HERE is one (of many) lengthy rants about social justice problems in gaming. Intersectional politics rearing it's ugly head? Check. White shame? Check. Male guilt? Check. Heterosexism fault? Check.
I looked at her blog upon recommendation by a game designer and developer for whom I happen to think quite positively. Now I know that he is a believer in SJ, and one of his missions in the gaming community is to promote SJ. He is also a cool game designer and project developer. I can (and do) differ with him on the former and appreciate him on the later. I can like him as a designer and still think he is just flat wrong filtering his worldview through intersectionalism which I think is philosophically garbage.
But nonetheless, I looked at this blog and I see that she has lots of issues for which she blames white, heterosexual males. She had an abusive boyfriend... she had an abusive father... she had drug addiction problems... she has emotional problems. I don't fault her for the first two, can understand though not excuse the third, and also understand the last to be a genuine human condition that we all wrestle with, some more than others, and have myself suffered from, studied, and learned how to deal with when it occurs. Somehow, though, because the individuals who were abusive to her were white, male, and heterosexual, white male heterosexuals are as a group bear the blame for her problems...
...hmm...
So because I was bullied by bigger kids when I was little, or had conniving white girls make an elaborate entrapment scenario to get me into a seduction by a gay white boy in high school, or had my teeth punched out when I was mugged by a black male a few years later then... all taller, heavier, and stronger people, white, black, strait, gay, males and females on the planet are guilty of causing my problems in life? Or wait, do the girls get a pass for being white because they are girls? Does "girl" carry more or less weight than "white"? Does "boy" carry more or less weight than "gay"? Or did he get two points off for being "white" and "boy" and only one point up for being "gay" leaving him at a net -1 in intersectional value? Did "black" and "male" cancel each other out for a zero sum, but me as the recipient being "white" and "male" for a net -1 justify his assault, making him the real victim of the mugging? Or do some values have a higher intersectional score? Does "gay" get +2, whereas "female" gets only +1 because it is "cisgender"? Does "black" get +2 and brown only get +1? Bobby Jindal is darker than Barack Obama and has two parents who are Indian, while Obama is half black and half white... who knows how that one works out.
...WOW!... I'm going to be pretty lonely on this planet trying to figure out who I should write off on my grievance list...
The sad thing is, I am not sure that I could offer what I actually think is a more critical analysis of the problem, because, "mansplaining". It does not matter the content of my ideas, only the color of my skin and my sex. Is it even possible for her to understand that her problem is not white, heterosexual males, but rather individual human beings who are sinful? Has it ever occurred to her that she herself is sinful, and has done violence to herself by her own choices? Would it blow her mind if I said that ALL OF US... every breathing human on the planet... is guilty of a whole lot? Just maybe... the answer is not blaming people for their sex or skin color but rather blaming the quality of their ideas, the content of their character, and the fruit of their actions?
She is right to note that when she as a woman has been bullied at game conventions explicitly for being a woman, it is everyone's obligation to not let it pass. But it is also every bit as right to call her a bully when she blames "white" "male" "heterosexuals" for her problems.
UPDATE:
HERE and HERE are examples of why I think the game designer of the introduction is a cool guy, and while I'm sure it would take a great deal of conversation to persuade him of it, he lays out a case for respecting human persons regardless... being civil to persons with whom you disagree is pretty much color blind and gender neutral and predicated more on their humanness than their intersectional quotient. So once again, I defy any adherence to intersectionalism and stand on my Christian values about intrinsic value of persons while being very critical about adjudicating the value of ideas and behaviors.
The further discussion on his G+ page is over 150 entries long, and includes many hard core intersectional activists. There are complaints that someone on the comment chain that provoked the whole discussion are making people have panic attacks just reading them.
This is exactly the kind of rotten fruit that comes from intersectionalism. People with legitimate anxiety problems, or who do not start with them but are taught that the world is out to get them and that they are victims under serious assault whenever someone disagrees with them, are being continuously coddled and not taught how to deal with the problem, but rather how to exacerbate their anxieties by continuing to practice an intersectional worldview.
A little secret about the internet... words are cheap. Another one... without face to face contact, people get in the habit of magnifying their bad attitudes and behaviors (like people who give in to road rage). Everyone has a megaphone and many people use it. Yet another one... saying something does not make it so, even if it is a death threat from who knows where! (see the first secret). The biggest secret of all about the internet... YOU control your own access to it, and you can decide how to respond. If you have anxiety attacks from social media posts, your biggest problem is not the social media post, or the poster, or the social media... I can sympathize with the anxiety but I cannot excuse it continuing when you don't look for help. Real help - not some intersectional coffee klatch in a "safe space" echo chamber. I recommend something far older and more practical, like coffee with grandma, where you listen when she tells you that "sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you"... unless you choose to be hurt.
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