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It’s unfortunate and ironic that while the western world has become more liberal, it has grown more dogmatic and closed-minded. Terms like ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘Nazi’, and ‘fascist’ are being thrown around so liberally (pun slightly intended). It’s easy to laugh at this foolish pettiness, but it’s also dangerous, because when people casually ascribe such a strong label to something, they demean actual intolerant behaviour.
There’s become a lack of context and disproportionate complaining on the Internet. It’s one thing to discuss something serious (like a man being murdered by a police officer). Quite another to falsely accuse a children’s author of being ‘transphobic’ on behalf of a community who didn’t even ask you to speak on their behalf. Trans people do not need non-trans people to ‘leap to their defence’ at the slightest whiff of dialogue, in the same way that black people do not need white people to pride themselves on their virtue signalling white saviour do-gooder behaviour.
But I digress.
I adore Disney movies for a variety of reasons; the music, the humour, the childhood nostalgia, and the deep lessons about morality and good-heartedness.
See post: 12 Favourite Women in Disney Films
Pocahontas is an excellent movie, not just for all of these reasons, but because of its core message about acceptance, compassion, bravery, and open-mindedness. Yes, the real life story may not have been the same, but this is a children’s Disney movie, and the messages of the Disney movie are positive and inclusive. No Disney film accurately depicts truth. Hercules makes Zeus seem like an awesome dude. The Little Mermaid is based on a much sadder tale. In the original Cinderella she gets her toes cut off.
The western digital world seems to have severely declined in the messages expressed in Pocahontas over the last five years. Being angry, intolerant, offended, and slandering the other side for having a contradictory opinion on everything from pizza toppings and politics to the ending of a fucking TV series has become the new norm.
I know this, you know this, Tyler knows this, and people with much larger platforms and influence than I know this. What do you think when you hear the name Milo Yiannopoulos? I researched into him, curious to see if he was actually a white nationalist/alt-right/fascist. As usual, this was just more bullshit propaganda by a bunch of fools who love to take things out of context.
Do I agree with Mr Yiannopoulos’ socio-political stances? I do not. He is a free-market Trump supporting Bible-loving conservative. (He is also a gay Jew married to a black man.)
I am a social democratic-leaning secular Labour voter. But at least he is willing to rationally vocalise his thoughts and call for an open market of ideas and freedom of speech.
Why has it become impossible for people to listen to what is being said without projecting one’s bullshit petty prejudice onto it? When did people decide to stop listening to each other like reasonable adults and decide to start fighting?
This is the new cold war, ladles and jellyspoons. Instead of actually listening to what someone has to say, we slander them before they have opened their mouth. Instead of watching the film Pocahontas and realising that it is
CRITICISING THE INVASION AND GENOCIDE OF NATIVE AMERICANS BY WHITE ENGLISHMEN AND PROMOTING UNITY AND LOVE THROUGH DRAMATIZING THE STORY OF A REAL LIFE WOMAN WHO TRIED TO BRIDGE TOGETHER TWO OPPOSING SOCIETIES THROUGH LOVE AND EMPATHY,
people would rather slander it as ‘racist’ and ‘problematic.’ Let’s imagine, you want to make a movie about racist people, without actually having them say anything racist. You want to write a story about a homophobe who never uses the term ‘faggot’, or write a play about a misogynist who never uses crude and offensive language against women. Or you read a story about a psychopathic serial killer and then get angry when the character is depicted as a horrible person.
I mean, what the fuck were you expecting??? A movie that shows racist white colonisers having racist and xenophobic attitudes towards native Americans is…gee, I don’t know…
DOING WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.
The. Song. Savages. Is. Filled. With. Negative. And. Offensive. Imagery. In. Order. To. Highlight. And. UNDERMINE. The. Very. Disgusting. Attitudes. That. Were. Held. By. The. White. Colonizers. At. The. Time.
Anyone who thinks that the song is ‘glorifying racism’ or doesn’t get that it is CRITICISING these attitudes is a total moron.
And while the native people had every right to be angry (as do the Palestinians — wait, guess I’m anti-semitic now), we must also see that they viewed the white men as ‘savages’ as well. They were ready to slaughter them just as much as the white colonisers were. Again, it may have been justified, just as the anger carried throughout Black Lives Matter is evidently justified by the level of police brutality and historic injustice delivered to black Americans.
But anger doesn’t solve anything.
It takes a truly strong, courageous and compassionate person to be able to look someone in the eye and forgive them for their past sins. To work towards a world filled with unity, understanding, and mutual respect.
But you intolerant twats that see ‘offence’ before reason don’t want that, do you? You want shouting. You want hissy fits and controversy and burning things to the ground. Because you don’t want ‘real change’, you just want things to fight against.
See post: Why it’s so hard to discuss social issues nowadays
When has fighting and screaming ever solved anything? I’m reading Catch-22 at the moment, a novel satirising the insanity of war. We are trapped in a war now. I made a YouTube video two years ago discussing why I think ‘white privilege’ is bullshit. In light of all the Floyd and BLM protests I considered taking the video down. But fuck it; what’s the point? I may as well just be myself and say what I think, because honestly, better to speak your mind and have people slander you then say nothing and feel like you can’t be true to yourself.
Whatever you say and think nowadays, even if you decide NOT to voice an opinion or take a stance, someone is going to try and tear you down. Everyone is suddenly supposed to ‘be an activist.’ What happened to just being a good person? Being polite, open-hearted people. Can’t we disagree on some things like, you know, healthy human beings?
I can’t believe the level of arrogance, gaslighting, and entitlement some people think that they are allowed to bestow upon others simply for not agreeing with them. It amazes me. Are the sociopaths and narcissists winning? Are we all supposed to follow one agenda, one set of literature, one set of views, moving together to form a decidedly one-dimensional world where if you voice the tiniest weeniest little contradiction you wind up like poor Ms Rowling.
And honestly, I think it’s getting worse.
Unless people really take a good, hefty dose of logic, reason, and pragmatic diplomacy, eventually we will be heading for a world where people won’t just be ‘cancelled’ or ‘slandered’ for voicing an unpopular opinion, they will be murdered.
Think I’m exaggerating? Black Mirror were way ahead of me, haha.
#DeathToFreeSpeech #SoLongDemocracy #LetTheDogmatistsWin
