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zebra2  ·  2318 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: In the Maze

    There's a reason straight, liberal white men have no patience with all the campus activism, "Emma Sulkowicz’s Mattress Performance," and the general recasting of the straight white male as the default enemy of progress, happiness and general freedom of thought. At best, we're required to accept that we're the root problem of all the world's evils, if not by choice than by culture, by breeding, by genetics, by history and by circumstance. At worst, if we're not with you we're against you.

This is one thing that's been on my mind a lot. I actually wonder if this is one of the key ingredients that has aided the uprising of the alt-right and the popular resurgence of nationalism.

The article does a great job at typecasting the white straight male specimen and probing the inner workings of his psyche. It's hard to not read that have your eyes roll. It's also hard to understand how this could be not-obvious to someone who's typing it out. It's profiling and it breeds resentment. Then, potentially, resentment breeds bigotry.

When I was in undergrad there was a big, controversial, racially-charged event on campus. I had some white left-leaning friends that quickly learned that you can't attempt an intellectual line of discussion that deviates from the campus-progressive view without getting absolutely shit on.

If you're already liberal it's a confusing and alienating experience. If you're not then it affirms and hardens any sort or rejection of progressiveness you may hold.

Right now I frequently listen to college radio that regularly has social progress PSAs and one of the implicit messages is that white straight male voices aren't important.