Shermer tries to fix feminism again
Shermer’s on a roll with the feminism thing. He’s not saying anything you could call new, but…well by golly he’s saying it. He’s got a theme. His theme is that the degenerated feminists of today are whiny weaklings compared to their awesome get-it-done predecessors many decades ago. I still say it’s suspiciously convenient to admire feminists who were active more than a century ago while pouring scorn on the ones who are around now to make nuisances of themselves. I’m pretty sure there were plenty of men more than a century ago who didn’t find their contemporary feminists quite so inspiring.
Be that as it may – it’s familiar stuff, and it’s clueless. It’s Ben Carson – pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. Stop complaining and just try harder. That’s how to feminist the right way.
Instead of complaining "the patriarchy is holding me back" say "fuck the patriarchy I'm going to do what I want." Millions of women have.
— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) December 6, 2016
Libertarianism in a nutshell. Don’t focus on anything but your own personal success. Don’t talk about the institutions and ways of thinking that hold back a whole class of people, just Do What You Want. Don’t be slowed down or exhausted by obstacles, just forge ahead like a superhuman. Don’t object to sexist hiring practices, just try ten times as hard as Normal People have to. Don’t let those unwanted pregnancies get you down, just drop the kid and then give it to…er…someone else, and get back to work, until the next one.
Above all don’t give a shit about anyone but you, ever. If you can make it, it doesn’t matter that millions of others can’t. Pay no attention when they point out all the obstacles in their way, because that’s just complaining. Never talk about patriarchal rules and expectations that limit women’s opportunities no matter how hard individual women try to ignore them. That would be political, that would involve solidarity, and we can’t have that, can we.
Ah, the New Skepticism!
Don’t complain about psychics scamming people of their money; just do what you want with yours.
Don’t complain about public schools promoting religion in violation of the law; just ignore it and plow through.
Don’t complain about people spreading lies about global warming; just … actually, just don’t do anything about it at all.
The good libertarian feminist, apparently, never wants to demand anything that Michael Shermer doesn’t need. He doesn’t have to worry about child care, abortion access, not being paid as much as a white man, being on the wrong end of a rape event – so proper libertarian feminism is silent on all that.
Well, it worked for Hilary. Oh, wait.
I think what he’s saying is women should treat patriarchy like he treats consent.
Silentbob, you made me snort out loud.
Yeah, women in systemically underpaid jobs can just say “fuck it, I’m going to get paid more for cleaning toilets and no one is going to make shitty sexist comments to e any more”. That should work out fine.
PZ did a pretty good shredding of Shermer, too.
I had a subscription to Skeptic magazine a while back, and they send me occasional “hey, why don’t you re-up” notices. It is so nice to know I needn’t even bother to consider that possibility.
Diawl (Welsh for ‘the devil’), what a contemptible and banal little person Shermer is.
Just because someone is free from religion doesn’t mean that they aren’t entranced with OTHER bogus notions that can be just as pernicious.
‘Atheist,’ as a term, does still include Randroids—including partially recovered ones like Shermer—Red Diaper Stalin worshipers, Freudians and evo-psych sexists, and a whole raft of other tin-foil hat loonies.
Huxley (Aldous) called these ‘idolatrous pseudo-religions.’ The term is a bit wordy, but worth reviving.
@#9 – Yes, I was reading a book a while back that turned out to have been written by a Communist atheist, and he took the argument from Christians that “atheists just become atheists so they can break commandments and sin and do immoral things” and he agreed. His answer was so what? I was a bit blown away. I became an atheist because I saw no support for the religious worldview, and thought it did more harm than good. I would not have objected if he said “some of us did” but he implied that this is a major factor in converting all of us to atheism…
I don’t personally care what other people do with their sex life, or whether they drink or whatever, but I do object to having them impute their motives for leaving religion to me, and assume that is why I left religion. In fact, I know a lot of Christians who do all those things anyway, so what would be the point of becoming an atheist? You can be a hedonist all you want, as long as you ask forgiveness.
I think atheism is being overrun with libertarian hedonists who hate women and people of color, and I am pissed about it. I spent my whole life trying to find someplace where I felt comfortable, and just when I found it, the laissez faire, as long as you’re a man, atheists snatched it away.