Greetings all,
Today I'm bringing you a bit of a "cheap" post. I hope you won't feel too cheated by my approach. I feel like I've been making some good analogies, arguments and observations in various places and I thought I'd collect them all here for your digestion. There may even be a hidden order in the way that I present them! I'll be more or less reproducing them in whole (while adding some applicable additional hyperlinks), while tracing back to the original post. Format for the arguments will be as follows:
Pompous Title; Originating Web Site
Enjoy!
1. Inevitability is a Logical Fallacy; In Mala Fide
Just because something is unlikely does not mean it is, strictly speaking, impossible. Inevitability is a useful concept to help people understand complicated phenomenon and accept extremely high probabilities, but it, like most other human concepts, doesn’t exist in nature. As we advance our knowledge of the world, our hard and fast conceptions – long thought to be impervious to cracking – are showing their age. Just take a look at what quantum mechanics [CYBERSPACE EDIT: and how long will it be until quantum mechanics is replaced by a new "absolute truth" system?] tells us – observing experiments fundamentally alters the outcome. What kind of “laws of nature” can we truly believe in as a result of this finding?
That being said, we cannot say “MRAs succeeding is an impossibility” merely because we perceive the odds of its success to asymptotically approach zero. Have we even proven the odds of success asymptotically approach zero, for instance? And by what metrics and what standards of evidence? Are there any biases present in those metrics and systems of evaluation? As we are now finding out, systems of idolatry centered around the "infallible" powers of mathematics are capable of spectacular catastrophe and spectacular success in relatively equal amounts (if not necessarily probabilities).
Believe what you want, but I would caution you – and everyone else – to not adopt a system of belief centered on too many absolutes. Adaptability has always been recognized as a key to survival – why not be adaptable in our thinking and believing, as well? [CYBERSPACE EDIT: This is not an advocacy of "anything goes." Just to be clear.]
2. Study Under Many Masters Until You Are The Master (of Yourself); The Spearhead
In response to this, I offer:
Unfortunately I don’t have the time to analyze for more strategies/tactics. I have plenty to offer already to those who have none, but no time to devote to acquiring more. Mine are finely honed as well and you could say I have yet to be defeated.
No harm in studying under several masters – synthesizing is an excellent skill to employ and true mastery comes from selecting/perfecting a technique that is perfect to your own sensibilities; not endlessly trying to mirror another’s.
3. The Man in the Burning House Analogy, or, Why Exiling Women May Be Poor Long-Range Thinking; tooting my own horn yet again on The Spearhead
In response to Connie Chastain, who said this:
I’m a woman and I’m an ally. I’m a boomer and I’ve been opposed to feminism since I first became aware of it in the late 1960s. I was opposed to it years before I ever knew of the MRM. If you don’t like the idea of allies who are women, maybe you’ll feel more comfortable thinking of antifeminist women as the enemy of your enemy…. In any case, I don’t foresee ever moderating my opposition to feminism.
Connie, I just wanted to be sure to pick this out and promote it. As I’ve outlined elsewhere, feminism is an idea, not a person or group of people. Anyone can be a feminist, regardless of biological sex, “race,” age, or any other discriminating factor you can think of. Therefore, we cannot expect to defeat feminism with ineffective tactics like blocking off all women.
I don’t think many here are ready to think about it or really hear this message, but feminism isn’t even, necessarily, the root cause. If humanity were a man, this is the situation that man finds himself in:
Someone has broken into his home, stolen his most valuable possession (a possession of incalculable value, primarily due to sentimental value), grievously wounded his family, lit his house on fire and left him bleeding out on the floor from a gut stab. Furthermore, that man has lost his phone and the nearest medical aid is several minutes away – rather significant in this sort of situation.
What problem do you tackle first? In what order do you undo the wrongs? What things do you allow to decay? You can’t sit around and think about this sort of thing forever – or the house will burn down, your family will die from their injuries, and you yourself will perish by bleeding out.
Feminism, in this analogy, is only one of the things we have to worry about.
4. The Root Cause; The Lady's Lair
The root factor in nearly all human difficulties seems to be tied to language facilities; specifically, language ideologies have had a major and largely unnoticed impact. Ever get the sense that you’re talking to a wall when you should be talking to another human being? That’s probably the work of a language ideology – either one that you hold, or one that the person you’re talking to holds. If you both have the same language ideology, then there’s no problem, and in fact, efficient ability to communicate is increased. Competing language ideologies, however, absolutely destroy the ability to communicate. One step to eliminate this is to agree to speak the same language – whatever form that language may take. If you can’t agree on the language, then there’s no point in talking!
Here are some communication fundamentals a lot of people don’t think about.
5. Equality That Makes Sense, Not Same; self-promoting on The Spearhead
In reply to this:
Women are equal, but they’re not the same. It’s a slight distinction, but a powerful one.
This is the kind of thinking that got us to our present situation. It is far better to simply state that men and women are not the same, or to add a caveat that women are perhaps of “equal worth” or worthy of “equal consideration.” Stating that they are simply equal to men implies that there are no significant differences, and, furthermore, through repeated use (see also language ideologies) erases important and meaningful differences from public consciousness.
Honorable mention goes to Stark, who probably said the above in a much more concise way: Worthy of treatment as equals – not equal treatment.
6. The Public Credentialing System (With/As An Assist From/To Anti-feminist Tech); more shameless self promotion from The Spearhead
Anti-feminist tech wrote:
Since we know that they didn’t receive an education, a new word is needed to describe the process of going to school, receiving a degree without gaining any real knowledge or education. I propose, credentialation.
Clearly, great minds think alike. I have been proposing the same exact idea – and even terms! – in my private life. I encourage everyone to consider this model for understanding the public education system (from hereafter, the public credentialing system) and apply it to your everyday life. The worst thing that could happen by adopting this new phrase ("the public credentialing system") is that people won’t know what you’re talking about – but that’s already happening anyway. The best thing that could happen is you open a new channel of communication and thus break new ground for reaching understanding with other people. Most likely, they will ask you to explain what you mean. If you go about explaining carefully and respectfully enough, you may even persuade them to adopt the term themselves!
Consider this another set of marching orders if you must; it is certainly a good idea.
7. Promoting Justice With/As An Assist To/From False Rape Society; piggybacking off of Zed at The Spearhead
I think we should reject legal institutions that tolerate even one innocent man going punished – even if that means ten guilty men walk free. Mustn't this be the case, brother?
8. I'll Believe In Spirituality The Same Way I Believe In Gravity; fighting illogic with logic in The Lady's Lair
Lady Snow disagrees with The Root Cause (see point 4):
I think the “root” goes deeper than that. I think at the root of all of this is a SPIRITUAL dysfunction.
Hey, if you can tell me about a way I can reliably and independently verify spiritual phenomenon much in the same way you can reliably and independently verify scientific phenomenon (need to know if gravity is still working? Grab something and then let it go. Did the object you were holding appear to accelerate towards the center of the earth? If so, congratulations – you just helped build evidence for the theory of gravity!), I’ll be happy to help you prove your theory.
Until then, however, I’ll remain skeptical.
9. Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss; inciting criticism and ruining my reputation at The Spearhead
Crella -
I feel bad for women like you, because you get it from both sides. You take flak from women for disagreeing with feminism and then you take flak from very angry men for merely being a woman. I'm hoping to change the perceptions and get things more balanced, but ultimately I am one man, and what I say may have very little impact.
One of the worst things that could happen is we end up replacing the language ideology which idolizes female superiority despite clear scientific evidence with one that idolizes male superiority despite good common sense (and perhaps some more of that clear scientific evidence). Another way of saying this is "meet the new boss; same as the old boss."
10. The Revolution Will Be Synthesized And All You Have to Do Is Divide By Zero; No Really, I'm Not Kidding (or am I?)
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