Culture Warriors category archive
Twits on Twitter 0
Would it be appropriate to refer to someone who sends bigoted “tweets” as a “twigot”?
Dude-Bros, Reprise 0
One of the most powerful weapons of rape culture for centuries has been indoctrinating victims, particularly women, to believe that, if they are abused, it’s somehow their fault, rather than the fault of the abusers. As our society has gotten more open about sex and sexual behavior (and, some would say, cruder), that may be changing. According the San Jose Mercury-News, women in tech have become more willing to expose the misconduct of tech dude-bros. Here’s a bit from a much longer article:
Sixty percent of those women report experiencing sexual harassment, according to “Elephant in the Valley,” a 2015 survey by venture capitalist Trae Vassallo and others of more than 200 female tech executives, founders and investors.
“It’s reached epidemic proportions in Silicon Valley, and there’s so much more that needs to be done,” said San Francisco-based angel investor Karen Bairley Kruger, who founded Wingpact to support female entrepreneurs and investors.
Dialectic 0
Thomas Chatterton Williams reflects on the opioid* epidemic and the contradiction embraced by supporters of Donald Trump. A snippet:
Follow the link to find out his reasoning.
___________
*When Not White people do it, it’s called “illegal drugs.”
Opposition to Birth Control Is All about Woman Control 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Marty Klein muses on why the right wing and “Christian” culture warriors oppose birth control. He offers several reasons. Here’s an excrept, including the reasons; follow the link for his discussion of each (emphasis added):
(snip)
Most Americans of every faith pick and choose which parts of their religion they follow at various times in life (the First Amendment guarantees the right of such convenient selectivity). So there are reasons besides “sin” that so many religiously-oriented people oppose birth control—particularly for other people; here are some of those reasons:
- Contraception makes it clear that people have sex for pleasure and intimacy
- Contraception effectively limits family size, empowering women
- Contraception reduces a key unwanted consequence of sex, promoting (women’s–ed.) autonomy
- Contraception may make abortion more acceptable
“One Nation, under God” 0
In The Guardian, Daniel José Camacho explores the intertwining of Christianity, racism, and right-wing politics in the United States. A snippet:
During the annual meeting, they initially declined to pass a resolution doing just that. Chaos ensued at the denomination’s annual meeting and a firestorm of criticism quickly followed. Delegates eventually passed a modified version of the resolution – originally drafted by one of its black pastors – but the damage had been done.
It would be a mistake to interpret this fiasco simply as a misstep. The Southern Baptist Convention’s reluctance to condemn racism is not only true to its history but it reflects how white supremacy is built into the very DNA of American Christianity.
Follow the link to see why he said that.
Groups Think 0
Afshan Jafar, professor of sociology at Connecticut College, discusses how stereotypes reinforce stigma and bigotry. He’s discussing contemporary stereotypes of Muslims, but he could as easily be discussing any other group target for bigots to take the blame.
Here’s a bit; follow the link for the rest.
As a professor of sociology at Connecticut College, this is a lesson I teach my students early, by asking them to finish the sentence: “Muslim women are … ?” which they do readily and predictably (by using words such as “oppressed,” “silenced,” “passive,” “subjugated” and sometimes by using what they consider to be positive words such as “beautiful” or “strong”). I then ask them to imagine instead that the question is “Christian women are … ?” The second question makes no sense, they say. How, they ask, could we speak for all Christian women or make a universal remark about them?
American Taliban 0
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tony Norman marvels at evangelical “Christians” (Michael in Norfolk calls then “Christofacists”) support for Donald Trump. A snippet:
In the universe that I come from, Christians would rather have been fed to the lions than to have been allied with a vulgarian like Donald Trump. In this simulated universe, the American faction of Christianity appears to worship a Jesus that has contempt for the poor, hates refugees and embraces militarism. Here, Jesus blesses wealth and power and those who seek it relentlessly.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Blame the victim.
(snip)
The group (Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR–ed.) released a statement Saturday demanding an investigation into the Thursday incident. They say a female Muslim student, a 15-year-old sophomore, was harassed by a male student and called a terrorist. An altercation between the students ensued and the security guard intervened, along with the school resource officer, a police officer assigned to the school.
“The security guard focused completely on her,” Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of CAIR, said Monday. “He proceeded to grab her.”
The story goes on to say that the guard ripped the girl’s hijab off her head, then was taken to the police station. No action was taken against the fine upstanding young man who started it.
Via The Root.
Have Cake, Eat It Too 0
Southernbeale dissects the hypocrisy of right-wing Christians. You know them: they are the ones who claim they are oppressed because they are unable to impose their will on others. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Of course not. But they have been witness to the secularization of American society, something they have been powerless to stop. This is the real “oppression” they decry, and yet there’s a very good reason they can’t stop it: they are part of it. They want the benefits of secularism but not the costs. They want to attend football games on Sunday but don’t want their influence on American society to wane. They want to participate in secular culture while holding themselves above it.
(See the Mississippi story that she refers to. It is vile.)








