One of the frustrations that women experience is that people don’t believe them when they point out sexism in society. So, now thanks to Elizabeth Plank and Vox we can get a newscast rundown of the sexism that pervades our society and of course, the Olympic games.
Enjoy?
As always, if you’re wondering if we are even close to equality take a peek in the comments section of the video. They will disabuse you of any sort slappy-happy egalitarian nonsense that happens to be bumbling about in your neural network.
3 comments
August 25, 2016 at 7:21 am
Bernie Orbust
Wow. Surprised by all the thumbs down. Looks like she really hit a nerve. The piece was presented in a fairly lighthearted manner. Was thought-provoking if anything. Nothing to warrant hostility. Definitely shows an instinct to keep women ‘in their place.’
I would imagine the first order of business is to stop those in the media from indulging in this kind of boneheaded corruption. That can be controlled. Getting through the thick skulls of the more testosterone-driven males is not as easy. (But I think this sample could be somewhat biased; there are a lot of anti-PC crusaders looking to attack ‘Social Justice Warriors’ and pile on with nasty comments.)
Mean economic conditions also make the people meaner. Plus a lot of corruption in the establishment media. When Bernie Sanders ran for the nomination, the New York Times “reported” his supporters were racist, misogynist “Bernie Bros.” Using political correctness as a weapon.
I think the answer is trying to appeal to reason rather than attempting to shame people into compliance. When one group conquers another, it does not do so indefinitely, if history is any indication. (People are learning machines; there are no gods of good and evil. And almost everyone thinks they are good people: the human’s capacity to rationalize is infinite.)
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August 25, 2016 at 11:51 am
The Arbourist
@Bernie Orbust
Sexism is not a rational feature of society. Generations of women have been explaining this fact nicely to men since the inception of patriarchy.
The cultural establishment does accept change until they are forced to accept it. This is accomplished by an organized, unified group of people who won’t accept the status quo until it is changed and will agitate and disrupt society until the status quo changes.
This is the only method of social change that has worked in our societies, and until rational discourse is realized as the best alternative (good luck with that), militant organized resistance is how we drag society forward.
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August 25, 2016 at 5:10 pm
Bernie Orbust
I agree that militant organized resistance is needed. But that is to institutionalize the cause. Make it an official policy of government and society. Have it taught to children in schools. Hope that it becomes meaningfully ingrained in the culture over time.
Winning over the people, however, requires different tactics in a free society. Social engineering honey will go a lot further than vinegar. It’s hard to resist a message of reason from a position of equality. (Like how an adult crouches down to say something meaningful to a child.) But easy to reject a hostile message from a class of people who believes they’re superior.
If two groups of people are screaming at each other across a police barricade, both sides bunker down and filter out what the other side is saying. Take Trump’s Mexican wall. It’s not actually about racism. It’s about the establishment using a porous border to flood the American south with cheap labor from illegal immigrants from across the Americas. All manufacturing capacity that isn’t being outright outsourced in North America, is being moved to the “right-to-work” American south. The same kind of thing is going on in the EU. (Canada has ‘Temporary Foreign Worker’ red tape and is also, apparently, very hostile to illegals arriving on our shores by ship if the Sun Sea incident is any indication.)
So long story short: the more information that flows across the borders of social groups the better. Believing you’re in the right is not good enough. Any member of any social group will believe they’re in the right. (Hitler believed he was in the right.)
And there is corruption on both sides. The obvious demagoguery of Trump. But establishment liberals like Paul Krugman are just as bad. They’re now saying (as a campaign strategy) the economy is fine. Trump supporters are just evil racists. (Before the meme was: white male workers are having difficulty adjusting to a globalizing economy so they are lashing out with racism and misogyny: i.e., the Tea Party of the right and the left; the latter: racist, misogynist “Bernie Bros.”)
I think the key is consumer psychology: using science that understands human nature to craft messages that persuade people with the truth. People can be unreasonable if provoked. But the people also value the truth. (Members of the establishment: not so much.)
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