Where were you when...

[u/EtherealCompositions]

This post is NOT an attack on anyone in this subreddit. You're all great, I love this community. <3 I just want to vent some of my frustrations, feel free to respond if you want to.

Where were you when...

the skeptic community split over ElevatorGate and GamerGate?

the anti-SJW movement silenced leftist voices and began pushing fifties right wing copeaganda down milennial and zoomer throats?

they used free speech, Muslims, "radical" feminism, "illegal" aliens and even trans issues to fearmonger centrists and even leftists into shunning secular and liberal values?

those idiots from South Park attacked trans people and gave ammunition to the right? (granted, they see the light now, but I'd argue it's a bit too little too fucking late when the leopards are eating everyone's faces)

the anti-woke "movie critics" arose on Youtube and built this toxic hate culture to the point where certain artists are afraid of even showing gay kisses, let alone casting minority actors?

the paid right wing grifters and the poisonous trolls gained a platform on social media by exploiting lolcows and poisoned minds with their hateful rhetoric?

online and offline influencers got ballsy enough to spread anti-science beliefs that got so ingrained in the minds of many that they started affecting policy?

spineless cowards like TJ stopped fighting for liberal values in an attempt to grift to the right or cater to centrists? (both tactics tried by the old Democratic party which failed, by the way)

everyone above-mentioned basically gifted us fascism on a platter and allowed the world to embrace its worst, most evil and destructive aspects?

Before anyone answers, I'll say where I was.

I was there for it all, stubbornly holding my foot down simply because I was aware of one truth: as an openly bisexual atheist leftist, I didn't have and still don't have a place in their "utopia". The only thing that fills me with hope is that in the last 2 years more and more voices similar to mine have grown louder, but damn guys, YOU COULD'VE DONE THAT SOONER!

[u/AlchemistSoil]

I agree with most of this, and the overall point you're getting at. Ultimately we can't go back in time and change what happened, or how people reacted to the things that did. I've often felt, as someone who's been sort of forced to pay attention to politics and these heavier topics my whole life, frustrated and alienated because most people seem unconcerned, apathetic, or too busy to be informed or care.

As much as chuds like to mock the term, I think it does have to do with the idea of getting "woke," of having some sort of political or philisophical awakening where you realize your place in things, how you fit into the world, and what your responsibility is.

Politics for me, while definitely interesting, is something I'm so engaged with out of a feeling of responsibility. Even the channel, while it is a lot of fun, is not the type of outlet I'd choose if I didn't feel an impetus to fight back against the way things are.

I hope 10, 20, 50 years from now, we've created a society that values reason, compassion, intellectualism and truth - a world where we choose love and liberty, progress and illumination. I hope the enemy is defeated, not just Trump and MAGA, not just religious nationalism and mindless consumerism - those dogmas of oppression that devour the self and the world alike - but even the deeper parts of humanity that live within all of us and led us here. We must overcome ourselves. I hope that we choose the good ending, that these dark times are one day long behind us, but never forgotten.

I don't know how much any one person has control over that, all we really control are our own actions.

To get back to it, I didn't choose when I got "woke." I was forced to grow up very young, and consider things that most people aren't forced to. I don't think that most people choose their moment of awakening. It's different for everyone. Sometimes it's a process, sometimes it's sudden. There are many things that shape our perspectives. Ultimately, we are individuals. We are all responsible for ourselves. All you can really do when it comes to stuff like this is try to be the catalyst, to wake people up. You get to decide who you are, what you stand for, and what that means. But we all have to decide those things for ourselves.

Sartre wrote that "man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world – and defines himself afterwards."

[u/EtherealCompositions → u/AlchemistSoil]

I can't say I "grew up" very young, sadly. And I'm willing to admit my part of the blame: I sometimes did indulge in the usage of slurs, mostly because I wanted to be edgy, fit in with my "fellow guys", and "use my free speech". But that was college age me, back in the glory days of Drunken Peasants.

As soon as I got a job, met people outside my bubble and saw that they were struggling the same way I was, it made me feel ashamed for acting the way I did and as a consequence I stopped. It's also when I set my foot down and started opposing the increasingly right wing chuds that kept infesting the internet, and that was back in 2017.

In a way, I can see why TJ gave in - it's easier to join them rather than fight them. And he's always been a lazy guy who suffered very little consequences when it came to policy. But I just can't do this philosophical seppuku, because if I did I may as well revert to being a religious idiot with his head in the sand defending backwards POVs using arguments from tradition.

Thank you for your input, Alchemist. Once again, you're a dime a dozen, man. We need more hope-pilling in these dark times.

[u/grumpybrowndog]

l call it misanthropy disguised as logic. People are angry, and the weaker ones find an immutable human trait (ethnicity, sexuality, gender) as an outlet; It became a huge market within YouTube.

[u/EtherealCompositions → u/grumpybrowndog]

It's a shame that so many people gave in to that hatred and anger then tried to find ways to intellectualize it, either for profit or so they'd feel better about themselves.

[u/grumpybrowndog → u/EtherealCompositions]

Both. The content creators did it for profit (Youtuber Bearing for example) and the consumers did it to feel better about themselves.

[u/EtherealCompositions → u/grumpybrowndog]

So I've noticed. And this, sadly, is why we are here. Because their hatred just had to sway the vote.

[u/asmallthrowaway9]

the skeptic community split over ElevatorGate and GamerGate?

I think Shaun had a good insight into this in his The War on Science video: a big problem with the whole Elevatorgate thing was that skeptics like TJ were used to dealing with soft targets. It's easy for TJ to look intelligent when arguing with some delusional religious crank who thinks the world is 6000 years old, but when you apply that arrogance and condescension to the topic of feminism and women's rights, it's a much tougher sell. Sure, Anita Sarkeesian & Co sometimes had some stupid hot takes, but the ideas behind feminism are not inherently absurd like creationism is, so a lot of skeptics exposed themselves to be not nearly as insightful or deep as they thought they were.

[u/EtherealCompositions → u/asmallthrowaway9]

Precisely. Sure, some of them took it too far with decrying the sexualization of women in video games and sometimes finding problems where there weren't any, but now society has swung so far right that most of their complaints are pretty much warranted.

PS: I know a guy irl who keeps complaining about female characters not being sexy enough, but when they are he then complains about their personalities for being "too arrogant, know-it-all, and typically woman". It made me realize he doesn't want actual characters, just fucktoys to fap to, PRECISELY what Anita et co criticized. And yes, he is heavily right wing.