I Will Not Defer
Identity deference is the same old prejudices repackaged as virtues.
I am a straight white male. I acknowledge that historically non-straight, non-male and non-white persons have been screwed over by some straight white males. But I didn’t do it. And the aforementioned screwing probably didn’t happen to you. We’re all good, you and me.
And just as I acknowledge that it was absolutely wrong for the straight white guys to force everyone else to defer to them based on their identity, I am equally adamant that is just as wrong when reversed.
I will defer to no-one. If you want me to accept your narrative then you will need to convince me based on the merits of your reasoning. You will not get to 'be right' just because your race, gender or sexuality dictate an inevitable victory. And to be honest, it is completely gross you would even want that. Unearned wins mean nothing. And when they are predicated solely on a power structure determined by historical circumstances, and not the content of your character and the strength of your ideas and ability to articulate them, it becomes precisely the insidious hierarchy of birthright privilege we should instead be working together to destroy in totality.
Too many people today want revenge. They form bloodthirsty mobs whose idea of justice is to do unto others that which was once done unto people 'like them’. This is not progress, this is a bad reboot with an updated cast of protagonists and antagonists reading the exact same script and calling it an improvement. This is a regression. This is a return to the foundational logical premises of every form of hatred, prejudice and bigotry throughout history.
And the cultural police state forming around this ideology of automatic deference is every bit as hideous and destructive as the police state that evolved from slave hunters and witch burners to the industrial prison complex and other institutions of the oligarchs modern class warfare.
Those are terrible things to try to remake in your image so stop. Just stop.
