I won't lie, I hesitated writing this, but lately it's becoming harder and harder to be completely quiet about the whole thing. I would say, without a hint of doubt in my voice, that I'm an ally of freedom, and thus anything that promotes it is good in my book, but we seem to be confusing the term quite a lot lately.
I mean this sincerely. Should not all of us enjoy the same rights under a fair constitution? Are we all not citizens of the nation?
It seems to me that if anyone is asking for a group of people to cease to exist they are in the wrong. That's not pro freedom, that's quite the opposite, and I want to to start making this very clear before I continue with my stupid rant.
A group of people, a community, can dictate how the world talks. The very idea that we can regulate in any way pronouns is so ridiculous, I thought it to be a joke many years ago when it began being discussed.
How could you, and I ask sincerely, make the government use violence to protect such a thing? Let's be real about this, how would such "system" be implemented?
There was at some point in time this idea that misgendering someone could be grounds for hate crimes. I could not believe I was reading such "brilliant" idea.
And again, I'm not saying it's OK to call someone who identifies as a man, a woman, or the other way around, I'm talking about the scope of the issue.
It seems at times that those who are quite firm on their stance, struggle to see the picture clearly. So here's a little detour to illustrate, if you will, the scope of things, the volume of problem we are dealing with, and the reactions that we decide to take.
An actual video I saw days ago:
A man walks up to a woman on the street holding a cellphone to interview said woman. This is happening at a feminist rally, so he's sure to get some good content for his channel.
The man asks a woman what should happen to men who rape women, to predators. Without skipping a beat she says: Death, they should be put to death for something like that, no doubt.
The man clarifies: No jailtime, just death? - She... doubles down.
He proceeds to make a second question: What about women who lie about being raped?
She thinks for a second... a fine... yeah, they should pay a fine.
In the worse scenario, a man would have been killed by the government, and woman, who is guilty of said murder, has to pay a traffic ticket (hyperbole, I know).
With this fresh in your mind, come back with me to our subject at hand...
Is a path we need to take very, very carefully. This is not to say government should not intervene, ever, but to simply state, and I hope clearly, that we have to think of how the system can be used (because it will) by evil people.
Hence why the idea of controlling speech is plain stupid. Precisely why the first amendment is a thing. I'm not to saying I'm a second amendment absolutist, but the exceptions are few and far in between in my book.
To argue about some of the things we don't find fair or even convincing, without it being considered a hate crime.
Recently the trans-woman in sports debate is back to scorching temperatures, and even though, again, I'm on the side of people presenting themselves as they wish, being who they want to be, I don't think women's voices are being heard here enough.
In Canada recently a power-lifter proved through a ridiculous stunt how the system, as it stands today, is not fair to women, and he got a lot of hate for what I believe was an important message to society.
If it stopped only at the misgendering thing, I think I would not have been motivated to even write about this, but there's more going on. Now we've began talking about gestating person, menstruating person, and all sorts of odd terms that some people may not feel comfortable using.
This is precisely the point. I for one, will never use gestating person to refer to women in my life, just to be inclusive. And if someone is not OK with me not using inclusive language, the problem is not me. My choice is not violent, it's not out of hate, it's just my choice.
These hills the left has been planting flags on lately are very difficult to understand to me. I say this, knowing full well that I may one day discover to have been very wrong about it all.
I may be getting old, but it's hard to understand the world these days...
MenO
