I was on the monstrosity that is Facebook and came across a screen-clip of a Tweet reshared by a friend. I’ve included the clips of the Tweet and the replies on Facebook here:
A series of replies ensued, initiated by one person and continued as several others tried to reason with them, which after reading it: I felt compelled to respond and hopefully reason with this person where the others had failed. In writing my response, I realized that I wasn’t really expecting to change their mind, and based on the way they were writing and how they responded to other sensible arguments I deduced that anything I had to say as a CIS White Male would be ignored or worse, regardless of the other facets of who I am. So instead, I’m posting my little rant here in my own space for future me to see:
No one is arguing that we push the responsibility off of the individual. Quite the opposite. The point is that we individuals did not create the systems in which we live and we’re not responsible for their creation. Systems of oppression have existed for millennia for various excuses (race, ethnicity, religion, gender, wealth, etc.). Some of these even predate the rise of civilization in countries attributed to the atrocities brought about by the global expansion of predominantly white nations. And these predominantly white nations are far from the only ones to expand/spread their systemic oppression.
Brent Marnati
Holding a commoner accountable for the existence of such a system is misguided at best, and likely counter-productive. Since the commoner merely exists in a system, they can and should only be held accountable for their own actions within their sphere of influence.
The system is fucked <Understatement>, and attacking those who should be instead be converted to the cause will get us nowhere. Attacking their actions: valid. Attacking the system: valid. Removal of the teachings about the history which created the system and allows its continued existence: must be stopped!
I know that I could have gone on and added further evolution and explanation of my thoughts and information pertaining to the thesis of my argument. What happened at the end of that last sentence though is that I realized I was triggered and writing from a triggered headspace. Usually, when I do that, I don’t post the reply at all. This time I decided to preserve my rant as it still feels valid and hopefully someday I’ll reread it and think further about it.