The decay of reason
I hardly ever post to feminist anymore. This isn't because I am any less a feminist, or because I have found a better forum to air my views. Rather, it's because of the pandemic descent into 'yeah but, no but' style of debate that seems to have infected much of the so-called 'scholarly' lj communities. Hypothetical questions, it seems, are no-one's friend. Any theory I put together and put out there was rebuffed, but not with a reasoned argument. No - there was no focus on the shortcoming's of my argument, but, rather, an obsession with the "this (gender-related theory) doesn't apply to me, which proves you wrong as it obviously can't exist anywhere else". I find this attitude fascinating. You have never experienced racism through these variety of ways, therefore it doesn't exist? You have never been slighted in this manner, therefore it was imaginary? And these people call themselves feminists.
It isn't limited to feminist forums, either. Any political / social opinion is now being rebuffed with 'yeah but, no but, it doesn't apply to me'. Explain to me how this affects anyone's argument in the slightest? You didn't find the Danish cartoons offensive? That doesn't mean that other people didn't find them offensive. (I am, by the way, most definitely not commenting on whether they should have been published or not as that's an argument for another time. I am merely speculating on the cause of this descent into infantile 'rubber and glue' approach to disagreement.) There seems to be a growing - and frightening - conflating of opinion with fact. Cognitive dissonance is alive and well, and why shouldn't it be? We are losing the ability to look beyond our own narrow-minded views and concede that other people may be just as correct, even if they disagree with us vehemently. Look at those cartoons, for instance: it is now impossible, judging by media opinion, to both support freedom of speech and argue that the cartoons should not have been republished. You pick an opinion in this contested battleground and that is somehow imbued with a 'correctness'. Of course it is - both sides are right! But it does sound awfully like 'the divine right', doesn't it? Reason replaced divine favour; now, opinion, replaces reason.
If anyone disagrees with me, I'm going to ignore you. You're all obviously WRONG WRONG WRONG, because this is my opinion and it is therefore automatically right.
So there.
/steps off the soapbox
It isn't limited to feminist forums, either. Any political / social opinion is now being rebuffed with 'yeah but, no but, it doesn't apply to me'. Explain to me how this affects anyone's argument in the slightest? You didn't find the Danish cartoons offensive? That doesn't mean that other people didn't find them offensive. (I am, by the way, most definitely not commenting on whether they should have been published or not as that's an argument for another time. I am merely speculating on the cause of this descent into infantile 'rubber and glue' approach to disagreement.) There seems to be a growing - and frightening - conflating of opinion with fact. Cognitive dissonance is alive and well, and why shouldn't it be? We are losing the ability to look beyond our own narrow-minded views and concede that other people may be just as correct, even if they disagree with us vehemently. Look at those cartoons, for instance: it is now impossible, judging by media opinion, to both support freedom of speech and argue that the cartoons should not have been republished. You pick an opinion in this contested battleground and that is somehow imbued with a 'correctness'. Of course it is - both sides are right! But it does sound awfully like 'the divine right', doesn't it? Reason replaced divine favour; now, opinion, replaces reason.
If anyone disagrees with me, I'm going to ignore you. You're all obviously WRONG WRONG WRONG, because this is my opinion and it is therefore automatically right.
So there.
/steps off the soapbox