Of Class, Color, and Privilege : A disabled man's opinion.

Warning:

Opinion piece about sensative subjects. I fully recognize this one is bound to get people on all sides upset either intentionally or not. I am willing to further discuss over email so long as it is relatively polite. I doubt i'll get any takers there and tempers will be high. I mostly just want people to understand I know the exact hornet's nest I'm sticking my head into.

OK? Don't say I didn't warn you.

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To say I dislike the term 'Ally' when it concerns people of minority, non hetero sexuality, or other situations that leave them as 'out' groups would be something of an understatement. Mind you I get 'why' the term exists. 'oh you're not 'thing' but you support us, so you're an ally.' My personal experience has been less welcoming and more fingerwagging, people sneering down at me and, 'Oh if you want to be a good ally you must-' and all but state 'you must grovel, be our whipping post, and stand in for people we dislike.' Then on the other hand you have people who think homosexuals aren't even human, trans is some form of perversion meant to allow predators to snatch little girls up, etc etc who see no distinction. To those people, from my experience, to be an 'ally' is as bad as being Thing itself. So when the people who I want to have a playing field want to set themselves as 'above' me and the opposing side damn me the same if not harder.... 'i am in no less danger than you are.' Intellectually I know that isn't quite the case especially for those that are transitioning thus can't effectively hie or pass as normal, but at the same time the sentiment remains. My neck is on the line, do not treat me as somehow 'less' than you, or deflect you screaming at how horrible whole categories of people are that I'm part of then have to go 'oh i wasn't talking about YOU! You're one of the GOOD ONES. Stop acting so offended!' Then there's the fact that 'oh heterophobia isn't a thing! Oh sure I'm using my position within this community to lecture you but I'm TOTALLY not on duty even though I am responding through official channels.'

I will not say White Privilage does not exist. I don't get stopped and hassled (actually I have gotten stopped repeatedly but that is because I was walking with a cane which had caused people to weird out, and other times because of my dog being part pitbull, and other times just because i 'looked funny.') However no, I do not enjoy some special economic status because of m y whiteness. I won't claim 'oh they're giving all the jobs to x categories of people i dislike just because.' No... nonono absolutely not. While I am not given to believe an active organized conspiracy exists where a bunch of old men show up in the dead of night wearing robes where they do profane things before setting about on mutual agreements on how best to fuck humanity over.... I do believe that enough people with power have enough common interests that they just sort of benefit from keeping everyone at each-other's throats. So while racism, homophobia, etc all exist and present real dangers? It is more about class oppression than someone's color, or orientation, or the like. Those happen to be the easiest way to keep us at each-other's necks. Pay no attention to the ultra wealthy behind the curtain, pay attention to the lack of jobs and how all these people Not You are getting attention.

To be perfectly blunt; I hate nostalgia. I'm not talking 'oh hey remember that game that came out twenty years ago?' I'm not even talking about how Hollywood is trying to milk the nostalgia teet til it is bone dry thinking it will get an audience and then scream at that audience for not magically appearing. I'm talking about the more insidious nostalgia where people of mine or my parent's generation are starting to look at how bad the Now is and compare back to when we were in our teens or possibly just wee little ankle-biters. I'm tired of getting clubbed over the head with stories of how 'oh i could totally ride from x to y to home again and never ever have to worry about crime things were objectivly better when /I/ was young! Not like the way the country has gone to a hellscape because of YOUR generation... except I'm totally not finger-pointing at you stop acting offended even though I'm absolutely pointing a finger at you.' I lump myself in this category because it is oh so seductive to blame those that are above and below generationally without looking in the mirror. I came of voting age right when the 2000 election happened, was fought over, and Gore conceded because fighting over it longer would have sent some bad messages to the world. This paired with 9/11 and all that ensued just... Look. All that had a lot of buildup, but considering that is what my generation stepped into as newly out of school adults? Right or wrong I feel responsible for that mess, or at least not cottoning onto the terribleness that would ensue and not fighting the patriot act harder.

I'm just tired of the world sucking and everyone at eachother's throats instead of just solving the damned problem.

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Gemlog

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