This is what happens when we dont have basic rights like universal healthcare or stable jobs. And the “lesser evil” political party has nothing to offer besides vague phony optimism.
More and more people are being pushed to the fringe right due to the failures of capitalism.
We need better.
Part of the problem is that we haven’t really progressed towards equality. There are plenty of women workers, yes. Not sure if it’s ‘more’ than before, taking into account all types of paid work, nevermind all the unpaid work. But women are often still seen in the workplace primarily as women and will be pushed out quicker than you can blink as soon as a ‘women’s issue’ comes up.
Unfortunately, women are still expected to do ‘women’s’ work. If the are in paid employment, they rarely get time off for childcare, child illness, school pick up, maternity leave, the menopause, etc. It’s either cut down hours if the employer will allow it or leave work. If women rarely get that kind of time off, it’s worse for men who don’t want the women in their lives doing all the housework, etc. Men in a ‘nuclear family’ can try to ‘support’ their wives but the system will beat them back into submission as the patriarch. Due to gender pay gaps and the cost of living, the choice between who cuts down their hours or stays at home is a superficial choice.
Men still generally are treated as if they’re the breadwinner. But they have none of the opportunities and even the good ones who question the patriarchy will run face first into a brick wall unless they or their partner is already highly privileged.
GOOD post
Death to America
I pretty much agree with this sentiment. However its a stance that’s a fallacy. Deciding that the first problem isn’t solved yet isn’t a reason to completely dismiss other issues, as all that does is create a new problem generations later. My concern is people are too quick to shut down what others feel even if rationally its not a valid stance, rather than trying to educate or understand. It is true after all no one is 100% right 100% of the time. That includes you and me.
As for Mr death to america, I think you underestimate the importance of not treading over things that feel important to others. Just because you may not care doesn’t mean that it won’t matter to them. Basically I would say individuals like you are some of the forefronts of pushing people further and further apart, and I would implore you to reconsider this approach.
Hmm, I wasn’t responding to contradict what you said so much as to add to it. Maybe there is a partial disagreement. Let me unpack it.
To put it another way, men can’t be free until women are free and vice versa. I was trying to explain the problem that men face and recognising that its root lies in the very ways and structures that privilege men and through which women are oppressed.
Here’s one contradiction. It may seem like privilege to be paid more – until that gender pay gap becomes the reason why a man must become the breadwinner in a household that is single-income by necessity, e.g. where childcare costs more than one partner’s salary. In this situation, the man has an immediate and obvious interest in demanding a higher wage. If that comes at the expense of higher wages for women, however, the problem will simply compound for man and woman. (We need to think about abstract classes, here, unless we pretend that the example mother-father couple work at the same place.)
It’s only gendered friction if the participants are dead-set on upholding gender norms. Otherwise, gender is an antagonistic relation but it is one that can be undone by different genders working together. The antagonism can be switched from that between genders to that between classes (recognising that gender is class). (I’ve partially opened up the rhetoric, here, because I want to come away from a dichotomy of man/woman – i.e. adding in scope for more genders)
What this means for our alienated gamer-boy is complex (I’ll run with that as a stand-in for men attracted to the (alt-)right). I think we’re in agreement that telling him to F-off for being/becoming reactionary isn’t a viable solution. The expletive may be needed, don’t get me wrong, but it should be delivered constructively and it should come from close friends if possible so that it’s clear to the gamer that it comes from a place of love. Otherwise, it may push them further to the right.
The fuller solution – and I think this generally accords with your comment but it wasn’t clear from mine – is to find a way to reach alienated gamers to explain that all the things they’re complaining about are (a) terrible things to complain about (e.g. respecting women) and if they are suitable things to challenge (e.g. shallow tokenism), then (b) if they want things to improve they should recognise that it will not be possible through reaction.
Improvement can only come through anti-racist, anti-imperialist, feminist socialism. Luckily, that is also the solution for giving dignity back to the alienated gamer. There may even be a way, by addressing the way that studios do ‘woke’, to influence the ideas that will encourage the masses to demand revolution.
If men want to be free they better work to dismantle the patriarchy because it does not serve their interests. The work to free everyone from patriarchy cannot fall on the shoulders of women alone.
PS: A caveat— I’ve not discussed the point at which a gamer’s rejection of a game, etc, is simply it’s lack of boobs, nor the problem that someone describable as a gamer is already too far gone. I think most people can change but some cannot and will not. Different strategies will be needed for that demographic. And I’m not really talking about how to engage with randos on the internet.
Hey, you hit the nail on the head. I guess I was reading into the comment wrong lmao. Thanks for bothering to clarify your original reply :).