Sunday, June 26, 2022

EVERYONE: Fuck the Patriarchy

Chapter in my book:

Interruption: Fuck the Patriarchy


You taught me ‘bout your past 

Thinkin’ your future was me

And you were tossing me the car keys

“Fuck the patriarchy” keychain on the ground 

We were always skipping town…
So casually cruel

In the name of being honest.

–Taylor Swift, “All Too Well” (10 minute version) (Taylor’s version)


I am writing this in Germany, where yesterday, I woke up to the leaked SCOTUS opinion. Anyone paying attention knew this was coming since RBG died: the theocrats’ fifty-year plan has paid off big-time. It was what [my grandmother] Ardyth wanted more than anything. I wonder if she would have actually been happy, or just a bit less angry.

Fuck.

Also: Fuck the Green Party. 


Originally in 2000, Ralph Nader said he wouldn't run in competitive states. Then his ego got the better of him. That evil shit got way more votes in Florida than the “official” margin that allowed the Supreme Court to stop the counting and make Bush president. Bush then appointed Alito, who wrote today's "This is how The Handmaid's Tale starts” opinion. (Alito cites – again, to support a legal decision in 2022 – Matthew Hale, a 17th century “jurist” who had at least two women executed for witchcraft and wrote a treatise supporting marital rape.)

Well done, Republican women. Especially you, Susan Collins, you POS.


Again in 2016, Green Party also got more votes than Cheeto Jesus's margin over Hillary in PA, WI, and MI. And we know how that worked out: three “Roe is established law” liars in four years.


But while the well-off (like me) will rant, the end of a woman's right to bodily autonomy will literally and profoundly hurt millions of people. And this unnecessary misery and adversity will continue until we realize elections aren’t just ways for us to make a personal statement. They matter in terms of real and profound suffering. The elections of 2000 and 2016 will continue to matter even after we wise up, given that we have given the Court to the theocrats for decades.


I can't tell you how many people told me in 2000 and 2016 that they didn't "like" Gore or Hillary. (The saddest but most accurate meme today is a picture of young Handmaidens, with the caption, “Yes I know. But I just didn’t like Hillary.”) They wanted Bernie or nothing. They wanted to "send a message." And now, because of their egomania, untold poor people will be forced to carry a pregnancy to term and give birth. And countless children will be born into poverty. 


It is 2022. We should be working to secure basic human rights for transgender people, and our concern for animals should be increasing. We should be expanding the circle of our moral concern. Instead, the Supreme Court has decreed that half our population no longer has the right to self-determination.


I knew this was coming as soon as Anthony Kennedy retired. But still, when I think about it, I am so goddamn angry. 


Fuck.


And fuck you, too, Collins.


5 comments:

Austen said...

I think you are just shooting your meat reduction movement in the foot by making false accusations and promoting hatred against anyone who is not for killing human babies and other radical left nonsense. You are far more antagonizing and alienating than the typical strict vegan activist, Matt. I respect your animal-related positions, but none of your views on other issues make any sense from a rational point of view. They appear to be based solely on personal anger issues and group conformity.

Matt Ball said...

Austen, you should take your concern with "baby killing" up with God:

According to New Scientist, "For women in their early 20s, 50 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriage; in their early 40s, it is 80 per cent." So if you believe in a God that has anything to do with human affairs, then God is the greatest abortionist around. If you also believe that abortion is murder, then God is, by far, the greatest murderer of all time.

PS: You are going to LOVE my book!

Austen said...

You could say the same thing about people dying of natural causes at any age, as in "It's okay to kill seniors because God is doing it all the time giving them heart attacks, etc." Or even that it is okay to maim someone because God gives people diabetes and they sometimes need amputation, etc.
I never understood why the discrepancy between your excellent logical animal rights arguments are your lack of any coherent argument for everything else. Besides, women can always give their baby up for adoption. It's not like they need to keep the baby. There is a shortage of healthy babies for couples to adopt.

The book you are writing against religion? I probably will like it if it is professionally written. If there is one thing the fake pandemic has taught me, it is that religion (including "spiritual groups") are completely based on the exploitation of people's logical faults. The "light and sound" group I was in for a long time, too, turned out to be an elaborate scam (ie. the proof of the guru being God (transmission of inner sound and seeing the "Inner Master") is just your own central nervous system and imagination, respectively. Everyone sufficiently advanced in meditation sees their guru or God in meditation, even if it is a fictional character. The vision comes from their subconscious.

Matt Ball said...

I get it -- I used to buy the whole "a fertilized egg is the same as a toddler" line. And "adoption!" But then I grew up.

https://nfyi.org/51-useful-aging-out-of-foster-care-statistics-social-race-media/

U.S. families adopted more than 7,000 children in 2012, yet over 100k children await adoption from the American foster care system every year.

Also
https://www.mattball.org/2022/07/raped-ten-year-old-denied-abortion.html
https://www.mattball.org/2022/06/not-about-life-not-about-responsibility.html
https://www.mattball.org/2022/07/erza-klein-and-dahlia-lithwick-on-women.html
https://www.mattball.org/2022/07/two-questions.html

Austen said...

• At this point, I do not believe in becoming attached to a fixed belief on an issue. I see how I have changed my views on issues in the past that I was very confident on and I understand the importance of keeping on open mind. Thus, I regard any existing view of mine as my working theory given the present information and factors that I have considered on the topic. In other words, I won’t let myself think that I am totally done on looking for the truth on anything. You imply that you have reached the final conclusion on the abortion issue in saying that you grew up, but your abortion position was different in the past and (if you keep an open mind), may change in the future, and that goes for me as well. Maybe I am wrong and abortion is always morally justifiable. What matters to me is that I form conclusions based on reason and evidence, not anger and group identification. In the case of abortion, for instance, I don’t see a material difference between preventing a born or yet-to-be born human from living the rest of his life, even if it is before the brain has formed. Liberals are so focused on a few narrow issues (usually made up ones) and neglect bigger issues such as all-cause bullying, casteism, fundamental rights (ie. lockdowns), etc. They appear to only be motivated by appearing virtuous and have no actual compassion. Whenever I talk to liberals in person about effective altruism, they don't even pretend to be interested in it. They just want to belong and feel powerful so they join the bullies in their false social issues and false accusations.