So lets start off by saying I am a white, heterosexual, middle class,
male. I have seen lots of comments on the internet about Social Justice
Warriors (SJWs for short), and I gather that, based upon what I have
seen, I should be worried for my very existence, as these SJWs are
apparently out to rid the world of my kind, that is to say white middle
class cis gendered (yes I know that "cis gendered" is a label for non
trans gendered people, and some see it as an insult, but I am what I am,
and I have no better label to use) heterosexual able bodied men. But I
have very few examples I can point to of any of these SJWs that really
concern me, or indeed that I disagree with in any significant way.
Before we go any further I should probably explain what triggered
this particular rant. Recently a person at Google has been sacked for
breach of Google's internal policies, a situation that has come to light
because the breach was an article they authored about how diversity
polices may be harmful, and then circulated within Google, and which
promptly leaked. Now I have seen a version of this article, and I shall
discuss my thoughts on it later, but what worries me now is the "debate"
about the actions taken by Google, and I have already seen some very
negative comments. There appear to be two basic sides to this debate,
those who say the article was damaging, and wrong, and so Google did the
right thing, and those that say Google has damaged itself by shutting
down dissenting internal opinions (something the article points out is a
risk of Google's current internal culture) and has also trampled this
person's free speech rights. My concern is that these are the voices
that are going to be screaming about SJWs in the not to distant future.
So I thought I'd have a rant about the stupidity of this position from
the viewpoint of a SJWs typical "victim".
The first thing to state is that there do exist examples of "SJWs"
that get pointed out who do genuinely appear to want to rid the world of
white middle class cis gendered heterosexual able bodied men, but I can
only think of one single example where further inspection of what the
individual is saying publicly with whom I can say honestly I shall not
listen to them. Most of them upon inspection, have been harassed,
belittled, threatened, and made to feel small before lashing out. We all
have a limit, and any statement taken out of context can be made to
look bad. "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
And so I come to the article in question, and the views of those
who hate and fear SJWs so vehemently that it appears to represent so
well. It includes with a statement about men and women being
biologically different, and this much is true, but it has absolutely
bugger all to do with software development, or indeed any modern
profession. Men are typically stronger than women, but individual
strength has not been a limiting factor on productivity in any job for a
long time, technology has stripped us of that as an important
differentiator. And to their credit that is not an example the author of
the article highlights (but then it would be difficult to justify
strength as an important factor in software development ability) but it
is often a go to issue of these sorts of people. And the reason I don't
highlight any of the "biological" differences raised in the article is
because they are all, to my understanding, sociological differences
imparted upon the sexes by culture and peer pressure. The author defends
themselves by stating that this differences have overlaps, and that you
cannot comment on individuals based upon them, but then goes on to make
such sweeping generalisations as to make that defence null and void.
And I have seen this pattern of argument repeated so often it is
becoming tedious. The article includes a number of "solutions" that
ultimately amount to what looks little more than an adolescent cry of
foul, essentially saying "I know I'm in the wrong, but I like the way
things are, and how I am, let me carry on as normal and leave me alone".
The irony being that one of the problems highlighted in the article is
the risk to the "psychological safety" of those whose views match that
of the author, ignoring the psychological safety of the women and
minorities they wish to punish for daring to want a job like theirs.
Which leaves us with the issue of "freedom of speech" a deeply emotional
subject in the US I am led to believe, but Google paid this man to do a
job, not to make a speech, and when he used their resources they
allowed that speech to be heard. "Free Speech" doesn't mean "say
anything you like and be free of any consequences" it simply means you
can say what you want, and I defend this person's right to say what they
said, much like I defend Google's right to not pay him any more, and my
own right to belittle him for being a selfish, ignorant twerp.
Finally, why do these self confessed enemies of the SJWs fear, and
hate them so? They always frame it as a war, the SJWs vs the white
middle class cis gendered heterosexual able bodied men, and that amuses
me because if that were the case the white middle class cis gendered
heterosexual able bodied men are better off, and more numerous, than the
SJWs, if it really were a war we'd slaughter the SJWs. But it isn't a
war and why would it be? For the most part the "SJWs" just want white middle
class cis gendered heterosexual able bodied men to not be complete
bastards, and the people who hate SJWs so much almost always turn out to
be complete bastards. Perhaps the way to truly win this "war" is to be
nice to each other, and considerate of other people?