My greatest objection is that the medical, court and prison systems offer you NO alternative other than AA. In fact, it is always a condition for parole or suspended sentences for criminal activity that involved chemical deliriants. What was that about the separation of powers again? The government funnelling people into a religious organisation. They can dress it up and pretend they welcome atheists, but there is no denying that the very foundation of ALL the AA style movements is religious. There is no science; there is no therapy; there is no qualified counselling. It is 100% faith and belief based.

The question is, will he practice what he said or is this just more preaching?

It’s the second misapplication of the concept of privilege that troubles me most. I’m talking about the situation where the concept of privilege is used to try to silence others, as a justification for saying, “shut up and listen.” Shut up, because you’re a man and you cannot possibly know what it’s like to experience x, y, and z, and anything you say is bound to be mistaken in some way, but, of course, you’re too blinded by your privilege even to realize that.

This approach doesn’t work. It certainly doesn’t work for me. It’s the approach that the dogmatist who wants to silence critics has always taken because it beats having to engage someone in a reasoned argument. It’s the approach that’s been taken by many religions. It’s the approach taken by ideologies such as Marxism. You pull your dogma off the shelf, take out the relevant category or classification, fit it snugly over the person you want to categorize, dismiss, and silence and … poof, you’re done. End of discussion. You’re a heretic spreading the lies of Satan, and anything you say is wrong. You’re a member of the bourgeoisie, defending your ownership of the means of production, and everything you say is just a lie to justify your power. You’re a man; you have nothing to contribute to a discussion of how to achieve equality for women.

Maybe there’s some hope for CFI after all. The Watsonists must be shitting themselves over this!

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/my_talk_at_wis2/

Any subculture will have at it’s fringes aspects that are unpalatable. Nothing anyone can do about it. Take atheist homeopaths – unlike atheist “misogynists” (which by implication openly hate and wish subordinate women), there is plenty of evidence for the former, none for the latter, yet no organised outrage about it. When you boil away the typhos these whiners are just opportunistic parasites – they know that a) their accusations will get attention, and b) they know there is an implicit state of fear that chills any discussion that questions the accusations… See Kafkatrapping and the Watson loop – asking for evidence of supposedly rampant misogyny is in itself evidence of misogyny. QED.

As for rap… Is it really a good example here? A medium where many exponents promote crime as a career choice and gentlemen settling disputes with gunfire? Misogyny is the least of their problems – it’s just the dressing for the salad.

Of course, they shouldn’t generalize – like they did with Lupe Fiasco, one of the few rappers that sometimes do enjoyable and thoughtful songs. “Bitch Bad” got flak from (who else?) the usual PC crowd because of perceived “slut shaming” – which you have to really twist the lyrics to hint to it.

I keep trying to point out to those in the A/S communities that have been blindsided by all of the Watsonista bullshit that -

a) nothing about any of it is new, and

b) this is not a problem that will ever be resolved.

This victim politic play has always been here – from early xtians concocting elaborate martyr exaggerations to the crazy inflation from wiccan fembots of witches burned by the Inquisition (how 30 million could have been killed when the entire population of Europe was less than 100 million is one of the most outrageous clangers ever) right up to now with Becky’s concocted threats that she never reports to either police or ISPs.

The date rape (and snuff film, finishing a post on that, with Dworkinnon heavily involved) crisis that bogged down gender relations from mid-80s to 90s and ruined countless lives is an exact parallel of the kind of idiotic groupthink being pushed now. It abated for about a decade and started up again around 5 years ago. This shit is cyclical – it will never go away. All that ever happens is that the volume varies.

You will have noticed that currently it is infesting other communities as well – Anita Sarkeesian is busy poisoning the wells of the gaming community, while Adria Richards was far more ambitious and attacked the geek community as a whole with “Donglegate”. But if you pay attention, it is also occurring to a greater or lesser extent pretty much anywhere you like. Like the industrial music scene, of all things, from late last year -

http://coilhouse.net/2012/11/on-misogyny-in-industrial-music/

It’s 1994 all over again, the broken record has skipped back to track one. And it will keep doing so ad nauseam, ad infinitum.

http://www.salon.com/2000/09/20/dworkin/