like the old-style racists they are supposedly fighting, social justice bullies essentially believe that cross-group empathy is a crock and that certain groups are irredeemably inferior -- and once you've embraced this, rationalizing violence and other animalistic power plays becomes oh so easy. You are basically released from all the rules that define civility and fair play.  
4. We also hate this ideology because it actually severely curtails diversity wherever it is practiced. First of all, wherever this ideology holds sway, people are actively discouraged from saying anything real about culture, about race, about sexuality, or about any other touchy subject that will actually inspire productive conversation. As a matter of fact, in establishment circles, we've now seen the development of a certain type of editor/beta reader whose sole job is to enforce a particular orthodoxy on these topics. This ideology, in other words, seeks to breed parrots - not thinkers - and tries to coerce us into shutting up about any realities that conflict with its premises. 
5. Secondly, wherever this ideology holds sway, creators who fit into certain minority demographics are expected to present themselves in a very narrow way or else be branded traitors to their kind. Similarly, any differences that exist between the subgroups of the white population are completely ignored. What results are flat, simplistic understandings of whiteness, blackness, gayness and so on that don't lead to quality, fully human art.  
6. We also dislike a certain style of writing that, while not synonymous with the aforementioned ideology, is strongly associated with that worldview. This style of writing features pseudo-deep brooding masquerading as trenchant social commentary and main characters who, fundamentally, lack agency. Nothing actually changes in these sorts of stories; they are pure, structure-less emotion.
7. Further, even when a particular work manages a recognizable plot, we disdain themes that denigrate human achievement and are really fucking sick of Republicans, Christians, poor whites, immigration skeptics and other left-favored scapegoats' being portrayed in the same stereotypically negative fashion over and over again in establishment-produced fiction. To be totally honest, that's why I personally am a little more forgiving when it comes to right-wing message fiction; it's not high literature by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it offers me something different.

So no -- we didn't stop reading mainstream comics or SFF because we hate "diversity." In reality, we have responded rationally to an activist movement in the establishment that has declared us unpersons and peddles versions of the world that, in our opinion, are profoundly faulty. If you want to bring us into your audience once again, perhaps you should consider promoting the only "diversity" that truly matters: diversity of thought.

More Grumpy Thoughts

• So the net now informs me that finding clothes that fit is a "cis privilege." As a cis-female, that certainly comes as news to me. For years, I have had trouble finding pants that fit correctly -- and the less said about shoes, the better.
• Saying that finding clothes that fit is a "cis privilege" is like saying white people are privileged because "nude" hosiery and Band-aids "match their skin tone." Neither statement is true. I defy you to find any "nude" products that match this:
  
  
  
   
• If you recognize that a fetus is a human being with rights, there is no contradiction between being pro-life and advocating for small government. Sorry, Tomi Lahren.
• If this is a society in which fakers like Rachel Dolezal can appropriate a minority racial identity and, for a time, profit from it, this is not a "white supremacist" society. Is it a society in which certain lingering inequalities cut across racial lines? Yes -- but WHY? I think the answer to that question is far more complicated than race-obsessed ideologues care to admit -- and involves the "well-meaning" government to a substantial degree.
• "Sensitivity readers" are hucksters. I believe in doing the research and being as accurate as possible, but who gave these self-appointed gatekeepers the authority to speak for their entire gender/ethnicity/orientation? Once again, the publishing establishment is allowing a small group of militant activists to vitiate the individuality and agency of millions of other people -- and as a disabled woman, I won't stand for it.
• And since I've been watching some Star Trek lately: Data didn't need an emotion chip. The early seasons of TNG make it perfectly clear that he was human enough from the start. He was capable of missing crew-mates and appreciating friendships. He showed great compassion for others -- to the point of violating the letter of the Prime Directive in at least one instance. And his insatiable curiosity is, on its own, a profoundly human trait. The only thing the emotion chip did, in my opinion, was allow Brent Spiner to mug for the camera. It didn't add anything vital to the character.

And I think I'll leave it there for tonight. ;)

Grumpy Thoughts for the Evening

• If you believe free speech should be forcibly curtailed for certain people you don't like, then you must believe you have a total monopoly on the truth -- which means you're an arrogant putz.
• Look beneath the surface numbers. Just because a certain racial group performs less well on a teacher certification test does not automatically mean the test is racist and should be scrapped. It may mean public education in certain areas is utter shit for a host of complicated reasons that have very little to do with race.
• If you want gay characters in your movies, write your own stories. Don't try to colonize stories that already exist. I'm looking at you, Disney.
• Speaking of gay representation: Putting LGBT characters into everything ever is not actually representative of reality. Same-sex-attracted individuals represent 3.5% of the US population according to census data -- and "gender-nonconforming" folks represent an even smaller percentage. Ironically, by artificially inflating LGBT representation in popular media, you are making people MORE afraid of the "gay agenda" and its possible impact on the family. Back off.
• We're tired of the left's screeching about Russia, Trump's fascism, etc. Reality does not conform to your hysteria; if it did, many of you would already be in jail. Critique actual policy, not your fever dreams.
• Stop talking about "white privilege." It is 100% nonconstructive. No average American is going to accept that notion when the evidence before our lying eyes reveals that many working class whites are also disadvantaged by the system. Speak instead about the barriers that poor people face regardless of race. This will help everyone instead of just a few favored groups.

Anything else I should address? I'm in a bad mood and on a roll.