Imagine we have a member of a historically oppressed group. In this hypothetical situation, let's say he is the only green smurf in the smurf village full of blue smurfs. Not only that, but he's also heretically one-twelfth snork. And let's call him Diggy because he likes to dig, that's his thing. Because most smurfs have a thing, Diggy is no different.
In snork societies, green snorks aren't that rare. But in smurf culture, green smurfs are almost unheard of.
Typical smurf villages try to keep their population to about 100 smurfs at any given time. This number can fluctuate in some seasons, but that's the target.
What happens when their population is getting away from their target? Let's just ignore that situation right now. It's just a target. Don't worry about that.
Historically, smurfs are hostile to snorks in general. In more modern times, this has been corrected. But due to this historical oppression, snorks are hardly ever part of smurf villages.
So, that's the background of this village and our friend Diggy. Now, let's learn some intersectional theory![1]
Impostor Syndrome
Diggy had some early misgivings about his role in the village. There were times he felt out of place. The other smurfs assured him he was welcome, but he always had a nagging feeling like he didn't belong.
None of the other smurfs were overtly negative to Diggy. This is because the historical context was largely unknown to most smurfs. Only Papa Smurf was fully aware of the past transgressions. And even then, it was just based on what he read.
Brainy Smurf was a little informed about historical snork oppression. So he appointed himself to look out for Diggy. Diggy was well aware that he was different. Not just because of his heritage but because he was a completely different color, which was not unrelated.
Occasionally, other smurfs did make Diggy feel uncomfortable. Most of the time, it was completely unintentional. They did indeed ask him dumb questions just because he was different like, "Are you better at dancing?" or, "Are you afraid of the sea?" Sometimes they'd stare at him and make funny faces at him, but mostly they would be kind.
Brainy called this behavior "micro-aggressions" and chastized the smurfs who engaged in this behavior, but only when it was directed at Diggy. To Brainy, singling out Diggy was systematic oppression, based on the history he read about past bigotry against snorks.
Most smurfs didn't know or care about Diggy's snork background. Diggy himself didn't talk about it unless somesmurf asked. He wasn't afraid to talk about it. And most smurfs didn't know what a snork even looked like. They probably just thought all snorks were green, which wasn't even the case.
Brainy also thought the fact that most smurfs didn't care about Diggy's snork history was itself another kind of micro-aggression. He thought Diggy's snork perspective was being actively destroyed.
Brainy told Diggy that he was an ally, but Diggy didn't know what the big deal was.
On the other hand, Diggy and Farmer Smurf had become very close friends. While they looked somewhat different from one another, nonetheless, they'd been friends because they both had an affinity for cultivation. They had an actual bond based on common interests.
Farmer Smurf was, himself, different from most other blue smurfs. After all, he wore a straw hat and overalls. Diggy often wondered why he didn't conform to the usual smurf attire.
So Diggy asked Farmer Smurf about it and it turns out that he used to wear the same outfit as most other smurfs. But one day, he realized it just didn't make any sense. He needed a hat with a brim for those hot days out on the field. And he got those white pants dirty and torn, too. Why not just wear earth tones since that's what color his pants would become anyway? The overalls just made sense.
It also turns out that Farmer Smurf got made fun of for his differences too. But Farmer Smurf didn't pay any attention. To him, that's just part of being in a village. Smurfs like to blow off steam by picking on each other, sometimes.
Actually, Farmer Smurf took it as a badge of honor. When he'd work the fields with the other smurfs, they'd complain about how the sun was in their eyes. He knew they envied him because they'd often say so, one-on-one.
In fact, smurfs who worked the fields with Farmer Smurf would sometimes tell him they felt like impostors out on the field.
It turns out that many smurfs experience impostor syndrome for one reason or another. But it wasn't because they looked different. Most smurfs were indistinguishable at first glance. Impostor syndrome is just a normal type of insecurity for some smurfs who were out of their element.
When Farmer Smurf described this idea of impostor syndrome, Diggy realized his own natural insecurities were the root cause of his discomfort. He wasn't being singled out just for being green. And as a result, he dealt with it just like every other smurf who suffered from impostor syndrome from time to time.
Equality of Outcome
Before Diggy's arrival, most holes were dug by whoever happened to have a shovel. Often, Handy was up for the task as well as Hefty. Clumsy would usually try to take on the task, too.
The village needed holes for various reasons. Mostly the dam project, but also wells and various other random projects.
And once Diggy joined the detail, Brainy made it his goal to ensure that Diggy's labor was properly managed. It was Brainy's idea that for every 100 holes dug, Diggy must be allowed to dig one hole.
To Brainy, it's only fair. There are 100 smurfs, and Diggy is 1 out of 100. Therefore, he should only be doing 1 out of every 100 holes.
The thing is, not everysmurf dug holes that regularly. It was mostly the four of them: Handy, Hefty, Clumsy, and Diggy. So Brainy's idea that Diggy needs to dig one out of every 100 holes didn't actually match up with the true distribution of smurfs interested in digging.
Why was Brainy so focused on Diggy? Why didn't Brainy apply the same logic to the other three diggers? Probably because Brainy was trying to be a "blue knight" or something. Brainy was trying to leverage Diggy's differences to show off.
Brainy even pointed out how all the other smurfs weren't taking his color into account.
While the true distribution was closer to 25 holes each, assuming certain availability, Diggy would even go back and fix things the others might have screwed up, mostly when Clumsy broke his shovel on a rock.
But because of the true distribution, Brainy decided that Diggy was just digging too many holes. Brainy was interfering based on his ignorant expectation of outcome, not based on the opportunity.
This was because Brainy was unaware of the makeup of the true labor force. Brainy was under the false impression that everyone in the village would dig holes, when in reality, only about four of them felt best suited for the job.
But Brainy wouldn't be dissuaded. Brainy thought Diggy was a hole-hog! He actually called him that! Brainy thought that other smurfs were upset with Diggy for hogging all the hole-digging jobs.
Of course, Papa Smurf had to step in and point out how most other smurfs didn't dig holes and that Brainy's mistake was that he failed to see the correct numbers.
Once Brainy's mistake was discovered, they did what they usually do and threw Brainy out of the village:
Dunning-Kruger Effect
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.[2] But there's also a flip-side to this effect in which people with high ability at a task underestimate their ability. This flipped version might be the true origin of impostor syndrome.
Brainy Smurf is the eponym of the usual Dunning-Kruger Effect. He thinks he's so smart but he overestimates his true ability.
Please don't confuse a caricature with a strawman. It's easy to assume that Brainy is just a strawman, here. He makes a dumb argument, just for the narrative, then gets taken down. That's what strawman-arguments really are. The point here is not to focus on Brainy, as such, but to focus on how easy it is to misrepresent the true issue. He's a caricature of being swept up in a narrative.
Other smurfs in the village might not know all of the facts and they might think what Brainy generally says is reasonable. So without investigating, they go along with Brainy for a little while.
Brainy also has an agenda. His goal is to show how smart he is. To gain political capital, so to speak. You can still assume his motives are pure. He wants to help the village by showing his intellectual ability. To a lot of smurfs, he has initial credibility from his confidence, so they go along with it.
Also, remember that many smurfs experience impostor syndrome. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Brainy plays on this insecurity to his advantage.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.[3]
The problem was, Brainy was trying to inject bigotry where there was none. There was normal impostor syndrome at play. Not all smurfs experience impostor syndrome. Furthermore, Diggy's discomfort here was not a manifestation of bigotry.
You can dismiss all this as a silly cartoon. My goal is not to reduce everything in the world to smurf culture. My goal is only to describe an alternative origin of what is being sold today as intersectionality.