From this piece by Elizabeth Corey over at First Things on the Q&A session at Notre Dame's ghastly conference on Intersectional Feminism:
They detailed their feelings of inadequacy in American universities, confessing that they feel they have no legitimate place, or that they are expected constantly to serve, because this is what has always been expected of black women. A young Hispanic assistant professor explained that United States immigration policy was a systematic attempt “to deny intimacy and family” to immigrants from Mexico. A self-identified “Chicano gender non-conforming queer Latinx” detailed the exclusion she had felt until she discovered a support group of other transgender people in Los Angeles. And the stories continued.If you get a bunch of people together and invite everyone to tell bad stories about group X, in no time at all, the gang will develop a grudge against group X, even if they're something as innocuous as Kansas City Royals fans.
Expressions of hurt and exclusion were inevitably followed by anger at the system—at the patriarchy, racism, unjust institutions, and structural prejudice—and then by exhortations to do something about it. In Voegelin’s terms, they were rebelling against the poor organization of the world, and maintained the hope of salvation through human effort.
However, if attendees at your ragefest have memories of Kansas City Royals fans being kind towards them, it undermines the whole basis of the rage. "Oh sure," they'll say to themselves, "the dude with the Royals cap did cut in line that one time, but then one of my best buds gave me a Royals souvenir beer cup, so maybe they're not all so bad."
Consistent, sincere kindness won't stop the utterly committed SJWs, but it will significantly limit their ability to evangelize.
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| If memory serves, there was Someone Else who suggested kindness. Hmm. It's just crazy enough to work! |
3 comments:
I agree. I think if we all resist the temptation to meet abuse with more abuse, then the people being abusive will tend to lose their influence and we will all be better off.
I hope you are right, but my innate pessimism says it wouldn't. The abusive folks will simply raise the level of their abuse/violence/activism in order to maintain the media coverage. Meantime the peaceful anti-folks will be ignored. If all the messaging is from, and the coverage is on, the brown shirts, eventually their view of what's "right" will become considered the proper way of thinking.
Ohioan, I would argue that the media has lost its grip on the nation or at least its slipped.
Here's another idea. Send groups to these sessions and in the Q&A segments, bring up these points. Like, "I don't get it. I've got tons of good examples of interactions with group X. Why are we focusing on nothing but the bad things?" Imagine what the conference would be like after 2-3 questions in a row like this.
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