Language matters

I think it was satirist Andrew Doyle who said on some podcast I was watching a year ago (or so) that the next culture war will be about language.

How right he was, he (or she) who controls the language controls the discourse. In todays world more than ever its not just language that matters, even the words we use have been redefined (then re-redefined) making culture war battles interesting (yet almost meaningless) while the left wing of the political spectrum on the face of it have all the cultural capital on their side (corporations, Universities etc) the right wing have the numbers (Brexit didn't just come out of nowhere) But it does place us in a rather unusual situation. Historically, the Liberal left have been the ones raging against the machine, but we see little evidence of that machine being a right wing construct, in fact, the right wing has taken the place of the left in terms of being the "broad umbrella" when you consider how many feminists (normally a fierce left wing group) are now branded right wing in many circles as trans exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs)

But this isn't a particularly recent phenomenon, the building blocks have been in place for years, the redefined words have been around for years, but as violent clashes increase we do appear to be careering towards insurmountable differences of opinion.

But I'm going to keep the meaning of the word "woke" out of this article, the left know very well what it means when used as a pejorative, and the right know how much it annoys the left. I myself only use it when I want to annoy someone (you see what I did there) suffice to say, I rarely use it, because my need to annoy people is extremely low (I prefer to mock)

So, when faced with an ideologue, ie: someone so entrenched in their beliefs that there is little reason to see them as having any kind of a good faith argument lets have a look at some of the words people use, how they use them and why.

Patriarchy: Almost exclusively men, any woman who even has a moderate opinion of something is branded a handmaiden (upholding the patriarchy) The patriarchy is defined as "society" Something we all take part in, be it a tiny village or a huge City, like a fish swimming in water, you cannot see Patriarchy because its everywhere. But its a con trick. Very much a feminist invention to stigmatise men for creating a society that benefits men above women. 

But society is a very complex thing, for every captain of industry, someone has to keep the drains from clogging, for every scientist, someone has to empty the bins and for every artist, someone (somewhere) is doing some shitty job to make sure you can perform your art. (and the people that perform these duties are almost, always men)

But the patriarchy is something that needs to be smashed. It was something created by men, not only for men to be supreme, but to ensure they can oppress women. Now this may work when you want to smash a CEO on 5 mill a year, but it don't fly as well when some hod carrier from the midlands finds his joints are all shot by the time he reaches 50. I doubt if he feels the system was built for him as he's tucking into his fish supper every night only to turn on his Tv to find 2 middle aged women discussing what's wrong with him and his masculinity.

But its a good slur to throw around, we know its aimed at a pretty easy target (men) and its a tried and tested (and very successful weapon) After all, if you can point to someone and call them your oppressor you have free reign to say pretty much anything you like about them because you're "punching up"

"Punching up" is an intoxicating feeling, a dopamine hit. But its also ugly, offensive and cowardly. Its akin to mocking the bigger boy at school just because he happens to be bigger. The boy hasn't done anything wrong, but he's a safe target because of what he looks like, not because of anything he's done.

We can see examples of it all over social media apps like Twitter and we see it in the media constantly. There is a regular ad the UK home office tweets, it shows a young girl being sexually harassed by a young boy. we also have a young woman seemingly bullied by an ex partner in her front garden in the same ad. And finally, a man bullying a woman in a local pub. But what's more telling is all the perpetrators are white, all the heroes stepping in to say this is not acceptable are minorities. Now why would they do this? They do it because the straight, white male is the easy target, he's the one that its safe to punch up at. He is "The patriarchy"

Jess Gill. a social media commentator regularly hits the streets asking members of the public about their thoughts on straight, white men, the replies are always derogatory (including from other straight, white men) The fact that the streets they walk on, the buildings they are stood outside, and the clean streets they are filmed in are almost all kept this way by the same straight, white men being castigated in front of Jess's hot mic.

Class differences were the traditional tools of the culture war. Until the rise of feminism, when it became "men" The term "patriarchy" has been around for thousands of years, but the use of it as the modern concept we have now dates back only as far as the last century. Its the ultimate punching up slur but it also has its limits in terms of the culture wars. So new language (words) are needed

"Whiteness" has been around for centuries, but in the modern context its a useful slur to level at white people without seeming racist (much like patriarchy is sexist toward men without being seen as sexist toward men)

Of course with the rise of Critical Race Theory and the Black Lives Matter movement, whiteness will become more and more popular in terms of common use because white people are the easy target, the safe target, the target that will see you get little to no pushback for. But its not just about "whiteness" there are a whole bunch of new words nowadays where you can insult and degrade people purely on the basis of their skin colour.

"White supremacy"

"White privilege"

"Caucacity"

"Qwhite"

"Cracker"

These are just a few, handy words to use if you want to be racist towards someone without seeming to be racist. But people who use these words are viewed as punching up so in their minds its ok to use them. Its acceptable to use them because they are the oppressed not the oppressor. In fact, the idea that racism is an exclusively oppressor/oppressed concept comes straight from the pages of CRT itself.

Racism at its core is prejudice against someone, if that prejudice is because of the colour of someone's skin, then that is racism. Although in the US race hucksters have largely been successful in changing this meaning of racism, its not been quite as successful here in the UK (yet)

But this isn't something only white people are attacked for. As many black and brown people are very aware of, they have their own slurs to contend with. Uncle Tom (a black person who refuses to be defined by his skin colour), for example has been around for centuries

"Oreo" (black on the outside, white on the inside)

"Coconut"

"Coon"

Nobody gets a pass, you are what you are, I can attack you mercilessly because I am oppressed and punching up, and anyone who disagrees has their own slurs I can throw at them.

These are the tools of the weak and feeble minded, they have no actual argument, yet they have plenty of answers to questions nobody even cares about asking. They also give themselves grand titles, to make themselves easy to recognise as champions in a battle nobody can actually see

"anti-racist"

"anti-fascist"

"feminist"

Give yourself one of these labels and you can be as racist as you like, be as fascist as Mussolini and attack anyone born male with impunity. Nice work if you can get it

Victimhood is a powerful drug, whole careers are built on its sandy foundations and there is no known cure (apart from self realisation which rarely happens)

So how do you fight back?

Challenge the language they use, challenge it constantly. when these slurs (including Nazi and fascist) are thrown your way (which inevitably they will) ask them how they personally define those words. No matter how someone attacks you personally, respond by attacking their words, because after all, if you cannot get them to define their argument, if they cant explain their argument beyond dog whistling buzz words, then eventually you can (and will) expose them for having no argument at all other than hatred.

But there are also naturally occurring fightbacks, for decades feminists like Julie Bindel and Germaine Greer have attacked men with impunity, I bet it must come as a huge shock to them now that they are coming under fire from certain sections of their own movement. But feminists have traditionally had very fascist tendencies themselves, they've created their own in group and castigate all those in the out group (actually, they're more Nazi than Fascist) Fascism was born of an obsession with ones country, but it was fairly inclusive to all members of that country, but Nazism was a love of country that also excluded people on racial, anti-Semitic lines.

But in deconstructing the gender roles, in rolling back these layers of patriarchal oppression, they left themselves exposed, if anyone can be anything, and everyone is completely equal (even in terms of physical power) they failed to notice that without gender (or the idea of biological differences) this will also mean that anyone can actually change their sex. On the face of it, it all seems fair enough, if someone wants to change their sex who are they actually hurting? To be fair to Greer she noticed the problem a long time ago (Bindel not so much) If men can become women, this includes access to womens safe spaces, and of course, sports. 

So is "the patriarchy" trying to outflank women from the progressive left? Many feminists have attempted to prove it, but all have failed because the evidence just doesn't prove any argument they attempt to make. In fact, seeing the progressive left eating themselves alive and accusing each other of upholding "the patriarchy" would be amusing if it wasn't so sad.

So language matters, whoever you are, if someone attacks you because of the box you've been put into, ask them to define the words they are using, because the definitions keep changing. 

How can you argue against something if you have no idea what it is they're arguing with you about?