PERLOJ @perloj - Tumblr Blog

ok. the boobs-and-a-beard thing.

seriously, what percent of the population actually has this aesthetic? i mean, did y’all have a formative experience at a sideshow looking at the Bearded Lady or what? (and no, i’m not talking about PCOS or menopause beards. we all know what i’m talking about.)

#gender #rants

left-field storytime

here’s a little anecdote from last October, at my first training day for a call-centre job i’ve been doing from home while the Library is closed. i’ve been thinking about it recently, so here it is…

we were going around the room and introducing ourselves: name and rank, you know the drill. but it was clear from how the first person (one of the bosses) introduced herself that PREFERRED PRONOUNS were meant to be part of the introduction.

by the time they got to me, we were about halfway done and everyone had tacked on obvious pronouns, many of them reluctantly or as an afterthought. (there were no trans people in the room, and apparently no “they”s, either.) i didn’t do it, of course. i never do. it’s one of my hills. after i went, staring defiantly during the awkward space where my pronouns should have been, i noticed there were a couple others who didn’t do it. one of them was the only male in the room, and a little bit older than me — but i think there was another female who skipped it.

did i give them permission? i like to think so. i remember thinking, before they got to me, that surely someone wouldn’t do it. i mean, this wasn’t a room full of whippersnappers: i’m guessing the median age was mine — or maybe 5 years younger than me. (i’m in my late 40s.) but they all did. so, it became even more important for me not to. it was one of those awkward yet inspiring moments. one does what one can.

#pronouns in bio #sjw #passive resisistance #gender #anti woke

rule number eleven

i saw something on Facebook last night which set me off. it said “your belief that all humans should be treated with equal respect…” which belief is that? not one i possess. belief in the essential dignity of human life is a religious belief akin to that in a pre-existing soul. i am burdened with neither.

the only thing i inherently have respect for is the commons — what Anton LaVey called “open territory.”

when walking in open territory, bother no one…

i call it “the commons” as a way to broaden the concept and to make it my own. i have respect for the commons because it is in my interest to do so. it’s the basic social contract upon which law and order are based: respect for the commons — and, by extension, respect for the boundaries between the commons and what i suppose we should call “closed territory.” when i am moving through the world, i am looking for the smoothest ride possible. mutual respect for the commons makes for the smoothest ride. respect for the commons has zero to do with any individual’s dignity, or how much respect i have for any individual. it is completely pragmatic.

my varying levels of respect for individuals, which are based on more factors than i can list — and my lack of respect for identity groups, which are little more than concepts and therefore incapable of earning respect, have nothing to do with how i treat people in “open territory,” either as a private citizen or in my job as a public servant. my respect for the commons trumps everything.

i don’t need to profess respect for all people equally — that is, i don’t need to tell a religious lie — in order to be a responsible citizen or a good public servant. all i need is respect for the commons. it’s all you need, too.

ADDENDUM:

if someone is violating the commons, it doesn’t matter why.

…if someone bothers you, ask him to stop. if he does not stop, destroy him.

you don’t destroy him more if he’s bothering you because he’s a racist. and you don’t destroy him less because he has a noble grievance to air. there’s no hierarchy of motivations for bothering. if he’s bothering you, and he hasn’t stopped when asked, he’s violating the commons, full stop. the only thing which matters is how badly he is doing so.

#satanism #the eleven satanic rules of the earth #ethics #sjw

you wanna play the “language constructs reality” game?

ok, let’s play.

using the phrase “white supremacy” instead of “white supremacism,” which enshrines the idea that white people are actually essentially superior rather than referring to the fact that some people believe this is so — and referring to people as “bodies,” which is inherently dehumanizing, is not how you win this game. just saying. the reification is so thick i can’t see through it.

if “language constructs reality,” then poetry is out. satire is out. hyperbole is out. you forfeit the privilege of speaking metaphorically, as the stakes are too high. sorry, you only get to be literal.

#sjw #logic #linguistic determinism #racism #postmodernism #language

love is born from comfort, familiarity, trust repaid, the reflection of yourself in someone else’s eyes. it’s a kiss on the head, the soft snore which is always the same, the stupid pun you laugh at every time. it’s sympathy far beyond your normal limits because he is you and you are him.

#romantic love #old people in love #relationships

EXISTENTIALIST PRIDE

if existence precedes essence, then no one can be “born this way,” not in the full sense of what that means. yes, i recognise that there are genetic predispositions for any number of psychological disorders, neuro-divergences, or personality types. (where being queer falls among these is of no import to me; i leave it to you all to quibble over it, since that seems to be a hobby of yours.) this is the part the body plays in the creation of the mind. but predisposition is far from the whole story. these things develop, as preferences and aesthetics develop, as the mind develops, over time and through existing in the world, with other minds and bodies. nature vs nurture is nothing more than body vs mind. and it is a false dilemma. the fallacy of a single cause, to be precise.

what does it mean to be existentialist and queer, at a time when “orientation” has taken over “preference,” when essentialist arguments for social justice are the norm? if existence precedes essence, if no one is “born this way,” what is the proper argument for equality under the law? can we get to a principle of mutual respect which doesn’t rely on proving or disproving whatever essentialist claims biology seems to be backing up at the moment?

#existentialism #lgbt #classical liberalism #essentialism #identity politics

that virtuous little PC bubble you’re living in, without any context of even the recent past, is dangerous. it’ll be so fucking easy to drag your asses back to the Dark Ages, you won’t even know what hit you.

i was napping just now. i had a dream, and it kicked my ass. there was a variety/talent show, just an amateur thing amongst friends/acquaintances. some of them were proper performers, though, or had been in the past. there was a musical comedy sketch about a “female impersonator” and his female assistant/gofer/producer/advisor. the fellow performing had some serious pipes. he could sing. very talented. the sketch was funny, too, lovingly lampooning an old-school kind of vaudeville drag. near the end, some younger members of the tiny audience started booing him off the stage, getting themselves worked up into a snit about “white feminism” (the assistant was Jewish; the performer was black) and “appropriation” (i don’t even know what that means anymore), even calling him names (“Uncle Tom” wasn’t among them, but it might as well have been). i stood up, grabbed the microphone, and shouted at them: “DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT DRAG IS? THIS IS AN ART FORM WHICH EMERGED FROM DARKEST NECESSITY. THIS IS A ROSE WHICH GREW FROM CONCRETE. YOU KNOW NOTHING. YOU HAVE NO CONTEXT FOR YOUR IDIOT BLATHERING.” it was definitely one of my rage dreams. i woke up breathing heavily, still very angry.

it comes to me now that this dream is a snapshot of the near future, when mainstream social justice has become so divorced from any context or history that it is purely destructive of both art and culture. they say they are terrified of living in The Handmaid’s Tale, but they’re moving closer and closer to the kind of dystopian naiveté which will leave them ripe for the very thing they fear. purity is deadly: it lacks a buffer; it lacks inoculation.

this was drag, but it could have been anything, any kind of performance. any kind of art. the list of cultural artefacts which have become offensive to the mainstream is only growing longer. this dream was a warning. (i feel like a Satanic prophet. LOL.)

#dreams #prophecy #sjw #art #dystopia

i cannot.

i cannot drink without choking. i cannot walk without tripping or turn without tipping.

i cannot do birthdays or holidays. i cannot look people in the eye or use my voice to tell them how i feel.

i cannot walk across a crowded room unless i know everyone or no one. i cannot feel and do at the same time.

#poetry #anxiety #autism

some (unsolicited) advice for pro-choice activists : it’s about liberty, full stop.

we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into a “moral” (that is to say, a culturally aesthetic) — and useless — debate about when life begins. obviously, life begins at conception. a zygote is most definitely alive. but zygotes, embryos, and fetuses are not people. and, most crucially, they are not citizens. they can be terminated, culled, therapeutically extracted, even euthanized, if you like — but they cannot be murdered. please keep this front and center in your mind.

a sound pro-choice argument should never go down the “when life begins” road. it should stay firmly on constitutional ground. you have the tried-and-true (but not bulletproof) appeals to the Fourteenth, of course. i have also read compelling arguments for an appeal to the Fourth, as well.

we’d be so much further along in promoting our fundamental claim — that the bodily autonomy of all citizens is something that the Constitution defends, either explicitly or implicitly — if we hadn’t gotten bogged down in the weeds of embryonic/fetal personhood.

i feel like we went down (and are still going down) this same road with homosexuality and transgenderism. i won’t argue that many cultural gains haven’t been made by making the specious argument that people are born queer or trans, that they “just can’t help it.” but it is extremely sketchy ground to stand on, and the sturdiest legal victories in this arena have come from constitutional arguments for equal protection — not because more people think it’s okay to be different. the winds of public opinion about such social issues can blow in any direction, including right back in your face.

let people cry about abortion and pray for fetuses, the way they cried about homosexuality, the way they still pray for the transgendered. don’t try to argue with them about the morality of it. you’re not going to change their minds about that.

consenting adults engaging in homosexual relations, medically altering their bodies to appear more masculine or more feminine, or terminating pregnancies have something crucial in common: the Constitution protects them from unreasonable interference by the state. however you decide to argue it, do not lose sight of that fact.

#abortion #pro-choice #equal protection #liberty #pragmatism #politics #advice

you’re uncomfortable because your privilege is threatened.

INCORRECT. I’M UNCOMFORTABLE BECAUSE I’M ALLERGIC TO BULLSHIT.

#white privilege #sjw #identity politics #rants

RADICAL CENTRISM: WHEN YOU’RE HERE TO PISS EVERYBODY OFF

#radical centrism #centrism #politics #aphorisms

FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT YOU CATCH MORE FLIES WITH HONEY

BUT IF THAT DOESN’T WORK, AND YOU NEED TO BE A BITCH, BE A SOLID, SMART, CONSISTENT BITCH WHO KEEPS HER COOL

#pragmatism #politics #advice

THE HYPERBOLE IS MASSIVE AND HYSTERICALLY ENTERTAINING

…and also disturbing, but we’ll leave that aside for now.

#identity politics #sjw #politics #trump derangement syndrome #rants