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I shall open with a joke I just thought up while playing sudoku: If you program a digital snake, but can't get it to work properly, do you suffer from e-reptile dysfunction?
In a similarly stupid vein, I've been thinking about the concepts of "cultural appropriation", which is, honestly, one of the dumbest ideas yet to seriously cross peoples' mouths. One cannot appropriate another culture. It would require taking a culture en masse and forcing the original culture to change to something else so you could have it to yourself. Not only is there nothing wrong with enjoying the beauty of other cultures, and not only is culture itself a constantly shifting organic process of taking this thing or that thing from other people, but by resounding majority have every other cultural people (outside of the US) been all for others showing interest or enjoyment of said culture. Some semi-famous woman on twitter just the other day got torn a new one because she was sad that a yearly Jamaican festival would not occur this year, and put up a Jamaican flag to show good will. She got torn apart on twitter for cultural appropriation, yet every Jamaican asked what they thought about it not only thought it perfectly fine, but indeed love any time people show appreciation for their country and culture. I've heard similar responses from numerous others whenever some new cultural "appropriation" occurs. The question is, if the people you're getting offended on behalf of aren't even remotely offended, then why are you? It begs the question as to why bother, and aren't you making the matter worse and more divisive?
The irony of this line of PC thinking is that it comes at the exact same time as the whole idea that, somehow, gender and sex are not only completely different (thousands of years of history and years of scientific proof be damned), but are completely up to the current feeling of the individual. You can claim to be trans, and regardless of any and all proof to the contrary, you must not only be tolerated, not only be lauded, but all language and reality must be altered to fit your new designation. But claim to be another culture, age, or skin tone, and watch the shit hit the fan. Culture is absolutely a mishmash of our own construction, and is very much open to shifting and altering over time, yet people are more than ever adamant as if it were somehow an unquestioned factual thing that cannot be changed or even mimicked. Compare that to the absolute denunciation of any adherence to that which is encoded in every single cell of our bodies, and you can see just how farcical and logically at-odds it all is.
I sometimes think that it would be most amusing to tell people that I am a trans-black/asian/mexican-12 year old-female, or something very like it. If even genetics plays no part in one aspect of a person, then there is literally no argument you could make with any validity that any of the other parts are any more unchangeable or concrete. As someone once said, calling a dog's tail a leg does not make it so, and does not mean it suddenly has five legs. The main worry I have is that sooner or later, it is very likely that people will start to say with all sincerity that which I now say as a ridiculous joke and thought exercise. Much as rap became so horrid in the lyrics that one can no longer take it to an extreme and have anyone realize it as a joke, because they've said the same things in all seriousness in the very lyrics. It's not really possible to parody such music anymore due to that, and I can easily see something similar befalling our society.
In a similarly stupid vein, I've been thinking about the concepts of "cultural appropriation", which is, honestly, one of the dumbest ideas yet to seriously cross peoples' mouths. One cannot appropriate another culture. It would require taking a culture en masse and forcing the original culture to change to something else so you could have it to yourself. Not only is there nothing wrong with enjoying the beauty of other cultures, and not only is culture itself a constantly shifting organic process of taking this thing or that thing from other people, but by resounding majority have every other cultural people (outside of the US) been all for others showing interest or enjoyment of said culture. Some semi-famous woman on twitter just the other day got torn a new one because she was sad that a yearly Jamaican festival would not occur this year, and put up a Jamaican flag to show good will. She got torn apart on twitter for cultural appropriation, yet every Jamaican asked what they thought about it not only thought it perfectly fine, but indeed love any time people show appreciation for their country and culture. I've heard similar responses from numerous others whenever some new cultural "appropriation" occurs. The question is, if the people you're getting offended on behalf of aren't even remotely offended, then why are you? It begs the question as to why bother, and aren't you making the matter worse and more divisive?
The irony of this line of PC thinking is that it comes at the exact same time as the whole idea that, somehow, gender and sex are not only completely different (thousands of years of history and years of scientific proof be damned), but are completely up to the current feeling of the individual. You can claim to be trans, and regardless of any and all proof to the contrary, you must not only be tolerated, not only be lauded, but all language and reality must be altered to fit your new designation. But claim to be another culture, age, or skin tone, and watch the shit hit the fan. Culture is absolutely a mishmash of our own construction, and is very much open to shifting and altering over time, yet people are more than ever adamant as if it were somehow an unquestioned factual thing that cannot be changed or even mimicked. Compare that to the absolute denunciation of any adherence to that which is encoded in every single cell of our bodies, and you can see just how farcical and logically at-odds it all is.
I sometimes think that it would be most amusing to tell people that I am a trans-black/asian/mexican-12 year old-female, or something very like it. If even genetics plays no part in one aspect of a person, then there is literally no argument you could make with any validity that any of the other parts are any more unchangeable or concrete. As someone once said, calling a dog's tail a leg does not make it so, and does not mean it suddenly has five legs. The main worry I have is that sooner or later, it is very likely that people will start to say with all sincerity that which I now say as a ridiculous joke and thought exercise. Much as rap became so horrid in the lyrics that one can no longer take it to an extreme and have anyone realize it as a joke, because they've said the same things in all seriousness in the very lyrics. It's not really possible to parody such music anymore due to that, and I can easily see something similar befalling our society.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 10:32 am (UTC)From: