IMPORTANT: “Criticism” that starts with “All *…” or is obviously insulting, or defaming beyond verified facts is excluded.
You might be thinking “no shit, Sherlock”, but it is really common that legitimate criticism is dismissed as anti-* or *-phobic, or because of political or religious ideology.
I have what I believe is a fair criticism of online feminism, in that as a group they tend to exist in some sort of “victim complex oppression bubble”.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe women should have equal rights with men. I believe that we should not live in a world of oppression and fear and in as much as is possible we should all work together to accomplish that.
Disclaimer aside, my issue with this is that nothing is ever good enough. If you mention something that is good for men In an online forum, some feminist will come along and shit on it. If you mention something that is bad for their enemy of the moment, they will come along and say it is not bad enough.
The only thing that they cheer is when people that they hate suffer.
And when you take a step back and look at it as a whole, that starts to shine light on a portion of the conservative hate engine.
Since nothing that they ever do will be good enough for them to get positive attention and approval from the online feminism engine, then there’s no reason for them to try to get that approval and instead they will do mean things and say mean things and be hurtful people in order to get attention.
Don’t get me wrong. It is still definitely their fault for doing bad things and hurtful things and being shitty people in general, but it is not like feminism as a group is innocent.
When a group of people achieves power, and then refuses to acknowledge people outside of their group, and actively attacks and antagonizes people outside of their group, it is normal for people to retaliate.
To put it another way, a lot of the insane bullshit you’re seeing online is like yin and yang. They’re chasing after each other’s tails, they’re antagonizing each other, and their making life miserable for everyone not inside of their circles is a natural consequence of both sides inability to see the loop they are stuck in.
It is not a single person’s fault or responsibility. It is a natural consequence of groupthink.
If there is a real enemy, it is the people who, like me, took a step back and saw it, and realized that they could utilize this for political or financial gain.
So, this is my opinion, but: if you are hating people that you’ve never met,
or interpreting things that other people say in the worst possible light and responding with vile poison,
When other people thank you and upvote you for how good you were at saying the mean thing to the bad person,
then you are complicit in the system
You have become a cog of a machine of ideological hate
that is being monetized by news companies and advertisers
to sell you things
that you don’t need in order to be happy
And that not only will never make you happy, but will ensure that you and everyone you know and care about will be sad for the rest of your lives.
I disagree with generalizing. Usually the most controversial takes are the loudest and draw the most engagement. A lot of peoples intent is to deliberately ragebait. Also it depends on the country they live in. For example, I have huge respect for feminists in countries that may prosecute them with extreme and inhuman measures.
Edit: Thinking about this more, I have also made the observation that legitimate criticism against a woman is much more commonly met with severe, often undeserved backlash.