Friday, May 18, 2012

Quote of the Day

So says John Scalzi, after his post entitled "Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is":

"I should note that I’m planning to Mallet anyone who decides to start a debate on the word 'privilege' in this thread. I’ve already established that straight white dudes often cannot deal with the term rationally; there’s no need for a) any of them to prove it, b) anyone else to reiterate the fact." (emphasis added)
People on Internet can talk about privilege in rather clumsy ways, for sure. Even progressives.


However, I've often found that nothing shuts down a conversation with a person of privilege, or of relative privilege, faster than an "accusation," or what I like to refer to as an observation, that the person of privilege possesses privilege. Well, unless you're accusing the person of privilege of also being sexist, racist, homophobic, and/or otherwise bigoted, that is.

A prime way that privilege is preserved, after all, is to become Gravely Offended, Contemptuous, and Mocking of the notion that it exists. When threatened with the loss of one's hierarchical position, it is not unexpected that one would react in a frightened, irrational, and emotional state, rather than with reasoned discourse.


Which of course, makes it ironic that it's feminists, women, LGBT people, people of color, and persons lacking in privilege or relative privilege in any given conversation who are regularly accused of Not Being Able To Talk Rationally About The Matter At Hand.




Anyway.


Since this post is tangentially talking about games, don't you hate it when your damn dog-walker plays your Dragon Age 2 game and accidentally erases your progress right when you have sweet armor, awesome weapons, and are just about to finish the game and run off with your pirate lover?


Fail.


Onward, to Mass Effect 3.

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