Right-wing! Racist! Grrrrr!

Post Reply New Topic

I thought this pretty funny. I don't know how many times I've been called a right-wing, a Trump supporter, etc, simply because my views don't align with the establishment narrative pushed by MSM.

I think it's problematic that race and sex are the only groups people worry about these days.

It seems people divide the entire world into two groups based on assumptions and generalisations: people are either left or right (which isn't true), or they are either male or female (which isn't true). Oh, almost forgot skin colour and race.

Yes racism and sexism are important.
What about other the other vulnerable sectors of society?

We're all disabled. I don't hear anyone calling out ableism in mainstream media, or protecting our rights.

Again - no hate please. That doesn't mean I'm racist or sexist, or left wing or right wing or male or female.
It means there's more to defining a person than skin colour and sex (or even gender).

Precisely! Very well said. Too many people are stuck in very rigid parameters when discussing politics. It doesn't lead to healthy discussions that could bridge the gap between left and right.

They are actually all connected. People who carry bias against ethnic groups and women also (surprise surprise) carry bias against the disabled.

There is also intersectionality where many people with autism also have to navigate racism and sexism. I have a friend who's wife is from Singapore and their son has aspergers, He had a good job as an expat living there and so did his wife who is a local. But the son experienced awful discrimination in mainstream school and other parents were furious their children had to share a classroom with a disabled kid. But the boy also had to navigate being "mixed:" in a school that was Chinese. He and his wife gave up a comfortable life to come back to Australia and the financial strain of looking for work so their son could find a more socially inclusive school.

It's something my daughter has to navigate in her school where in addition to bullying over her autism, she's been hit by racism. I strongly suspect parents at the school ostracise me because of my child's background but also I'm the disabled kid's dad.

So bigotry is a package deal, always? All or nothing?
Are you saying that disabled people can't "carry bias against ethnic groups and women"?
Are there no racist, disabled white women?
What about ableist black or Asian women?
What about left-wing ableists?
Homophobic disabled people of any gender or ethnicity?
Let's not forget misandry is also sexism, so sexism isn't just demonstrated by men.

And ... a reminder that all people on Earth belong to an ethnic group.
Everyone is ethnic in one way or another.

You make prejudice sound like a causative effect: If someone is racist, they are automatically sexist and ableist, or guilty by association. That suggests they are likely white, and male, and able-bodied / NT.

Yes bigots tend to be bigoted in many areas, but that doesn't mean they can't belong to a vulnerable sector themselves.

Children, homeless people, addicts, domestic abuse survivors, mentally ill, people with invisible disabilities and brain injuries, people living in poverty, single parents, religious groups --- these all count as vulnerable people.

Yes there is intersectionality. That's my entire point. We are all intersectional in one way or another, regardless of our skin colour or our sex / gender - especially on WP. I wish the media focus was less on race / sex / American political pigeonholes, than on real human beings with real human stories.

!	Cornflake wrote:
	A reminder - accusing someone of holding certain political views never works out well, likewise accusations of trolling. Consequently some posts were removed. Please, no more attacks.

Thanks for unlocking it. I hope the conversation can be productive from here.

Eh, the media is merely being efficient, pigeonholes are far more understandable by the public in the 90 seconds the media gives to "full coverage".
Whether any of those pigeonholes are valid and if so, how valid, is a somewhat more than 90 second conversation.

Or, in other words, media coverage looks more and more fine-tuned for the 'tl;dr' crowd.

Yes, I have become a bit cynical toward media.
And even after having taken a semester of TV and radio broadcasting classes in college in the 1980s.
Hmm, maybe even especially after ...

Yes, that was my point too. The media focuses on what are the burning issues and what happened in 2016 was a wake up call to the media that they were out of touch with the American public. Since 2016 they keep a much closer eye to social media than before.

Not terribly surprising that race/sex/politics etc are still hot button issues that most men turn to when they aren't reading the sports pages and women turn to when they aren't reading the fashion/health/gossip/shopping section.

If they keep a closer eye, is that perspective reflected in political coverage, social media, and culture?

I'm not talking about human interest stories and virtue signalling on primetime news.
I'm talking about the awareness political media affords to other marginalised groups, and their political thought.

When is the last time you heard political media calling out or discussing ableism, misandry, and autism rights?
Do pollsters consider the voting patterns of trauma victims vs non-trauma victims?
Neurotypical people vs neurodiverse?
What about intersectionality like homeless transgendered immigrants with mental illness?

Last I checked, they only slice the pie two or three ways: race, gender, and whether the person is considered to be right wing or left wing (which is not a fixed trait, because it can change -- and many people are centrists or apolitical -- not to mention the fact that most people in society judge others' political wing based on assumption, without knowing them).

Nothing else ever seems to matter, even though there are many other interest groups.

Also I just wanted to point out that women don't read "fashion, health, gossip, and shopping".
That's rather sexist to say. ^ / jokes

Oh, pull the other one.
Everyone knows you are a fascist pinko transvestite pansexual nonsexual. <joke>

Binarism staggers the mind of objective people honouring the Truth.

Grandpappy skunk used to say:
"Life is simple...
For simple people..."

If people woke up to the media's machinations, the media wouldn't have the power it has in influencing impressionable minds.
May I suggest mandatory <sic> critical thinking courses?

My intersectional, vulnerable sector group would be:


Well-Educated Unemployed Developmentally and Physically Disabled Socially Avoidant Spiritual Liberal-Minded Apolitical Non-Winged Old-Fashioned AFAB Nonbinary Brainsexual Neurodiverse Egalitarian Mute Pacifist-Ethicist Single Parent Insomniac Caucasian British Canadian Homeowner DV Survivor and Human Rights Advocate .... with Mental Illness, ADHD, Acquired Brain Injuries, Panic Disorder, CPTSD, Dual-Citizenship, Limited Mobility, and Fixed Income.


Where can I register?

I'm not trying to make fun of intersectionality. Those are really my categories. Each one deserves recognition because each one has a significant impact in shaping my political views. My trauma shapes the way I think just as much as my skin colour or gender, if not more so. In fact, 1000% more so.

Last edited by IsabellaLinton on 21 Feb 2022, 2:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

My intersectionality is: Stinker.

There is a complex composite weighted measure that pulls people further down the social pecking order based on how many "isms" they intersect through.