AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is one of those articles written when many facts were unavailable to me. When it was written the only information I had regarding Lauren Southern and Augustus Invictus was that they were alt-right, which AT THE TIME was not as ill-reputed as they are today. It was also written at a time when I was dangerously close to Centrism, veering on Right Wing ideology. I make no excuses for it, nor do I make any apologies.
As I was browsing my Twitter feed this morning, I had the displeasure to witness the disgusting double standards that feminists have regarding women. Lauren Southern, a commentator for The Rebel, a part of Rebel Media, was assaulted yesterday by various women. Her crime? Insisting that there were only two genders. Assaulted how? Some woman poured an entire bottle of urine on her. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to explain why this matters.
As I was browsing my Twitter feed this morning, I had the displeasure to witness the disgusting double standards that feminists have regarding women. Lauren Southern, a commentator for The Rebel, a part of Rebel Media, was assaulted yesterday by various women. Her crime? Insisting that there were only two genders. Assaulted how? Some woman poured an entire bottle of urine on her. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to explain why this matters.
Here's the thing: people live different lives, and because of that, they develop different perspectives on life. Some people grow up thinking the world is out to get them, while others grow up thinking the world owes them Filet Mignon every time they are forced to swallow Salisbury steak. This leads to the question of "gender". All throughout our lives we are taught that there are two genders: male and female. And the grand majority of us live our lives in a way that supports this idea: we only ever see male and female humans. But some people grow up differently: they grow up with gender dysphoria, meaning that they do not identify themselves as their biological gender, but rather, by the other gender.
(Addendum December 5, 2017: Having had the chance to speak to folk who consider themselves non-binary, I have come to question the notion of gender being a binary that's strictly male or female. Although gender fluidity still sounds strange to me, I've no doubt that there might be some truth to it. Still, I must ask that people be patient with me; it is not easy to discard ideas that you've taken to be set in stone all your life, but I AM trying.)
(Addendum December 5, 2017: Having had the chance to speak to folk who consider themselves non-binary, I have come to question the notion of gender being a binary that's strictly male or female. Although gender fluidity still sounds strange to me, I've no doubt that there might be some truth to it. Still, I must ask that people be patient with me; it is not easy to discard ideas that you've taken to be set in stone all your life, but I AM trying.)
This brings us to Lauren Southern and the feminists she encountered, Southern was reporting on a feminist gathering in Vancouver, who were protesting a man named Augustus Invictus. Yes, that is a real name, and he is a real person. He's a Libertarian from the US. Anyway, his positions and political beliefs have been protested by the Antifa movement, or Anti-Fascists for those not in the know. Because his positions and iconography usage inspires so many passionate emotions, he was barred from entering Canada.
(Addendum December 5, 2017: Invictus uses Nazi iconography. This alone should ring many red alarms for people. He is also a Holocaust denier. The latter information was NOT AVAILABLE at the time of writing.)
(Addendum December 5, 2017: Invictus uses Nazi iconography. This alone should ring many red alarms for people. He is also a Holocaust denier. The latter information was NOT AVAILABLE at the time of writing.)
As Southern was interviewing the feminists, one started talking about gender binarism (the idea that there are only two genders) and Southern, ever the provocateur, started talking about how she identified as an Apache attack helicopter, in an attempt to "troll" these feminists. Here's something you won't hear about unless you see the video of the incident in question, however: the feminist being interviewed explicitly states that Lauren Southern "has probably never been raped."
I once read a quote regarding women and feminism, and I'd like to share it with you: "there's a special place in Hell for women who don't help women." Madelaine Albright, first US female Secretary of State, said that. The quote has been used to guilt trip non-feminist women into becoming feminists. This is a quote I'd often see in the Progressivist/ Left Wing Facebook groups I belonged to, groups that, in hindsight, proved to be toxic to the movements in question. My question, however, is this: is there a special place in hell for women who trivialize a woman's history just because of a difference of opinion? I sure hope there is.
Because Lauren Southern didn't agree with the idea that there could be more than two genders, she was sprayed with a bottle of urine. Let me repeat that: because she disagreed with an OPINION, she was assaulted with bodily waste, a bio-hazard. No, you know what? Let me rephrase that in a different way: a WOMAN was assaulted by a FEMINIST with a BIO-HAZARD over a difference of opinion.
Growing up, I was taught over and over again that feminism was about helping women, empowering them and helping them get ahead, to prove (not become, to PROVE) that men and women were equal. Even today I get told that repeatedly. And yet, here we are: feminists using feminism to assault a woman because she was not falling in line with their ideals.
When I googled the incident, I was given a total of three results: one reddit thread, Twitter, and one blog post talking about the incident. Granted, it's only been 8 hours, and I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing a lot more on this incident on sites like Breitbart, The Rebel, and others. But I'll tell you which sites I will NOT be hearing a peep from: Jezebel, The Mary Sue, and a few others. How do I know? Because there's a special place in hell for non-feminist women. At least that's what both those sites have told me, hundreds of times.
A major problem comes when we put ideologies on a high pedestal, IE, fanaticism. There are people in this world from all walks of life for whom certain ideas become so integral to them, that to disagree with these ideas is seen as a frontal attack against their persons. The most common way we see this phenomenon occur is with religious fanaticism: Christians blowing abortion clinics, Muslims beheading atheists, the list goes on. But fanaticism is not limited to just religion; ANY idea can lend itself to fanaticism if taken seriously enough.
If the year 2015 was the year the Social Justice movement began to falter, 2016 is the year that feminists make feminism look like a joke. From the feminists that smeared their faces in period blood as a protest against Milo Yiannopolous, to The Mary Sue publishing a joke article written by a man pretending to be a woman because it talked about mysogyny in a video game, to the Twitter Trust and Safety Council, feminism is being given a bad name by the people who call themselves feminists. But while the previous three instances made feminism look foolish, THIS incident made feminism look fanatical and dangerous.
The problem with the feminists that attacked Southern is that they are fanatics, and as such they are beyond reasoning with, beyond compromising. These people, like ALL fanatics, will accept nothing less than what their religiously held ideologies tell them, and like any fanatic, they will see the world in a shade of black and white, with themselves as the white. These fanatical feminists will accept nothing less than total acceptance of and submission to their ideals and identity; even if you're all for equality for men and women, unless you call yourself a feminist, you're literally less than trash to them.
This sort of attitude goes against democracy, liberty, and civility. Any group, no matter what its size, that is willing to ASSAULT someone over a disagreement of opinion is a danger to democracy. These feminists have demonstrated that they have no business living in a free, democratic society that allows EVERYONE a chance to speak and share their ideas. See, you can't DEMAND something if you aren't willing to GIVE IT.
Edit February 2, 2017: An exception, of course, can be made for groups of people who have not only demonstrated themselves to be beyond reasoning with, but who also actively call for the destruction of you and yours. Go ahead and be violent against those people.
The moment those feminists implied that Lauren Southern's stance on the issue of gender was null because she was never raped was the moment those ladies lost ALL right to call themselves "defenders of women's rights." And the moment they sprayed her with urine was the moment they lost their right to free speech, because free speech doesn't include the right to assault someone over a disagreement. In the end, though, I think the most important thing to remember is that no ideology is beyond critique: every ideology will have its detractors. Remember though, you have the right to say whatever you want, but if you're unwilling to let others have that same right, you don't deserve to have it either.
Author's Notes December 5, 2017: One thing I want to say to the smug feminists reading this. You are not guiltless. Lauren Southern is trash, yes, because she's alt-right, and as of August 2017, alt-right is just newspeak for Nazi. But if there's one thing that I stand against, and one of the reasons I joined GamerGate back in the day, is that many so-called "Leftists" made their "Leftism" inaccessible and unatractive to the common folk. They turned the women's fight for equality into a Pity Party of "oooh I'm so oppressed by these Twatter Trolls!" and the fight for social justice into the Oppression Olympics. This attitude is precisely why the alt-right managed to gain a foothold onto gaming culture. Ideologies based on social justice and equality must NEVER disconnect themselves from the common folk to the point they become hostile and inaccessible; rather, they must always be simple, accessible, and inviting.
A major problem comes when we put ideologies on a high pedestal, IE, fanaticism. There are people in this world from all walks of life for whom certain ideas become so integral to them, that to disagree with these ideas is seen as a frontal attack against their persons. The most common way we see this phenomenon occur is with religious fanaticism: Christians blowing abortion clinics, Muslims beheading atheists, the list goes on. But fanaticism is not limited to just religion; ANY idea can lend itself to fanaticism if taken seriously enough.
If the year 2015 was the year the Social Justice movement began to falter, 2016 is the year that feminists make feminism look like a joke. From the feminists that smeared their faces in period blood as a protest against Milo Yiannopolous, to The Mary Sue publishing a joke article written by a man pretending to be a woman because it talked about mysogyny in a video game, to the Twitter Trust and Safety Council, feminism is being given a bad name by the people who call themselves feminists. But while the previous three instances made feminism look foolish, THIS incident made feminism look fanatical and dangerous.
The problem with the feminists that attacked Southern is that they are fanatics, and as such they are beyond reasoning with, beyond compromising. These people, like ALL fanatics, will accept nothing less than what their religiously held ideologies tell them, and like any fanatic, they will see the world in a shade of black and white, with themselves as the white. These fanatical feminists will accept nothing less than total acceptance of and submission to their ideals and identity; even if you're all for equality for men and women, unless you call yourself a feminist, you're literally less than trash to them.
This sort of attitude goes against democracy, liberty, and civility. Any group, no matter what its size, that is willing to ASSAULT someone over a disagreement of opinion is a danger to democracy. These feminists have demonstrated that they have no business living in a free, democratic society that allows EVERYONE a chance to speak and share their ideas. See, you can't DEMAND something if you aren't willing to GIVE IT.
Edit February 2, 2017: An exception, of course, can be made for groups of people who have not only demonstrated themselves to be beyond reasoning with, but who also actively call for the destruction of you and yours. Go ahead and be violent against those people.
The moment those feminists implied that Lauren Southern's stance on the issue of gender was null because she was never raped was the moment those ladies lost ALL right to call themselves "defenders of women's rights." And the moment they sprayed her with urine was the moment they lost their right to free speech, because free speech doesn't include the right to assault someone over a disagreement. In the end, though, I think the most important thing to remember is that no ideology is beyond critique: every ideology will have its detractors. Remember though, you have the right to say whatever you want, but if you're unwilling to let others have that same right, you don't deserve to have it either.
Author's Notes December 5, 2017: One thing I want to say to the smug feminists reading this. You are not guiltless. Lauren Southern is trash, yes, because she's alt-right, and as of August 2017, alt-right is just newspeak for Nazi. But if there's one thing that I stand against, and one of the reasons I joined GamerGate back in the day, is that many so-called "Leftists" made their "Leftism" inaccessible and unatractive to the common folk. They turned the women's fight for equality into a Pity Party of "oooh I'm so oppressed by these Twatter Trolls!" and the fight for social justice into the Oppression Olympics. This attitude is precisely why the alt-right managed to gain a foothold onto gaming culture. Ideologies based on social justice and equality must NEVER disconnect themselves from the common folk to the point they become hostile and inaccessible; rather, they must always be simple, accessible, and inviting.
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