It IS a blind spot. Compare reactions and defensiveness on this issue with the Black Lives Matter thread/issue. I’m pretty sure most people on here have learned to recognize racism down to the microagression level, even in themselves, and if they haven’t, they are open to learning about it when it’s called out by another poster. We’ve all seen on our FB feeds every typical response from the deplorable side when confronted with their white privilege, and we know how deplorable they sound. We make fun of them on here.
I hate to break it to you, but a lot of the things I see on here about sex and gender sound almost identical…like you could take the standard deplorable arguments and replace “black” with “female”.
Not all men, I didn’t mean it like that, what is the real definition of that term, none of my female friends have a problem, etc.
If this post makes you feel defensive and want to argue back., well, that’s your privilege and fragility showing.
I’ll be 100% honest…I don’t post about this stuff or call it out because I just cbf to deal with the pushback I’ll get. It’s the exact same reason your deplorable cousin’s one black friend doesn’t tell him the real truth about racism and his experiences. It’s just easier and healthier (mentally) to let sleeping dogs lie.
I would like to think I that I am more self aware, but a lot of my posts here are snarky comments that I think are just being silly but I wouldn’t be surprised if I posted something stupid and inadvertently offensive. Thanks for writing this @skydiver8 I’ll try to self police in the future.
Just to +1 Skydiver, I don’t have the bandwidth to jump into the Epstein thread with full force at the moment, but I just read it for 10 minutes and I’m kinda ready to nuke the entire forum.
Please don’t. You are valuable around here. I am ignoring that thread too. It’s awful and not representative of the forum as a whole. The obsession with that case really creeps me out. It’s borderline pornographic.
Also consider how while a lot of us suck in ways that still make us usually ok citizens, that thread is being carried by one person who has a really bad view on one subject. I am in agreement with you in wishing that thread who go away.
In some ways I find it even harder to self identify my male privilege than my white privilege.
For example, answering the gold star lesbian question didn’t even cross my mind as problematic. I’ve had a few discussions with women about it today and while none think it was mansplaining they do think it would have been better to let her answer. We have also been discussing if the post calling me out was infantilizing as it assumes she couldn’t defend herself. This stuff is complicated.
I feel like I do a decent job most of the time as I have worked with mostly women my whole career. Of course that might just be me pulling a “but I have a black friend”.
I could definitely do better with sexism and misogyny and also with use of the word retard. (It still slips out every now and then even though I’ve accepted that it’s not appropriate.)
Sure I guess but it feels a little like Nancy Grace picking one white girl to obsess over for months.
No doubt it is awful what Epstein did but tens of thousands of children and women are abused every day. The focus on this one case has a gross voyeur feeling to me and seems tinged with celebrity obsession.
That’s because the Epstein focus is celebrity obsession, people pay lip service to the victims but really it’s the salacious details of what powerful men were secretly up to that has everyone’s interest.
I think it has more to do with the power of the state being used to protect him for years. And the leniency when he was in prison. And why exactly was he treated like that? Plus the strange circumstances around his death. And all his rich and powerful contacts.
That’s fair. The political angle/protection makes sense in the context of this forum.
I guess it gives me the same feeling as a show like SVU: Special Victims Unit. That show creeps me out so much as it turns sexual assault and rape into entertainment.
I think the obsession stems from him being involved with multiple heads of states and very powerful people in the world. It kind of speaks to what the rich and powerful can get away with and how laws are unevenly applied if applied at all. It’s also very high profile (got its own Netflix special) and a lot of the circumstances around him are very suspicious (his death, possible ties to intelligence) which leads to a lot of different conspiracy theories.
Edit: some of this stuff was mentioned above, sorry for the repetition
The obsession with the true crime genre in general makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Amanda Knox, Making a Murderer, Serial…people who eat that stuff up just strike me as weird.
That being said, I think it is reasonable to be interested in the case as a potential vehicle for taking down Trump or Trump-adjacent figures. The prurient details are meh, but the possible political exploitation is worth examining.