Comment on 2hot2handle
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 13 hours agoOkay, I can work with this!
So to my eye, a lack of social hierarchy seems like a pretty ideal view of the world. How do you reconcile that outlook with the existence of things like governments or a legal system? Those would be what I consider an ordering of humans, and in that light it sounds like you’re saying “punching back” (as it were) against those social structures would be reinforcing those potentially oppressive structures (‘the patriarchy’) - have I got that right?
ronigami@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
It’s tempting to see authority as an ordering of humans, but it isn’t. Anthony Fauci is not more of a human than you are. And it’s not okay to punch Anthony Fauci for the same reason it’s not okay to punch you. But we still need authorities and so it can’t be the case that every person in the country is the authority on diseases.
No, punching back is not the problem. The problem is the idea that there exists something called “punching up” that is more excusable generally than “punching down.” THAT idea reinforces social hierarchy and oppressive structures. Particularly if you believe that “punching up” will always be punching up, invariant of what happens in the world, because that asserts that the hierarchy is fixed which even further reinforces it.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
So if I understand you correctly, your position is that there are two distinct facets to ‘arranging’ society — Order (that one person is inherently above or below another, a concept I agree is wrong) and Authority (that being the broad agreement to respect one person’s limited and highly contextual “superiority” within a specific area of knowledge).
Extrapolating an example to ensure I understand: this would mean that the legal system is granted the authority to enforce those rules society has agreed on, onto those people we’ve agreed are subject to it’s authority (which is a good way to think about it). And conflicting authorities can be handled in the same conceptual ‘framework’, like how people that respect Anthony Fauci exist at the same time as people who think Anthony Fauci is trying to inject us with ground up infants. Or how there are both authorities that respect LGBTQ+ people’s right to exist, and those that want us all rounded up and gassed.
But where I’m stumbling is that you’re considering “punching up” or “punching down” as something that can only be done against the Order of society (thus trying to elevate or denegrate someone as inherently above or below another person) and not something that is done against the Authorities in a society.
To my interpretation this fairly explicitly reads as you saying that when (ex:) LGBTQ+ people attempt to “punch up” against the authority figures who want them all gassed, that action is inherently implying that they are attempting to establish themselves as inherently superior to that other person in the Order of all humanity.
Is that misrepresenting your position?
ronigami@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Yes, likening one person saying to another that they are mansplaining, to defending oneself from literal death by chemical weapon, is misrepresenting my argument. If you are being threatened with death, defending yourself is not punching up or punching down, it’s not even a voluntary action at all, it’s just human instinct and you can’t even call that a choice.
Also, are you trying to paint a random commenter on the Internet who probably didn’t even fully read the post they’re replying to, as an “authority?”
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I didn’t liken the two though, because that’s not the representation of your perspective I was interested in. I’m curious in the meta-analytical nature of why you hold this position - as an example, where is the line drawn between “being threatened with death” and “punching up”. I assume we agree on the idea that objecting to calls to gas all the queers isn’t problematic - but is calling someone a bigot for expressing the (deeply homophobic) view that femboys are constantly horny “punching up”? Or, if not there, calling out the ‘did you just assume my gender’ joke?
I’m really curious where you draw the line here. We sincerely appear to agree on damn near every issue except the one of feminism. Why is that? Where do our opinions diverge? Do we disagree on other things that, given our respective positions on so many other topics, one could be forgiven for assuming we’d share?
(And yes, I am claiming that the internet dipshit is an authority. I don’t think they are, I think they’re a dipshit - but my opinion isn’t the only opinion that exists, and the undeniable existence of the anti-vax movement has clearly elevated those self-same uninformed internet commenters to positions of trust and authority. They even put one in charge of HHS.)