privilege as a meme

feel like the concept privilege is getting a lot of burn recently, fundamentally its for sure important for understanding society and so on, but particularly itt im more interested in how something gets chewed up by the internet and people, its interesting how the blog/social network era has popularized academic gender/queer/etc thinking which is for sure the pipeline that brought us privilege, as ideas spread they naturally become broader and i think at some point start to lose their power and degrade, you can see the seeds of this in totemic manner many regard privileges illuminating and deconstructive powers as well as its cut and paste employment as a societal master key

anyway what do you think

Educate yourself!

haha what

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin privilegium law for or against a private person, from privus private + leg-, lex law

That was a joke, all of the social media social justice kids use "Educate yourself!" at least once in any sort of discussion about privilege. xp

lol i am clearly not deep enough in the privilege game, i should educate myself

it's easier to spell than kyriarchy

it's the favored term of tumblr intellectuals

It means "shut up white straight man" on ilx otherwise i got nothin

In its deference to classical Greco-Roman etymology, kyriarchy is deeply suspect as a term.

how to monetize privilege?

the word is used by too small a group of people not to have a ring of hypocrisy.

And I'm sad I wont get to see nostalgic and sentimental accounts about the hijinks of the tumblr itelligentsia in 2089. "It was a golden age."

"It was a golden age. RT if you agree!!"

"Your father and I were actually sat at computers for the great gay marriage RT of 2013."

In its deference to classical Greco-Roman etymology, kyriarchy is deeply suspect as a term.

― But I'm having so much foehn! (Michael White), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 2:40 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i get the need for the term but yeah 'rule by rulers' is p funny

It means "shut up white straight man"

*insert punchline*

as ideas spread they naturally become broader and i think at some point start to lose their power and degrade

yeah there might be some irony here when conceptual words intended to pull the reader off guard or solicit thought in a Derridean sense become catchphrases that slide across the brain with nary a quibble

so i have long thoughts on this cause i somehow found myself in a nexus of people who have a foot in both the world of radical activism ("yo white dude who keeps talking over everybody else, can you step back and let somebody else with a diff perspective get a word in") and the Tumblr Privilege Rabbit Hole ("yo check your anthropocentric privilege i can love trees carnally")

i will write them here later, prob when this thread has become a 478 post clusterfop

i think the "privilege model" of discussing inequality is important, and worth perpetuating, even if the finer nuances get ironed out with casual use

i'm sitting out of this one. i don't have enough FP's to spare.

I have seen it a lot in blog-comment clusterfucks as a kind of conversation ender/nuclear option. Recently saw it used this way against a dad blogger who was basically saying "I work very long hours and spend the rest of my time on childcare and house tasks. Why am I not referred to as a 'working dad'." And it was a pretty lighthearted, non grudgy column in tone. Somehow his "privilege" made this point invalid because working moms have it worse. Maybe it struck too close to home but I was bothered by this.

Not generally against the idea of privilege or discussing/checking privilege, just don't like it as a neutralizer.

i mean i guess in brief if you're using sociologically meaningful language that actually applies to people from communities that face unique categories of oppression, the way some people use otherkin notions to explore trans/queer identity, it's one thing. but if you're using it because you think you're a purple pony inside and why won't society stop oppressing you for being a purple pony in the body of a straight white dude, you are first against the wall. to an extent.

i think the "privilege model" of discussing inequality is important, and worth perpetuating, even if the finer nuances get ironed out with casual use

― ampersand cooper black (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 3:47 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i agree tho i didnt intend this thread as a value judgement either way particularly, maybe more privilege watching, like bird watching

hmmmm.

"I work very long hours and spend the rest of my time on childcare and house tasks. Why am I not referred to as a 'working dad'.

how about "single parent," does that cover it?

post yr privilege fb macros here

he wasn't a single parent but I don't really want to get into the argument, I just don't think a hardship is invalidated by a harder hardship

obv there are positions of privilege based on sexuality, gender, race, social class, and beyond, but it then seems hard to accept that the word is used sort of on a sliding scale by someone who faces oppression due to one of those statuses, or two of them, or whatever. i mean, when does one person safely know that they are speaking from a position of complete lack of privilege? even among the same race or sexuality somebody would probably say "well wtf would you know", wouldn't they? it seems like a quest for authenticity of oppression, not sure where that line of thinking ends.

i feel like people should be challenged to check the validity and fairness and logic of what they're arguing or what they believe, not their right to say anything at all given their background. i mean surely if someone is speaking in a way that's blinded by privilege then their views can be taken to task?

like this column i think is pretty emblematic of popular privilege discourse 2013 http://jezebel.com/5992479/if-i-admit-that-hating-men-is-a-thing-will-you-stop-turning-it-into-a-self+fulfilling-prophecy

its quite good at what it does imho and could be useful if it reached the right eyeballs in helping people understand where feminism is coming from, but on the other hand its pretty rote and doesnt particularly radiate passion for the subject matter, and this sort of thing just always rings a little hollow:

It's not easy to swallow your own privilege—to admit that you're a Fleetch—but once you do, it's addictive. It feels good to open up to perspectives that are foreign to you, accept your complicity in this shitty system, and work on making the world better for everyone instead of just defending your territory. It's something I had to do as a privileged white woman, and something I still have to work on every day, because it's right.

like every day you work on it really like a half an hour before you blog or what, theres a sense that having discovered this magic key to understanding everything you better genuflect in its presence holding your vile animal impulses deep within

I mean tbf, people do the same thing to working moms who blog about trying to balance career and parenting -- inevitably someone drops "first world problems" shtick which is the same thing.

i mean i guess in brief if you're using sociologically meaningful language that actually applies to people from communities that face unique categories of oppression, the way some people use otherkin notions to explore trans/queer identity, it's one thing. but if you're using it because you think you're a purple pony inside and why won't society stop oppressing you for being a purple pony in the body of a straight white dude, you are first against the wall. to an extent.

― hoospanic GANGSTER musician (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 2:49 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah whatever the value of the term, seeing it hijacked by deviantart brony types is pretty nauseating

sometimes its useful to remember that suffering is universal

maybe when there's loads of aging bronies still desperate for a unicornotomy we can take them serious

ha that shit is so far out

reminds me of a recent letter to dan savage scolding him for saying that being polyamorous was not a "sexuality" on par with being gay. it was an... arrangement. or a hobby. or a kink. or a need. or some other thing, he said (i forget). hoo boy were people pissed! mr "monogamy is a myth" himself! everything has to be at the level of fundaments of identity. in this way i think this intersects with american language of the rights of the self in constitutional-legal term but i haven't thought that through yet really

There was a thing maybe posted in some ILX thread about the "privilege" enjoyed by primary vs. non-primary partners (sorry if this is the incorrect term) in various kinds of polyamorous relationships. I thought this was kind of a narcissistic usage -- being a "non-primary partner" is not a trait, it's just a status in a particular arrangement.

i prefer bottom bitch

"speaking as a side piece..."

remember college when people used "privilege" as a verb all the time? I don't think I've heard that in a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pevbj2ubH50

i feel like people should be challenged to check the validity and fairness and logic of what they're arguing or what they believe, not their right to say anything at all given their background. i mean surely if someone is speaking in a way that's blinded by privilege then their views can be taken to task?

― Tioc Norris (LocalGarda), Tuesday, April 9, 2013 8:00 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

very quotatious post

also yes i feel like a heretic for hating the tone of jezebel but i hate the tone of jezebel so fucking much

yeah for sure many seek to silence rather than engage via the #privilege tag

don't out me for that i would be shunned and would have to be like 'check your jezebel-liking privilege'

haha

i like lindy west tho i can for sure see why she might grate

i like privilege as a concept insofar as it makes people self-reflect on their own circumstances, and if it makes people think more about the experiences of others, especially those of a different race/gender - i hope that ultimately it leads to empathy, which i think is what will save us all

generally i think anything that makes people self-reflect / become more self-aware is a good thing

that should be jezebel's marketing campaign

to the extent that I sometimes don't like the jezebel tone it just seems symptomatic of the larger annoyingness of that Bloggin' TM voice that I think there's a thread about.

mirrors are cool too

I don't have a problem with delivery per se. I usually do pickup when ordering food because I have a car and it's often quicker, but different strokes. That said, if I needed to have food delivered, I'd rather just go through the restaurant directly than use an app like Doordash or Grubhub.

how many more times

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-prole-info-abolish-restaurants

Can I pay someone to read that for me?

food is bad

making the same dish over and over again increases the power of the simulacrum

delivery groceries are good when everyone in your household has covid and needs to eat

anyway, in my glorious communist future, we will all have delicious restaurant meals served to us by comrades talented at cooking who enjoy it

how many more times

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-prole-info-abolish-restaurants

― brimstead, Monday, 25 March 2024 15:02 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

can still have doordash without restaurants tho, needs a second "abolish grocery stores" article

anyway, in my glorious communist future, we will all have delicious restaurant meals served to us by comrades talented at cooking who enjoy it

It is new look carriage trade, so bad. Shop for your own damned groceries.

― steely flan (suzy), Monday, March 25, 2024 7:41 AM bookmarkflaglink

it's for food delivery, not merely groceries, and services like this were extremely important to my mother and I when she was home alone and couldn't leave dad in the house by himself, or when we were emotionally drained after a long day of caretaking and didn't have the energy to leave the house. I imagine there are plenty of others who use the service for similar reasons who also aren't rich.

I’m in an area where a lot of healthy, physically fit and wealthy people use our version of doordash, the rich lazy fuckers.

Anyone living with illness or a disability (or caring for others who might) isn’t catching wrath from me for using delivery services!

IDC if people use it or not as long as they tip well.

For groceries anyway. For restaurants that already have existing delivery though you're just putting money in the pocket of a big corp that could be split between you and the restaurant instead. I try to go direct for food delivery where possible.

replace this thread with claude.ai

Honestly pretty good https://t.co/GWJEESAbsC pic.twitter.com/hLzCG0NwPe

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) March 25, 2024

_anyway, in my glorious communist future, we will all have delicious restaurant meals served to us by comrades talented at cooking who enjoy it_


It is a wonderful idea … I have friends who attempted this… the place still exists but not quite the way they had envisioned

robots, obv

leaving aside the optics of piling on someone who is clearly unwell, the miami vice affair seems like an important and fascinating cultural document

I regret looking that up but the wrongest people in the conversation are those championing the director's cut over the theatrical.

yeah the cold open is one of the coolest things

Someone give me the short version of whatever the Miami vice thing is, since I'm not on Twitter / X anymore I couldn't really get very far.

This is all I could find. Not sure what the privilege angle is:

It’s a pretty wild clip, and when combined with Streuessnig’s glowing words it ignited a firestorm of discourse about whether or not the film, which stars Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, was any good. Detractors said it was just another bro movie, dismissing it as fodder for straight men. Supporters, including our very own Carolyn Petit who has been singing Miami Vice’s praises for years, said otherwise. But I had never seen it, so I sat down this weekend to watch it. And guess what? Miami Vice rules.

alls I have to say about this thread which I regret having watched...

I am thankful that in my early 20s, when I was at my most unhinged and awful, that the shit I was posting wasn't viewable by hundreds of thousands of people.

like if this was a real-life conversation, it'd have been over in 5 minutes, but there's something about having your fuckup permanently encased in amber that tends to make people much more defensive when called out. like a wound that keeps getting re-opened.

that said, holy LOL at the "fuck you Brandon" post lol

wut

xxpost basically, a writer's girlfriend wanted to watch Miami Vice and then wrote an article about how she loved it, and the writer posted the review supporting his girlfriend's review, and the piled-on individual (a random woman on the internet) quote-tweeted it with "Straight men live on a completely different planet than the rest of us, WHOT is this", he responded "Making a lot of assumptions here lmao. She asked to see it and had a great time. Good luck with your miserable fuckin life".

she responded "fuck you Brandon <3" and then....the rest is internet.

part of the reason for the blowup is he is openly bi-sexual and she called him a 'straight man', then continued to do so even after many people pointed out he was not straight.

however, at this point, people participating in the takedown on Twitter are largely bad people who are piling on for social manna, whereas at the beginning there were legitimate people calling out bad behavior

that...does not sound like the important and fascinating cultural document we'd been promised xpost

she responded "fuck you Brandon <3"

I'm sorry but I heard "Let's go Biden"

part of the reason for the blowup is he is openly bi-sexual and she called him a 'straight man', then continued to do so even after many people pointed out he was not straight.

― perpetually awkward, perennially unhappy (Neanderthal), Tuesday, July 9, 2024 9:12 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

she’s also straight!! it’s the funniest possible thing

lol i missed that part

You know sometimes I think there's just simply not a single person who acquits themselves well when expressing anything on social media, ever.

The initial response to 'my favorite movie is Miami Vice' was 'straight men live in a different world from the rest of us' - which isn't particularly mean or rude, just baffling in its bad open mic quality comedy. Don't have a meltdown over something that wouldn't get into your tight 5 at Yuk Yuk's!

https://archive.ph/DwnEe

this lady has a whole lore and backstory! (links to an atlantic article)

the thing about, like, message board/USEnet/chat room etc flame wars is they used to eventually burn themselves out because other people occupying the same space got tired of it impeding their ability to discuss things and eventually things just dissipated.

meanwhile Twitter is like this wide open sandbox that everybody has access to/shits in, so just when things die down, a bunch of bots/agitators show up and stoke the flames again, and those with Calum-esque impulse control can't ever free themselves from the temptation to respond to every tweet/quote tweet, and it begins an endless cycle.

so you can be some obscure dude with a Suzuki and a large collection of vintage Pogs and wind up in a USA Today article because you lost your mind after hundreds of people reacted critically to your insensitively timed dick joke.

also I regret to inform that I tweeted something she didn't like to someone who had tweeted in response to the OP and now she has blocked me, so now I'm ~part of the story~ yay

I considered being person 900101 to respond to her that Miami Vice rules.

the other thing is that like, this entire thing kind of illustrates how it's a breeding ground for learning how to DARVO the fuck out of people.

like after all of the well-intentioned people noped out, of course the people replying now are largely misogynists, racists, and people who should touch grass, because they pretty much turn up to all viral twitter threads to pick at the bones, but she's now retroactively using this to legitimize the bullshit, unhinged heteronormative toxic garbage she posted at the beginning. like you don't just get to broadly spray the area and hit innocent bystanders just because some awful people showed up, that was kind of the argument against the Covington Catholic School kids that invaded that Native American protest - the Black Israelites shouting homophobic shit didn't make it ok for them to invade the Native American presentation and act like smug, entitled white kids, cos they were two different things.

but then again, the people that are needling her now aren't doing so out of any good will for anybody and keeping themselves amused, so....fuck them too.

lol I can't believe how many words I devoted to this thing that I didn't know existed before this morning.

I often think THE KING OF COMEDY is the most important movie of the past 40 years or so and this is kind of why

gonna be tedious and state the obvious again, this is the intended way for corporate social media to work. it's designed to encourage people to act rapidly and without forethought. why? because keeping people glued to the site is _engagement_, and the best to keep people engaged is by encouraging conflict. this is the business model and has been for, well. a very long time now. there was no money in usenet flamewars.

if there had been, I'd have retired already

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/10/opinion/campus-protests-progressive-henderson.html

I didn't watch that video, but I did click through to Henderson's twitter account and he's a completely worthless, bog-standard conservative

looked for a representative of his deeply unoriginal "insights" and I think this one works best:

With @jordanbpeterson and @MrAndyNgo pic.twitter.com/F9Z4jwpgkW

— Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) November 25, 2021

Jeremy Irons is totally playing him in the eventual biopic

lol I assume you mean JP not the nyt taking another swing at "what if Buckley/Vance/etfc. weren't white?"

that video is some sloppy stuff.

like a conservative private school social studies project.

lol yep rob

making fun of college kids is the political project of our times

actually, casting Irons as the new-model young non-white fascist mouthpiece might be kinda lol

that video is some sloppy stuff.

glad I didn't click, but christ was the nyt ever not so thirsty and gullible for this god & man at yale bullshit? are the editors exclusively yalies who hated their classmates' politics? it is very tiresome.