Malespeak with Radical Feminist Translations

Reblogged from sisterhoodispowerful:

Guest post by:
Elaine Charkowski

Mary Daly in her book Quintessence wrote, “Naming the agent is required for an adequate analysis of atrocities.” As linguist Julia Penelope has shown in her book Speaking Freely: Unlearning the Lies of the Fathers’ Tongues, “Agent deletion is a dangerous and common mind-muddying flaw.”

The purpose of “Malespeak” is to avoid naming MALE violence against women and it’s perpetrators (MEN) specifically.

Read more… 1,398 more words

The Fantastic, The Wretched and The “Oh F*ck, No”

Sometimes “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” just isn’t strong enough. In one of my recent youtube sessions I ran quite the emotional gamut. Let’s start on a high note, shall we?

The Fantastic

First we have a long overdue “Hero of the Day”. For quite some time, the youtuber Vihart has been producing superb content that celebrates the wonders and joys of math. Irresistibly fun, endlessly charming, and mind-blowingly wondrous, Vihart’s videos present math in a delightful and accessible manner. I recommend that everyone take the time to watch as much Vihart as they can, especially educators. This is how math class ought to be. How marvellous it would be if more children played with mobius strips and wanted Mexa-hexa-flexa-gons for supper.

In her latest video, Vihart expands on one of her previous videos and makes a 3D audio braid. You’ll need earphones for this one, or surround sound. Watch, be amazed, delight in the sonic wonders of math.

The Wretched and The “Oh F*ck, No”

Whilst riding this emotional high of mathematical elation and renewed hope for future generations that will still care about math because of extraordinary projects like those by Vihart, I came across this next video. I crashed. I burned. I debated on whether ‘future generations’ was an option we really ought to pursue.

The two stories presented in this video are beyond ludicrous. The staggering amount of harmful stupid and horrific wrongness exposed here boggle the mind. It’s like I’ve been slapped in the face, but the stunned shock will not wear off. Just watch.

If humanity has any hope at all, it is with educators like Vihart. People who make curiosity, learning, science, and math fun. People who find their passion and wonder in reality and share it with the rest of us. The more children (and in turn, the public) are inspired to think, to be inquisitive, to actually care what is real, the less idiocy like that in the last video will be a part of our society.

If you haven’t checked out all the Vihart links in the first part of this post, now is probably a good time. It will make you feel better.

Big Brother and You – Lawrence Lessig on Privacy Rights.

Some relevant background given the recent publicity of how much our governments pry into our personal lives.

Whatever your take on recent revelations about government spying on our phone calls and Internet activity, there’s no denying that Big Brother is bigger and less brotherly than we thought. What’s the resulting cost to our privacy — and more so, our democracy? Lawrence Lessig joins Bill to discuss the implications of our government’s actions.

The Toxic Beauty Industry – International Vogue

Nothing you shouldn’t already know.

Killing Us Softly 4, with Ed. D Jean Kilbourne

Pop-culture is another avenue through which white/Western imperialism and misogynistic standards are spread. This is how the thin, able-bodied white woman ideal was created and WoC and “third-world”/Global South women and girls were devalued, denigrated and taught to hate their physical appearance, and even take dangerous measures to mimick the thin, able-bodied white woman ideal.

The DWR Sunday Disservice – Not My Law! – Sanctimonious Christiains and Their Codswallop.

Awww! Isn’t religion cute all snuggled into the framework of society!

Let’s play a game!

The game is called “I’m right because GOD SAYS SO” – and festoon it into a train wreck of an blog post.  This mangled piece of sputum drips of religiously condoned contempt for human beings and their rights.

Nothing new right?

We all know that religion is the ripe ground that makes misogynistic, patriarchal bullshite flourish and grow.  Regressive societal tendencies and religion go together like peaches and cream, MRA’s and rape culture or any other fetid combination that one can think of.  Anyhow (back to my sanctimony), religion is the toxic worm that twists and festers in society, we can all see the harmful effects of religious thought, but most don’t (or choose not to) see it.

Religion is like Cymothoa Exigua, a parasite that eats and then replaces(!) the tongue of the hapless fish it infests.  The fish, superficially, is fine.  Only on closer examination can we see the damage done to the poor host fish and thus to make a kludge of a comparison, we can relate religion’s role as the ungainly parasite that quietly, invasively, despoils society for its own benefit (also, who wants an icky tongue like that? Sqicky!).

Today’s Disservice features a fine example of the religious rot that makes the world a shittier place for you and me.  “Not my Law” by Oldguyvirgin hits all the suppurating highlights of the harmful nature of religious thought.   Rather than directly interspersing my thoughts with this particular induhvidual,  I’m going to try the blockquote format to see if that will improve readability, as well, there is a metric-fucktonn of egregious material to cover.

“As Christians we’re supposed to place God’s law above man’s, right? Absolutely, but in practical terms, what does that mean?”

Damn, here we go right off the bat straight to bug-nutz delusional statements about everyone’s favourite sky-daddy/ooga-booga, god.  Let me offer an answer: the fireside stories and rantings of scared ignorant people written some 2000 years ago should never, by any means, supersede or transcend the rational evidence based laws and norms western society has come to embrace.  We are still barbaric in what we do to each other, and you are fucking pining for a time when we had less civility.  Awesome.

“According to the modern church in America, or at least the way we act, that means to pursue a vigorous, staunch, often demeaning and dehumanizing political campaign against anything with which we happen to disagree.”

The idea that there is one unified church in America is just wrong.  In reality it is a sectarian paradise with more sects and factions than you can shake a bible at, all condemning each other to eternal torment in the various circles of hell in a festival of hatefappery happily condoned by their god(s).  This kind of inconsistency doesn’t make a whit of sense, but then this is place were we get the natty idea that “God loves you, but ooooooh you’ll burn forever sinner!”, you know, the standard religious boiler plate notion of mandatory cognitive dissonance.

I’d like you folks to remember that last sentence from the quoted material as we’ll be referring back to it soon.

“Abortion is immoral. Therefore it should be illegal in any and all circumstances, no matter what the populace has to say about the matter.”

Boom!   Abortion is immoral!   Most people when making a moral case tend to state a few premises first, but oh no and Oh Ho!!!  Mroldguyvirgin(MOGV) has no need for the pale frippery of cogent argumentation.  No sir!  We skip the whole ‘premise thing’ and instead magnificently conclude, planting the confused flag of religious certainty, that Abortion is Immoral.  Say no more.

“Homosexuality is immoral. Therefore homosexual couples should hold a lower legal status than heterosexual couples, including a lack of access to combined health insurance, a lack of inheritance rights, a lack of power of attorney, a lack of tax breaks, etc, etc, etc. These are the two major issues right now, but certainly not the only issues.”

Boom!  Were these moral bon mots written on stone tablets that you can, only now, share?   These nuggets of torpid wisdom might be too much for us poor schmucks that blithely purport to inhabit evidence based reality.

I have a hypothesis about these declarations and why they have been interspersed with talk of God’s law.  To be taken seriously as a christian commentator you need to show the requisite amount of misogyny and bigotry to be part of the ordained ‘God Club’.  Not a lot of love thy neighbour going on here as far as I can tell.  On the other hand it is par for the course considering the unsurprisingly dogmatic adherence to shitty ideas that concomitantly spawn shitty ethical values.

Nothing like the honest words from the religious to illustrate the inherent toxicity and the hate religion breeds.

“However, what does placing God’s law above man’s law do to man’s law? In declaring abortion to be murder we effectively announce our dismissal of American law.”

Oh MOGV, I hate to break to to you but the bible says exactly nothing about abortion.  Could it be that just plain old *you* are projecting what *you* think the ethical standard should be and then dressing it up in the skydaddy’s clothes to make it sound all authoritative and convincing to the gullible?

“Murder is a term that is defined by law, and American law does not define abortion as murder.”

If there was a whit of sense in this entire bunghole of stupidity, this sentence taken out of context would be it.

“Thus, when we declare that abortion is murder we remove ourselves from the conversation by declaring that American law is unimportant to us.”

And that’s how the South fell from grace…   Seriously though, removing yourself from the conversation is the sane thing to do.  Unfortunately, the religious can never keep it to themselves and feel the burning desire to distort society and impose their flawed notions on the rest of us.

[Skipping extra wordy bits about defending god]

“But wait!” You say, “doesn’t that mean that there’s no point in apologetics?”

I ask you, since when was apologetics the defense of God? There is every reason to pursue an apologetic defense of the faith. The task of apologetics is not to defend God, or his law, but to defend the rationality of Christian belief.”

*facepalm forever*  There is no rational explanation of faith as faith is intrinsically irrational.  Your magical claims hold as much weight as my cherished notions that pink unicorns regularly steal my car keys and hide them in obvious places (a thousand poxes on you little bastards).

“In light of questions like: Can God be real? Is the scripture trustworthy? Did Jesus really die on the cross? We must have an apologetic response. This is a part of what Peter meant when he commanded us to be ready to give an account of our faith. To answer reasoned questions with a reasoned and thoughtful faith is very different than spewing thoughtless rhetoric and pursuing a legal divine mandate of Church rule.”

(Arbourist looks up at previous paragraphs, then looks at this one.  Looks up again… Riiiiiiiight.)

“In too many ways the Church resembles Senator Palpatine’s description of the Jedi in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, we have held political power in this nation for a very long time, and we are loathe to give it up.”

What?  No really, what the frack are you going on about?  This blog post makes word salad look like a cogently articulated legal brief.  MOGV continues to jump all over the place in spastic word orgasms that defy comprehension.  However, what is predictable about MOGV’s inept ramblings is the periodic interlacing of untrammelled misogyny and bigotry heaped with righteous scorn, into this rotten corpse of an essay .  We’re about due for another injection…

“However, make no mistake, the attempts to legislate marriage, sexual conduct, the handling of pregnancy, etc is less about the rule of God and more about the fear of the church. It shows a lack of trust and an extreme cowardice. Does this mean that there is no homosexual agenda bent on attacking the church?”

Ah, there we go.  Those damn homosexuals and their agenda, protesting against an institution that think of them as less than human or somehow fixably flawed.   Judge not, lest ye be judged – unless of course its going after the gays, then by all means judge away!  If there is a constant in christianity it would be that black vein of hatred of one group or another that has somehow been judged to be impure or unethical (and maybe another constant is that its *all* desultory cockn’bull  fapping).

“Of course it doesn’t, though it would be ridiculous to assume that all homosexuals are a part of this agenda. Certainly the nation is becoming more hostile towards Christianity, and persecution is coming. However, Peter does not tell us that when persecution comes we should fight for our power and rights tooth and nail, even if it means destroying the other side. Instead, Peter tells us to rejoice that we may share in the sufferings of our lord!”

Ah yes, the fabled persecution of the majority.  It must be rough living in a society that is structured around your wants and needs.  The audacity of minorities who think that they should not be treated like crap.  They should be grateful for their place at the table, not trying to upset the natural(?) order of things.

“To those who would see the Christian faith persecuted, hurt, injured, and destroyed, I would say: Bring it on! Do your worst and find out just what our God is made of.”

Hollow words and comforting ideas for scared people.  Your mythology is being rolled up and tucked away safely in the Fiction section of the library.  Modernity and reason will see the end of the reverence of your cherished fairy-tales.  And in my opinion, the sooner the better.

[skipping more 'woe is me' blather]

“This is what we should be. A face of courageous love and truth that stands against hate and violence, not a face of hate and violence that seeks to oppress those who disagree. We should be better than we are.”

I hate to use the same device twice but….

(Arbourist looks up at the anti-woman and anti-homosexual passages, looks down at this one….Riiiiiiight.)

And that wraps up this RPOJ post.  The navigating was treacherous this time, as the pontification was strong with this one.  Also – question begging, internal consistency and the lack of any sort of rigorous argumentation.  I hope your brains aren’t too mushy from our latest foray into the strange and wilde world of internet christianity, because there is plenty more where this came from.

Woo-haa?

“‎Rape culture is a culture in which people who have survived a violent crime are asked to laugh about it because other people think it’s funny.”

Reblogged from Anti-Porn Feminists:

• 
• 

Rape culture is a culture in which people who have survived a violent crime are asked to laugh about it because other people think it’s funny.

Found here

TRIGGER WARNING for the images below the fold, these are examples of the sexism and misogyny men display with impunity, often under their real name and with their picture attached, on social media.

Read more… 10 more words

Progress? – Or Have White People Gotten Less Crazy?

 

Chris rock makes a point about how to think about “progressive politics” and what it means to people.  It is almost always informative to hear the story of those who regularly receive the short end of history’s stick.