So, Genetically Modified Skeptic just did a video on why he never became alt right. And given the tone of his video, I decided to do my own post in this.
Long story short, I never became alt right, because, well, I'm not an idiot! I know this is gonna sound really condescending, but when I look at the factors he talks about and how they influenced my life, yeah, I just never got into that whole realm of politics, because it's always been really stupid.
GMS starts off talking about gender roles and how he was always considered effiminate, or "gay", or stuff like that and yeah...I experienced that too. I never got into "manliness." Again, because it's just so dumb. It's literal cave man brain stuff. Like, the whole "BE A MAN" thing never got to me. Because what is being a man, liking certain things like football, dressing in uncomfortable clothes that I don't like, and of course, the whole job and work thing. I mean, I always looked at work with dread, sure, young me kinda felt like it was essential, but after watching my dad in the work force and how he hated his job, and how he described it to me, I always dreaded "growing up" and having to be subjected to that stuff. No, I wanted my childhood to last as long as possible. Because all of this "masculinity" stuff just seemed to be leaning into a lot of these maturity type stereotypes, and I never..."got" that.
I mean, here's my big superpower. Being autistic, I'm the kind of person who doesn't "get" social conventions. If something doesnt make sense to me, I don't follow it. if anything, I question it, I ask "but why does it have to be this way?" And if I think it's stupid, I'll say it's stupid. But this makes me very "uncool." Like, I was always the kid who got made fun of. Because I was always non conforming. And I never was a "cool" kid. I wore "bobo" sneakers, ie, those $10 sneakers from payless that had no laces because being autistic, I couldn't tie my shoe worth a crap, and they wore those $100 Nikes and Reboks and crap like that. I wore sweats, because they were comfortable. They wore jeans, because they were "cool." And you know what? A lot of that masculinity stuff just plays into this weird "cool kids" ethos that I just never got, and as I got older I kinda got vindicated in that it's all a bunch of BS. I mean, I've always just wanted to do MY thing, not everyone else's thing. Sure, sometimes I would be into the cool stuff, but I generally avoided it. I was very uncool as a kid. And as such, I've kinda been immune to appeals to masculinity.
Second, let's discuss my christian worldview. yes, I had a lot of fundie elements in my worldview from my high school years and biblical christianity ended up defining my worldview in my teenage years, but my parents were pretty chill christians. I never got into the gender roles thing. Sure, my mom stayed home and raised me, and my dad worked, but honestly, i knew that men and women were basically equal, it seemed stupid for them NOT to be. I mean, I never got into actual sexist nonsense. I never really glorified the 1950s stepford wives culture. And...I guess I never took those specific bible passages stupid, because why would women be submissive? Idk it just didnt make sense.
Still, at the same time, I did hate "feminism" growing up. By feminism, I meant the very loud variation that carries signs and gets outraged over stuff. I kind of believed society had mostly made the changes needed for egalitarianism before I was born and that no real further changes were needed, and that most feminists were actually women supremacists who bought into weird grievance politics. So...I guess on issues of race and gender relations, I'm kinda the same now as I was then to some extent. Yes, I support liberal ideas of egalitarianism, but I tend to dislike the weird grievance politics of the left. So...liberal, but not anti woke, but also not really traditionalist either. It was just like, whatever.
GMS mentions that he never had the problems that many people who fall into the alt right pipeline have. Like having trouble with women, and of course, struggling to get a job. Things fell into place for him. Well, they didn't for me, but still, did I become an incel or alt right over it? No. Because, again, I'm not a fricking idiot!
On women...let's face it, I don't even like most women in a romantic level. Sure, I feel sexual attraction, but I never "got" dating. Like dating for the sake of dating. Again, it just seems to be this weird "cool kids" thing that teens and adults get into. I used to get mocked at like 13 because when asked if I was given the choice between screwing a girl and playing video games, I chose the video games. Note, this wasn't a real dilemma, it was a hypothetical, but yeah. I just...wasn't THAT interested in women. The fact is, in our culture, women are raised to like different things than men. And given my hobbies are literally more important than stupid relationships, it's like, yeah, unless the girl can fit into my life in a meaningful way where we share common interests, don't bother.
I did eventually get into women as I got older though, and it was nothing but troubles. First, I had online relationships as a teenager because no one in school interested me. Those didn't work, for obvious reasons, and broke my heart. Then I ended up finding someone in real life who I felt like I had common interests with...and...they blew me off for an online boyfriend. And...not gonna lie, I did hate them for it for a while. I didn't hate all women. Like, the incel requirement is to hate all women because of rejection. No, I just held a grudge against this one person for doing something I found incredibly dumb. I mean, I learned that crap didn't work in high school, and I kinda held her to a standard of...uh duh, of course you choose the real life person. But they didn't. In all fairness, I'm just as bad as them in this regard, but yeah...again. Why hate ALL women because of this? I don't get it. it's dumb. It's so, fricking, dumb.
And the job thing? Okay, so I couldnt get a job when I got out of college. A lot of the cool kid idiots will think that that means they're a failure as a person. After all, "being a man" means being a provider, having a job, and attracting a mate with one's high earning potential. But the economy isn't serving men like it did in the past. A lot of men don't even go to college these days, and the ones who do, yeah, we still struggle to find work. Gotta get a job to get experience, but you need experience to get a job. Honestly, I just became resentful at the economy over that and developed my own political ideology out of it. No big deal, but that's the thing, I blame the SYSTEM for that. I don't blame women, or become alt right, or become maga where i think the modern iteration of the fricking smoot hawley tariff act is a good idea (hello, this week in economics...). Ya know? Again, if anything, as I got older I grew out of conservatism, I found the entire ideology to be a scam. And honestly, the stupid masculinity crap goes into that. As we know from the free time book I read a few months ago, a lot of that crap was just a weird ethos developed to make working aged men spend more time working, because spending time with women made them "girly" and they cant stand their wives because hey, guess what, society pressured them into dating for its own sake and sex without thinking about it much and suddenly they're locked into this life of being stuck with them and then they have kids, and then they nag the everloving crap out of them, and they just wanna be left alone and do their own thing but cant because marriage is for life and blah blah blah. And holy #### our societal norms are super unhealthy and irrational. Kinda glad I dodged the life script bullet there.
But again, why would I buy into the alt right here? The alt right kinda contributes to those problems since they believe in traditionalist crap and traditionalism is behind a lot of those norms being so commonplace in the first place.
Now, into SJWs. GMS, much like darkmatter2525 and a few other liberal commentators i follow from the skeptic community, start fluffing up SJWs, like, idk, I dont get the hate, they seem like they just support good causes and why should I support them?
And...as I got older, sure, I did kinda realize there are some inequalities that exist and that society isnt ABSOLUTELY PERFECT in that regard, but at the same time, I dont believe changing things in radical ways is beneficial to society. It just seems like a way to create a lot of resentment over perceived and sometimes very real unfairness that would arise from those policies, and honestly, those guys ARE annoying AF. Like, even if I dont buy into the alt right, I've kinda come to HATE the social justice left too. It isnt that they dont sometimes have a point, it's that their attitude sucks and I find them annoying.
Like, to go off of the dating issues I mentioned above, you'd always get self righteous rant about how no one is ENTITLED to attention and blah blah blah. And...I guess, sure, they're technically right...but...the fact that we're having these people like LECTURE us about it, it's like they're kicking us when we're down and regardless of the correct social standards of liberty, who is entitled to what, it kinda sucks to be rejected. And people are gonna take it badly. It hurts. But thats kinda the thing, a lot of these social justice movements kinda change the entire social standards of everything, confusing everyone, and often inconveniencing the men with these changes. Like we're just supposed to adapt for the women, and the women dont owe us anything and blah blah blah.
Again, I'm not saying women owe men anything, or the girl i mentioned above owes me anything. They dont. I am libertarian and I believe in freedom. BUT....LECTURING men about this comes off as obnoxious and inflammatory. And then if you lash out at all, they accuse you of being an "incel" even when you're not. And I guess I can understand why feminism can drive some to pro men tribalism to counter the obnoxious pro woman tribalism of radical feminism, but at the end of the day...I just look at this and think both sides bad.
And then you got stuff like elevatorgate, gamergate, the 2016 election. Elevatorgate. Guy asked a girl out for coffee at 3 AM in an elevator at an atheist convention. Guy probably meant well, women goes off the deep end going on about how uncomfortable it was and how men need to change around her comfort levels. Okay, if I can put up with soul crushing rejection in the name of womens' freedom as I pointed out above, you can put up with some uncomfortable moments as men ask you out. I mean, what are we supposed to do? Not? Again, maybe its me being autistic, but "I dont get it." like, these rules make dating, which is already a minefield, and turn it into more of a minefield, so yeah. It's problematic. Like, it's fine to be uncomfortable, you're entitled to your feelings. Just as im entitled to mine (although according to them apparently I'm not?). But no, they want everyone to change around them.
Gamergate. I hate delving into that whole issue, but yeah...while I will admit that the gamers showed some sexism and toxicity, anita sarkeesian should've just stayed out of it, and the feminists should've like...NOT brigaded our communities and tipped off internet world war 3. Like, sure, gaming is a rather male dominated fandom. And I get it, being a girl can be rough since...let's face it, it's a sausage fest out there. But...again, wanting the world to change around them and their feels. It pisses people off. Dont ask US to change, mind your own business. Again, that's the worst thing SJWs seem to do. They dont mind their own business, and they demand the world change around them and their feelings (while completely disregarding ours).
The 2016 election. I mean, up to this point, I've been pretty cordial to them. Sure, I didnt like the way skepchick tried to demand the world change around her, or anita sarkeesian getting involved with gaming culture and demanding us to change, and i hate the lecturey self righteous tone of "you're not entitled to affection", even if I actually agree with the sentiment in practice, but again, it's just cultural bullcrap. Again, instead of engaging, I just decided to do my own thing, build up my own ideology. And by 2016, I wanted Bernie Sanders. But then I was called a bernie bro, and told I was racist and sexist, and that i needed to check my privilege, and OMG T3H BLACK VOTE! And all of this stupid crap that was seeming to diminish my perspective, make me come off as a bigoted moron, and ugh, yeah. It's like these guys really wanna piss people off. And that's why I hate SJWs. Because, even if you try not to engage with them and their BS, eventually they'll just become SO ANNOYING and SO IN YOUR FACE you kinda snap and have to go back after them. They bring it on themselves. And while quite frankly I'm a better person than going down the literal alt right rabbit hole, yeah, I dont like the other side of that coin either. SJWs have this same weird "cool kids" energy, I don't do the social conformity thing, and after they decided to pick fights with me over and over over the years, eventually I stopped being cordial with them and became more openly hostile. Some might attack me for THAT, claiming that they're good people, and maybe some of them are, but OMG WILL THEY STOP ALREADY?! Like, really, they get in everyone's face, they piss people off, demand the entire world change around them, and yeah, eventually you gotta push back against them, for better or for worse, because if you let them, theyll ruin everything. They're bullies, and if autistic me has learned anything over the years, it's how to fricking stand up for myself and not take crap from the "cool kids" and their cliquey hugboxey nonsense.
So yeah. I never got into the alt right, because the alt right is dumb and based in traditional values and this weird concept of conforming to what is "cool", even if it is, quite frankly, irrational. However, I also am anti woke because, well, despite whatever well meaning causes they sometimes have, they end up getting in my face, pissing me off, and as a result, eventually I snapped and had to push back. Maybe a lesser person who actually bought into the hyper masculine cool kids club and all there stupid ideas of "what a man should be" gets sucked into the alt right. However...I don't. I'm just me, like me or not, take it or leave it, and I'm not gonna apologize for being me to anyone. And quite frankly, i find all this gender dynamics crap to be a bunch of toxic crap i wish would just die out already. Seriously, theres more to life than this stupid culture war BS.
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