the libertarian part of me

[apperception]

I don't relate to most of academic leftism. I don't mean the heavy theoretical stuff, because I don't know much about it aside from the little chunk I focused on. I mean the worldview people come away with after they attend a small liberal arts college or major in English or Women's Studies. I find the focus on privilege and political correctness

Comments

[springheel_jack]

This is why Shakesville is so problematic.

[apperception]

It's problematicalistical.

[sabotabby]

*snerk*

[jalden]

What do you think of this: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2758198 ?

The paper is right-wing, and so it is unsurprising that it mocks the left by attacking its fringe movements for being silly. However, I can't help but by sympathetic to the reporter's point. I find it impressive that some people are willing to undertake such self-flagellation because they feel inherently guilty for being part of the white middle-class. I just don't understand the presumption that their is subconscious racism and sexism ingrained into me, even though I don't harbour any explicitly racist or sexist ideas.

[apperception]

I sympathize with the point of view expressed in this article, especially the comparison the author makes between this behavior and Soviet-communism. Agnes Heller, a former teacher of mine, made the same comparison. She'd be in a position to know, having lived under communism in Hungary and having taught in liberal U.S. colleges.

This sort of thing is practiced only in a sub-sub-culture, though. If you want to avoid the neo-Catholicism depicted in this article, all you have to do is avoid yappy college activist types. It's not hard, since they mostly just talk to one another. It's a form of cannibalism. They're not interested in you so much as they're interested in themselves.

[edgyspice]

I had to stop reading most of the mainstream feminist blogs like Shakesville because they made me so mad. I wasn't just mad because of the sexism they were discussing-- I got mad every time they said something stupid. Mostly I'm tired of the fact that no one seems to be capable of having a sane discussion on pornography or sex work.

[apperception]

Is Shakesville "mainstream" to anyone who didn't graduate from Sarah Lawrence or the equivalent?

[knut_hamson]

"So I don't think much of the "the personal is political" dogma. If your sole form of political activism is going around the internet and correcting people for being impolite or trying to raise their "awareness", I'm sorry, I just don't consider that political activism. And the more smug and self-satisfied people are about this, the more contemptuous I feel."

Check your privilege! ;)

[apperception]

Yeah, right? If I have any privilege, I'm holding on to it for dear life. I'll take any privilege I can get, no matter how unearned.

[knut_hamson]

Check, and mate.