I get this is something marginalized folks must live with on a daily basis and none of this is surprising, but I’m a white cishet guy and this stuff is eye opening and (further) radicalizing to me.

The entire social response to Kirk getting merc’d is literally the can-excuse-1 can-excuse-2 meme. Down to bone.

White, cishet, male-dominated society (and the mainstream media that extends from it) has decided that, okay, maybe Kirk said some very pointed or occasionally untoward comments. But really, can any of those words compare to being willing to debate in the Marketplace of Ideas? Ok, maybe he was a bit racist. Maybe he didn’t care for trans folks. Sure, that’s all a bit rude. But he was willing to discuss his ideas and be civil about it (ok, maybe not civil, but he didn’t kill anyone over it), and in the end that’s all that really matters, right?

Politicians, the media, and a good chunk of society is basically saying how marginalized people may feel about all this is entirely irrelevant. Any sort of speech that is racist, sexist, or bigoted is excusable so long as the subject serves the broader neoliberal, white supremacist, settler project.

Marg bar Amrika.

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Ahh you mean because fascists haven’t actually shut up but because a huge number of people now talk about violence as a political action for good compared to previously there is essentially a net increase in speech rather than decrease?

    An interesting take. Particularly as the free speech advocates are trying their hardest to prevent the broadening of this speech through the banning of anyone who speaks freely about their thoughts on this online.

    I quite like this framing.